Fact Paragraphs
Twice during the semester, students will submit two “fact paragraphs” to workshop in class. The assignment is to build two paragraphs around a fact–each playing with form in a different way. We’ll read a series of model fact paragraphs to build up a collective sense of formal possibilities. For example, you might write one paragraph emphasizing the psychology of the narrator and the other external structures that define the situation; or one as realism and the other fantasy; or one suspense and the other meditation; one reportage and the other lyrical. See what happens when you write about the same fact in two very different forms. You’ll post your paragraphs to our site by Monday of the week we’re workshopping them.
Fact Sentences
Twice during the semester, students will submit a series of three (or four) “fact sentences.” The assignment is to write sentences that present the same fact with very different styles and forms. We’ll discuss a variety of fact sentences from our course readings as models. For example, you might write a brief, declarative sentence, a fragment, a long one full of clauses, a meandering sentence or one that’s all about cause and effect. One of your sentences should be modeled on that of another writer. You’ll post your sentences to our site by Monday of the week we’re workshopping them. For inspiration when it comes to playing with sentence variations, read Salesses bulleted list of suggestions on pp. 211-216.
Workshop
Each student will develop and conduct a workshop for the class as a whole. The assignment is to choose one or more of the writing or revision prompts in Salesses’s Craft in the Real World and use it to develop a workshop that will help us all think about our writing in some new ways. The workshops may or may not deal directly with our course themes–fact & play, intuition & intention.
Semester Project
Your semester project will be a draft and revision of a short work of creative nonfiction (approximately 2500-4000 words). Creative nonfiction is a big category. You’re free to write in any of the forms it encompasses.
