CW 17 WB — Establishing a Creative Writing Practice
Quarter: Summer
Course Format: Flex Online (About Formats)
Duration: 5 weeks
Date(s): Jul 31—Sep 1
Refund Deadline: Aug 3
Unit: 1
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Tuition: $370
Instructor(s): Ammi Keller
Limit: 125
Class Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
Summer
Flex Online(About Formats)
Date(s)
Jul 31—Sep 1
5 weeks
Refund Date
Aug 3
1 Unit
Fees
$370
Grade Restriction
No letter grade
Instructor(s):
Ammi Keller
Limit
125
Recording
Yes
Open
The benefits of creativity are enormous. Engaging in creative activity lightens our hearts, sharpens our senses, and helps us make peace with our experiences. But all too often we don’t prioritize creative activity, either because we have internalized messages that we aren’t good enough or because life’s demands have gotten in the way. The good news is that it is easy to build a creative habit; creative writing requires no special equipment and can be done almost anytime, anywhere, by anyone, and throughout your life. This course will combine daily writing prompts with inspiring information about why and how to make creativity a part of your solitary time, your family life, and your work life. You will be encouraged to try fiction, nonfiction, and poetry and will get to play with craft in each genre. On the process side, you will learn about growth mindsets, embracing mistakes, and the reasons neuroscience urges us to give up perfectionism. You will leave the course with a portfolio of fresh pieces of writing and a plan for expanding at least one of them into a completed work, as well as the skills, techniques, and habits of mind needed to maintain a regular creative writing practice.
This is a large-format course designed to be used flexibly by students who have varying amounts of time to devote to it. The course will include a live, one-hour videoconferencing session each week that includes creative exercises. Because of the high enrollment capacity, students will not receive instructor feedback on daily writing posts.
Section WA and Section WB of "Establishing a Creative Writing Practice" have the same objective—to foster a daily practice—but use different prompts and creativity-related links. Students may register for Section WA or Section WB, or for both. The prompts are also different from those in Section WA and WB offered in the Winter Quarter.
AMMI KELLER
Instructor, Stanford Continuing Studies Online Certificate Program in Novel Writing; Former Stegner Fellow, Stanford
Ammi Keller’s teaching focuses on the intersection of mindfulness and creative writing. Her writing appears in American Short Fiction, Joyland, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and elsewhere. She has edited fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for Soft Skull Press and has received residencies from the Lambda Literary Writer's Retreat and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.