SYLLABUS

(such as it is...)

Creative Writing: Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction
AKA "Wonder 101":

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Every story needs it. Especially stories for younger audiences. But to write it, you have to feel it, right? That's the informal goal of the class. To teach craft, yes, but, also, to instill wonder in you and your work. We write, of course, but we eat, too, and listen to music. We go on field trips. I bring in agents and authors, sure, but also armored Renn Faire fighters and what can only be called "circus folk." We discuss poetic faith and world building and sensory detail. But also the brutal science of medieval man-to-man combat. How to quench and temper steel. My guests talk about creating character through interiority. But they also pound nails up their nose and square off with bastard swords in the parking lot behind Murray Hall. Lev Grossman (The Magicians), who has visited the class over two dozen times, likes to talk about Narnia and making magic from everyday impressions, but, if pushed, he'll demonstrate an ox stance with a black polypropylene blade. It’s a course in terror, too, and vulnerability. In nighttime logic and fairytale rationale. In composing work to be read by stolen candle-ends in a rambling old Elizabethan house flooded with darkness, while the grandfather clock ticks in the hall below and the sea crashes on the distant coast. Some creative writing instructors erect bans. No fantasy or sci-fi, they say. Send them my way, I say. So, come on, grab your friends. We'll go to very distant lands.
 
BREAKDOWN: 

This is your class, and, as such, the content is somewhat plastic, molded by your writerly needs and wants. PLUS I do what I can to preserve a note (more than a note) of surprise and unpredictability. That said, there are a few regular components you can count on.

WORKSHOP: “Vocal publishing” of student work followed by round-table discussions. Writers can cultivate work from in-class prompts or share original pieces composed outside of class. See below for further explanation.

WRITING PROMPT(S): In class writing exercise/prompt, followed by the voluntary sharing of several results (unrevised in-class writing is to be shared without peer comment). See page marked PROMPTS for examples.

VISIT(S): Inside the Writers House (video chat sessions w. acclaimed authors) occur at a variety of times (some of which line up with our regularly scheduled class)

BLOG: A fictional excerpt, essay/article, podcast, or video (or combination of all four) will be occasionally assigned and posted on the home page. Students are to post reactions (minimum 250 words) to the assigned reading/listening/viewing. Students are encouraged to additionally respond to other student reactions. An in-class discussion of posted material will often follow.

COURSEWORK:

ONE workshop: 3 pages

ONE submissions: 5 pages

ONE public reading: 3 pages

FIVE (or so) blog posts: 250 words

NUMEROUS writing prompts: paragraph to a page; responses are to be casually shared in class NOT formally submitted.

NOTE: You CANNOT turn in the SAME pages (even revised) for multiple assignments (that is to say, for both the workshop and the submission or the submission and the public reading). They can, however, be part of the same overarching, greater whole (i.e. an earlier or later excerpt in the same story, novel, world).

IMPORTANT DATES:
 
SUBMISSION: Fri. March 8 (both classes).

The submission is to be a reasonably polished five page (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1" margins) writing sample (that is, an excerpt from an MG or YA short story or novel). Submissions should be e-mailed as an attached Word document to alexander.dawson@rutgers.edu by midnight of due date.
 
PUBLIC READING: Fri. April 19, 3 pgs (5 min) of original work ostensibly geared toward the MG or YA demographic. The reading will either be at my book truck at the Highland Park Farmer's Market (or at the RU B&N, if it's raining).

***

A WORD ABOUT WORKSHOPS & VOCAL PUBLISHING:

Writers must e-mail the class a THREE PAGE writing sample at the night before their scheduled workshop. Excerpts should be double spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman. If you have questions about your work that you would like the class to address, feel free to voice those questions at the start of your workshop. All work should be ostensibly geared toward (or, indeed, have the potential to be enjoyed by) the MG/YA demographic

 Workshop submissions are read aloud or vocally published by a mix of  students (other than the writer). Writers then become critical members of the evaluating audience for their own piece, commonly noticing the same literary stumbles (and moments of grace) as their peers. As work is declaimed, evaluators should note strengths and missteps. Evaluating students will then have five minutes to review the piece and sharpen their critiques; which will be used as springboards for subsequent discussion.

Note: Thoughtful evaluations of peer excerpts teach writers to be critical readers of their own work. Do not assess peer work in the context of emotion or absolutes, “love” and “hate,” “good” and “bad,” instead address what is successful (and why) and what you think could be improved (and how). You don’t owe the writer praise, but you do owe them attention and thoughtful written/verbal comment. Be critical but kind. Be hard on the writing not the writer.
 
A note about vocal publishing. In The Spooky Art, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Norman Mailer talked about crisp words “clamping down…sticking.” In an interview shortly before his death, Noir author Raymond Chandler spoke of perfectly pitched sentences “walking off the page.” Despite using opposing metaphors, they are obviously describing the same thing. Good writing. A key focus of the class, then, is this musical quality; the profound difference between how a sentence sounds and its mute presence on the page. Indeed, the initial way many children (and adults) interact with middle grade (and some YA) fiction is through “family reading.” The acoustical quality, then, of such books, books that will likely be read aloud, is particularly relevant. A significant amount of class time will be dedicated to declaiming work or “vocal publishing.”








No comments: