OWC 303 A — Novel I: The Powerful Beginning
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Christine Sneed
Date(s): Jan 13—Mar 17
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Class Meeting Time: 5:30—6:45 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Jan 15
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 15
Status: Closed
Quarter: Winter
Day: Tuesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 5:30—6:45 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 13—Mar 17
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Jan 15
Instructor(s): Christine Sneed
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.
CHRISTINE SNEED
Author
Christine Sneed is the author of three novels and three story collections, most recently Please Be Advised: A Novel in Memos, Direct Sunlight: Stories, and The Virginity of Famous Men. She is also the editor of the short-fiction anthology Love in the Time of Time’s Up, and has received the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, an O. Henry Prize, and the Chicago Public Library Foundation's 21st Century Award, among other honors. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, New England Review, Story, Ploughshares, The New York Times, and elsewhere. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Steve Almond, Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow: A DIY Manual for the Construction of Stories (ISBN 978-1638931300)