Short Fiction Syllabus and Author List [ HOME ]
Students will study specific craft techniques and structure learned from a wide variety of accomplished writers. The goal is to learn to write work that will get published. Lessons, elements, and authors studied:
1. Pragmatism, The Art, and Publication |
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Satisfying the "art of fiction," obstacles to publishing, importance of subject matter, avoidance of cliché, story prep, story élan, what editors look for, long-term goals.
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2. New Beginnings I |
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How to begin? Story sketching, irony, best non-fiction vs. fiction, seven criteria for choosing compelling subject matter, log lines and synopses, major complication.
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Davies, Twain, Thompson, Butler |
3. New Beginnings II |
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Extreme titles, exploring narrative hooks, types of beginnings, bad prose, style must-knows.
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Connelly, Painter, Lutz, Saroyan, Gogol, Kafka, Appolonius of Rhodes |
4. Character, Craft, and Complication |
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Tone props, understatement, character evolution, cause of predicament, triggers, empathy and sympathy, foreshadowing, scene construction, incident-based and character-based complication, tragic flaws, epiphany, resolution, types of narrative, story blocks, ripple-effect minor complications. |
Houston, Thompson, Johnson |
5. Structure, Craft, and Theme |
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Analysis of methods available to create varying degrees of meaning and intellectual value when writing fiction. Variable 3rd Peson POV introduced.
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TC Boyle, Thompson, Twain, Houston, O. Henry, Chekhov, Martone, Marquez |
AUTHOR LIST
- Cowboys Are My Weakness (Pam Houston)
- The Foxed Mirror (Rikki Ducornet)
- An Incident (Anton Chekhov)
- A Comedy in Rubber O. Henry
- Journalism in Tennessee (Mark Twain)
- Fairy Tale (Robert Olen Butler)
- Listening Hours (Nan Leslie)
- 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (William Saroyan)
- Peace of Mind (T. C. Boyle)
- The Proper Levels of Vacuum (Michael Martone)
- Balthazar's Marvelous Afternoon (Gabriel Márquez)
- Air Show (Pamela Painter)
- Fat (Raymond Carver)
- Louise (Somerset Maughm)
- The Moving Finger (Edith Wharton)
- Toon Red Nav Ardnaxela (Lisa Thompson)
- The Angry Man (Peter Johnson)
- Tumblehome (Paul West)
- Ventilating Shiva (Mathew Davies)
- A Country Doctor (Franz Kafka)
Algonkian Writer Conferences
2020 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Ste 443
Washington, DC 20006
Algonkian Home Office: Phone: 1-800-250-8290
algonkian@webdelsol.com
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