Courses

Novel writing is a process—an interim way of life—and should not be regarded as either easy or daunting. Taken in steps, the journey can and does happen, often with great vision and beauty. This course will address all stages of the novel-writing process, from choosing the most effective narrative point of view to managing and orchestrating the material. Although the course will discuss essential aspects of the novel, it will focus primarily on student work, including drafts of chapters as well as anything that supports and predicts the overarching narrative, such as research and outlines. Controlling narrative voice and pacing, handling scenes with dramatic force, developing character and motivation, composing dialogue that is not only real-sounding but also productive, and keeping the plot from lugging down—these are some of the many issues that will likely come up during the course. We will also read from a collection of interviews with such novelists as James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Robert Stone, and Sandra Cisneros to help expand our understanding of fiction writing both as a calling and as a practice. Each student will contribute one to two chapters for the course.