Five Goals

Hi Class:

These are five of many of the goals I would want future students, in this case from a introductory level college class, to at least begin to master. As creative people, I think we learn and re-learn goals like these all the time. I’m confident that I’ll review everyone else’s this week and want to modify or supplement my initial thoughts. And I hope that’s part of the process, sharing our respective ideas and approaches, as we all move from identifying ourselves as students to teachers of creative writing.

Due to my own interests, I picture this as a short fiction/introduction to creative writing class. I hadn’t thought initially that these goals would sound so formal, but they are put down with the general hope of encouraging students who are interested in creative writing and to make them feel, by the end of this class, only more inspired to write, more confident in their ability, and more engaged with the field at large.

For clarity’s sake, as I went along, I expanded a bit on each goal.

1. Students will appreciate and respect the words on the page, be they published in the stories we will read for the class or be they unpublished in the stories of their peers. Writers—humans—cannot get very far without mastering the ability to respect their work, the output of their peers, as well as the opinions of others, no matter how much they align or stray from their own. In this, as in any class, I would like students to treat the unpublished word with as much respect as the published word.

2. Students will be encouraged to tell their stories through the development and expression of their unique voices and creative processes. Through in-class readings, free-writing exercises, and class discussion students will develop their own process of sharing their stories and experiences. The idea is to develop practices and habits that last—as life/work/relationships will always present distractions. I’m a big believer in process: knowing what time of day is best for your writing, how much you write at a given time, how often you can realistically write during the week. I also think owning a process further solidifies one’s identity AS a writer, even though one may still be an unpublished college student with little more on the page than a budding interest in creative writing. Developing the habits OF the writer help to make you the writer.

3. Students will identify, discuss with the class, and employ in their own writing the major craft elements of fiction: development of voice, character, point of view, conflict, description, dialogue, and setting. Through reading and discussing short stories, students will strengthen their analytical skills and the ability to transfer their critical eye from the published page to their own and to the pages of their peers. I think a straightforward breakdown of craft elements helps a young writer to identify and employ them in fiction.

4. Students will master basic grammar/editing skills. When revising work to be turned into the class, it is always important to review it for errors. While most college-aged students are well versed in the rules of grammar, I think these are skills that can constantly be refreshed throughout one’s writing career. (I know I have to review them all the time.) The class will learn a shorthand key for line editing that may be applied to their own work and their peers’ work. A well-edited page is also a page that’s far easier to read. Clarity of message is invaluable, and while I don’t intend to round off the interesting, rough edges of students’ writing, basic grammar knowledge is key. Such a skill set benefits a student of any discipline for a lifetime.

5. Students will learn that writing is re-writing and to develop their endurance for revision. Through weekly participation in writing workshops, students will strengthen their approach to and practice of revision, both through the experience of having their work reviewed and workshopped and also through the critique of their peers’ work. They will grow comfortable with the idea of works in progress, and what it takes to move a piece of writing from inception to completion. In college, when much is being crammed the night before, students will hopefully learn to appreciate the patience required to create meaningful prose.

Thanks,
Jennifer