ENG820 Fiction Workshop - Salem State University



Syllabus: English 820 – S: 1 FICTION WORKSHOP

Fall 2015 Thursday 4:30 – 6:50; MH 249E

Professor Perry Glasser

Office MH 107

pglasser@salemstate.edu



X 7032

Catalog Description

A workshop course concentrating on the short stories and novels-in-progress of the participants. Workshop members read and critique one another's fiction and also keep a writer's journal. Topics include how to publish.  This course may be repeated for a maximum of nine credits.  Three lecture hours.

Course Description

A writing workshop is a studio course. In in a workshop, the teacher works as a facilitator, not as an editor.

A writing workshop is also a social contract. Student A exhibits her work to all of us and we are obliged to be tactful and critical.

|Goals |Objectives |

|Students will learn to analyze their own and other students’ fiction. |Students will write. A lot. |

|Students will engage the artistic process of fiction writing. |Students will discuss the nature and purpose of fiction |

Boilerplate Policies

This syllabus/plan is subject to change with the needs of the instructor (that's me) and the students (that's you). Let's be flexible.

Emergencies: "In the event of a university declared critical emergency, Salem State University reserves the right to alter this course plan. Students should refer to salemstate.edu for further information and updates. The course attendance policy stays in effect until there is a university declared critical emergency. In the event of an emergency, please refer to the alternative educational plans for this course located at/in [faculty member determines this]. Students should review the plans and gather all required university materials before an emergency is declared." 

Special Provisions: Salem State University is committed to providing equal access to the educational experience for all students in compliance with Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act and The Americans with Disabilities Act. Any student who has a documented disability requiring an accommodation, aid or adjustment should speak with me privately. Students with Disabilities who have not previously done so should provide documentation to and schedule an appointment with the Office for Students with Disabilities and obtain appropriate services.

Assignments: If you are unable to complete any reading or project, avoid embarrassment by informing me well in advance. If this becomes ordinary behavior, expect academic consequences and possibly public humiliation.

• Written assignments will not be accepted late.

• Extensions of due dates will never be granted retroactively.

Plagiarism and Dishonest Scholarship: Students presenting work not their own will be dismissed from class with a grade of F and may be dismissed from the University. You will also be pursued by hungry, rabid wolverines, as anyone who plagiarizes for a fiction writing class not only insults my art but plainly is here to buy a few credits with no intention of learning poop. That wastes my time and yours. Don’t even THINK about wasting my time.

Attendance

DO NOT come to class if you are ill.

No distinction between excused or unexcused absences can be made. To some extent, a writing workshop class is a social contract: students rely on each other. That’s impossible without your presence. More than two absences will result in failure.

Class Policies

1. Check your SSU email at least 3x per week.

2. Check the class’s website at salemstate.edu/~pglasser at least 3x per week.

3. Workshops by their nature will call for people to be confessional and revealing. Part of the social contract is to guarantee free speech and free thought. What is said in class stays in class. Do not share a classmate’s work with friends or even a spouse without permission of the writer.

Assessment

• The number of written assignments per semester is contingent upon the final enrollment, but you can count on 3 if we have fewer than 12 students.

• Students will write at least one complete story of at least 18 typescript pages.

• Students will write a total of 40 ORIGINAL typescript pages. You may revise all you wish, but you must by semester’s end complete 40+ original pages.

• All workshop submissions must be complete works. Do not hand in scenes, character sketches, exercises, studies, or half-baked ideas. If we are taking the time to read it, you should take the time to make it as good as you can make it,

• Students handing in “carriage copy” will be boiled in a public forum.

Graduate students might reasonably ask how an idiosyncratic art may be assessed and against what standard.

In the Grading Rubric, part of this syllabus, you’ll find two key assessment concepts. Those of you who teach should feel free to steal or modify this 1-page chart, though I ask you credit me as the creator.

▪ work appropriate to an adult, educated audience

▪ incorporation of concepts taught

We are not measuring student work against a standard of “publishability” or some abstract notion of “quality” but as matters of individual growth and intention. Consequently, the challenges of workshop facilitation are to teach opportunistically. All of you will be privy to my comments to each of you.

Asking for private input within limits is expected: tying to convert the instructor into an editor is not.

My rates as a private editor begin at $150/hour. Inquiries are invited.

|300 pts |Verbal participation—it’s a workshop, you can’t choose to be silent without violating the social contract. |

|1200 pts |Works of fiction — see Grading Rubric. Submissions and exercises. Number of submissions determined by enrollment. |

|500 pts |A 40+ page portfolio of original work. |

|2000 pts |TOTAL |

FINAL EXAMI NATION POLICY

Be serious. There is no Final examination.

TEXT

• Reading Like a Writer: Francine Prose

• Additional print readings will from time to time be distributed in class.

Online Readings:

Many readings are posted at salemstate.edu/~pglasser They are free and no violations of copyright are involved. If listed here, the readings are required unless otherwise noted. Several are short and may be read on cellphone; others require the download of a full pdf. Please do not be intimidated by their number—this class is “the real deal.” You have work to do.

Faulkner in The Paris Review

Any 3 other prose writers in Paris Review interviews—pick a decade, pick authors you know. Be prepared to reference what you read in class discussions.

E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel, a series of lectures.

Students are urged to read the entire book. In the meanwhile, this summary will do. Distinguish between “story” and “plot”; round and flat characters, etc. We need a mutually agreed upon critical vocabulary.

Juxtaposition

Planning vs. Discovery

“Preface to the Nigger of the Narcissus” by Joseph Conrad

Note especially Conrad’s injunction to “make the reader see.”

“Thoughts On” essays by Perry Glasser; listed at



The Nature and Aim of Fiction – Flannery O’Connor – a pdf online at

Novelist and Believer – Flannery O’Connor –a pdf online at

“Should an Author’s Intentions Matter?” NY Times, Zoe Heller and Adam Kirsch

RECOMMENDED: Mystery and Manners: Flannery O’Connor. These are for the most part transcribed speeches

RECOMMENDED: Preface to The Ambassadors, Henry James. James, as usual, turns sentences inside out, qualifies his qualifiers, and like a struggling half-blind hippopotamus trapped in a tight corner trying to lift a pearl finally gets to a point about point-of-view in the two paragraphs that begin “Had I, meanwhile...” If you wish to read the entire essay, by all means do. You may need a machete.

Calendar

Reading Series

• Tuesday, September 29th Claire Keyes, Poet, 7:30 pm, Metro Room

• Wednesday, October 14, Elisabeth Weiss and Tim Quigley1:45 pm, Metro Room 

• Thursday, October 29th Kris Saknussemm, Martin Luther King Jr. Room, 7:30 pm

• Thursday, November 12,Frank Bidart, Poet, Martin Luther King Jr. Room 7:30 pm

• Thursday, Dec. 3, Undergraduate Student Reading Martin Luther King, Jr. Room, 1:45

| Thursday Sep 3 |First class — Policies, orientation, grading. |

| |“Fiction is neat; life is sloppy” – a lecture |

| |Unlearning- two exercises. |

| |Researching your professor ‘cause it ain’t just a matter of opinion. |

| |HW: Start writing your first submission |

|Thursday, Sep 10 |General discussion: all online readings are due |

|Thursday Sep 17 |General Discussion—In Francine Prose’s book TBA |

| |workshop procedures |

|Thursday, Sep 24 |General Discussion—In Francine Prose’s book TBA |

| |Workshop schedule |

|Thursday, Nov 5 |Beginning at 3:00 – scheduled conferences, 2 students per session, please accept an earlier |

| |conference if you are able. |

| |Unlisted sessions will be devoted to reading and critiquing student work. |

|Nov 26 |Thanksgiving Recess |

|Thursday, Dec 17 |Last class |

WRITING EVALUATION (fiction)

© Perry Glasser

| |Content |Style |Mechanics |Craft |

|A |work is appropriate to an adult, |evocative, lean and fresh language; |mss. is cleanly typed and |successful incorporation of |

| |educated audience; characters behave |sentences vary in structure and |exhibits general control of |concepts taught appropriate to |

| |in surprising dramatic ways and have |length showing effective |language |course level; the writer engages |

| |significant individuality – we sense |subordination, coordination, and | |structural revisions when |

| |they are “alive” to the writer. |parallelism; appropriate imagery is | |necessary and fearlessly kills |

| | |strongly detailed; characters are | |darlings |

| | |treated with compassion. | | |

|B |work is appropriate to an adult, |evocative, lean language; sentences |mss. exhibits few |successful incorporation of |

| |educated audience; characters behave |vary in structure and length; |typographical errors, strong |concepts taught appropriate to |

| |in predictable if logical ways– we |appropriate imagery is somewhat |usage and spelling, |course level; textual revisions |

| |sense they are “explaining” human |detailed; characters are treated with|insignificant sentence |when necessary. |

| |behavior. |compassion. |structure errors, no | |

| | | |important errors in syntax or| |

| | | |grammar | |

|C |predictable themes treated in |arch language; stringy and wordy |mss. exhibits many |partial incorporation of concepts |

| |predictable ways; characterization is|sentences that too often reduce to |typographical errors; weak |taught appropriate to course |

| |derivative, familiar and wooden – we |passive voice; some sentence variety |spelling; some sentence |level; minimal proofreading. |

| |sense a writer parroting “received |among few structures; abstract |structure errors; occasional | |

| |wisdom” and relying on stereotypes. |imagery with few concrete details; |errors in syntax or grammar | |

| | |clichéd unpleasant characters meet | | |

| | |predictable ends. | | |

|D |work is plainly derivative and |verbose, cliché-ridden prose; |mss. exhibits poor spelling, |no incorporation of concepts |

| |imitative; we sense a writer unready |plodding sentences with little |gross sentence errors and |taught; work is plainly carriage |

| |to explore the implications of human |variation; characters are treated |frequent grammar and syntax |copy. |

| |drama. |with contempt |errors. | |

| | |

|F |non-performance |

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Office Hours

Monday: 12:00 – 1:00; 4:00-4:30

Thursday: 3:00 – 4:30

other hours by appointment

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