You will write three major pieces for this class. They may be either complete short stories or chapters of a longer work. Two pieces will be in different sub genres of the genre of your choice, or may be in two different genres entirely. The third work will combine (at least) two different genres. All work submitted to this class shall be new and produced for this class only. Please do not submit work you have previously written for your own pleasure or for another class. If you have any questions about this, please speak to me.
We will workshop all fiction. Every student is responsible for preparing thoughtful and seriously considered critiques for workshop.
Assigned readings in addition to class-generated fiction are the basis for discussions in the first weeks of class. We cannot examine the ideas behind various genres, what they require and what we as writers must provide, if we do not all come to class fully prepared to discuss the readings. This will sometimes require you to read in a genre that you might not like. Remember that we often learn more from works we don't like than from pieces we enjoy; we are able to read more critically and test our ideas against the work. If the assigned reading is familiar to you, please read it again specifically for this class with a genre writer's eye.
Sample Student Work
These pieces are intended to demonstrate some of the range of different kinds of work done by students in this course. They also show the kinds of changes that come about through the revisions process.
| High Caliber Men by Alex Sailsman | First draft (PDF) (Courtesy of Alex Sailsman. Used with permission.) | Revised (PDF) (Courtesy of Alex Sailsman. Used with permission.) |
| The Haunting of Belfer by Neal Akatsuka | First draft (PDF) (Courtesy of Neal Akatsuka. Used with permission.) | Revised (PDF) (Courtesy of Neal Akatsuka. Used with permission.) |
| Deliberately by Irina Onoprienko | First draft (PDF) (Courtesy of Irina Onoprienko. Used with permission.) | Revised (PDF) (Courtesy of Irina Onoprienko. Used with permission.) |
| How to Start a Zombie Apocalypse by an MIT Student | First draft (PDF) (Courtesy of an MIT Student. Used with permission.) | Revised (PDF) (Courtesy of an MIT Student. Used with permission.) |