OWC 303 E — Novel I: The Powerful Beginning
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Nina Schuyler
Date(s): Jan 16—Mar 20
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Class Meeting Time: 12:30—1:30 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Jan 19
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 15
Status: Closed
Quarter: Winter
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 12:30—1:30 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 16—Mar 20
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Jan 19
Instructor(s): Nina Schuyler
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Enrollment Limit: 15
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Closed
This course is not open to the public, but rather by admission only. For more information on the Online Writing Certificate Program and its application process, please click here.
The beginning of a novel is crucial: establishing a contract with the reader, raising narrative questions, setting the tone and mood of the book, and, of course, introducing the main characters. We will begin by making sure that your novel starts in the right place, with a conflict compelling enough to reveal who these people are, and to ensure that they are making meaningful choices that lead to dramatic action. The challenges that our characters face up front help us to know who they are at the beginning of a book, and also set up expectations for how they might change by the end. Students will spend time thinking about the trajectory they envision not only for their protagonists but also for the secondary characters, and discussing issues related to characterization, such as point of view, dialogue, and voice. In this course, everyone will write and workshop an opening section of up to 5000 words.
The beginning of a novel is crucial: establishing a contract with the reader, raising narrative questions, setting the tone and mood of the book, and, of course, introducing the main characters. We will begin by making sure that your novel starts in the right place, with a conflict compelling enough to reveal who these people are, and to ensure that they are making meaningful choices that lead to dramatic action. The challenges that our characters face up front help us to know who they are at the beginning of a book, and also set up expectations for how they might change by the end. Students will spend time thinking about the trajectory they envision not only for their protagonists but also for the secondary characters, and discussing issues related to characterization, such as point of view, dialogue, and voice. In this course, everyone will write and workshop an opening section of up to 5000 words.
NINA SCHUYLER
Author
Nina Schuyler has taught creative writing for nearly two decades. She was an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of In This Ravishing World, which won the W.S. Porter Prize and the Prism Prize for Climate Literature. Her novel Afterword won the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Literary and Science Fiction; The Translator received the Next Generation Indie Book Award for General Fiction and was a finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing; and The Painting was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. Her nonfiction book How to Write Stunning Sentences and her craft book Stunning Sentences: A Creative Writing Journal are Small Press Distribution bestsellers. Schuyler received an MFA in creative writing from SF State, a JD from Hastings, and a BA in economics from Stanford.Textbooks for this course:
(Recommended) James Wood, How Fiction Works (ISBN 978-0312428471)
(Recommended) Charles Baxter, The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot (ISBN 978-1555974732 )
(Recommended) Charles Baxter, The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot (ISBN 978-1555974732 )