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Fictional Narrative Basics - Beginning
Completion Date: End of Week 1
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Each student must select one story from Best American (or from tOFP Anthology), which they will work with throughout the semester. As you move through the class work, you will be asked to provide examples drawn from your selected story, along with your explanation of how the chosen section relates to the topic at hand. You will also draw from the selected story in completing various assignments. Skim through Best American or tOFP Anthology and find three or four stories that interest you, then read each carefully before selecting one to work with. You'll want to really like your selected story, as you are going to get to know it very well. No two students will be allowed to choose the same story. Once you have decided on the story you'd like to work with, and have chosen a few alternates, go to the class discussion board and post your request to stake your claim. Stories will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis.
Throughout the semester, the stories anthologized in What If? will be used to provide examples. You should read the complete anthology of stories in the back of What If? by the second week of class.
This class is about the short story--as opposed to longer forms--but most of the techniques explored in this class can be applied to novellas and novels very straightforwardly. The assignments in the course presuppose you are writing short stories; please let your instructor know if your interests lie in writing longer works, and he or she will try to accommodate you where possible. In Katrina Kenison's forward to Best American Short Stories 2001, she quotes a definition of the short story by previous anthology editor Martha Foley as follows: "A good short story is a story which is not too long and which gives the reader a feeling he has undergone a memorable experience." As Kenison says, it is a pretty durable definition of what makes a story good, if a little on the obvious side.
Still she goes on to try and find other ways of talking about what makes a good short story good. Much of the work you as students and your instructor will do this semester centers on this very question: How do we know if a story is good? What are the hallmarks of a well-written short story, and how do we talk about them? As a way of approaching these questions, read the forward (pgs. ix to xi) and introduction (pgs. xiii to xix) to Best American Short Stories 2001.
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