FINDING YOUR WAY AS A WRITER: An Exploratory Workshop

Course Syllabus

Week One:Exploring creativity and memory resources: In this first session we shall present an overview of the course.We shall discuss memory and creativity, in the context of discovering ways to tap into universal creativity opportunities.Students shall engage their own creativity with an in-class writing exercise and will be encouraged to share their written work with the class.

Week Two:Journal Writing and Personal Essays:In this session, we will evaluate examples of journal writing and personal essay.We shall discuss and evaluate the difference between fiction and non-fiction and the effects of each upon the rendering of truth.Students will present written essays and will be encouraged to utilize daily, journal writing techniques and habits for the duration of the course.

Week Three:Poetry: Techniques that are instant stimuli for tapping creativity resources for spontaneous poetry will be presented in this session.Students will present their own poems, based upon the Tom Waits poetry-generation technique and will participate in an in-class spontaneous poetry-creation exercise.

Week Four:Myths:The classic forms of myths and fables will be explored from the standpoint of elemental creativity.Students will present their own written myths.

Week Five:Stories for Children: We shall explore this separate niche of fiction writing, discussing the importance of blending images and text and telling a simple story that will be fascinating and compelling for children.Stories created using StoryBook Weaver software will be evaluated.Students will present children’s stories which they create.

Week Six:Short Story Fiction:The final session will explore the creation of short fiction and shall revisit the comparison of fact and fiction-creation from the standpoint of presenting elemental truth.Students will present short stories which they create.