Adaptation

This class is about adaptation and will explore the strategies of beginning with one form of writing and ending with another—from a box of scribbled notes to completed story, from poem to short story, from short story to novel, from novel to film, from non-fiction essay to fiction, from prose to stage play, from story synopsis to screenplay. Students will take something they’ve written and transform it into something else as a way of discovering the process of writing and using the tools of other genres. For example, what can the stage play version of a short story teach a writer about writing a short story? Or, how can the visual storytelling of a film teach a writer about scene narration in prose?