Inspiration can be strange, coming from any number of sources: our lives, our surroundings, our imaginations, other writers’ stories, and other forms of art. In this course, we’ll learn how to harvest inspiration and how to craft from that inspiration short stories. This harvesting will necessarily be paired with a close look at how the literary short story works. We’ll read and examine a range of published short fiction with an eye toward understanding essential concepts of narrative craft: character, voice, point of view, plot, imagery, theme, dialogue and more. Brief lectures on each topic, alongside in-class and at-home writing exercises aimed at particular techniques, will prepare us to write with intention. Using these techniques, you will write a short story of your own and, in a workshop setting, give and receive feedback on your short stories.

4. Book List:
Burroway, Janet and Elizabeth Stuckey-French. Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, 8th edition.
ISBN 978-0-205-75034-4