Form and Theory of the Novel. Instructor: Stacey Swann. Stanford University Writing Certificate Program. Spring, 2012

Transcription

1 Form and Theory of the Novel Instructor: Stacey Swann Stanford University Writing Certificate Program Spring, 2012 Course Description: Read! Read! Read! And then read some more. When you find something that thrills you, take it apart paragraph by paragraph, line by line, word by word, to see what make it so wonderful. Then use those tricks the next time you write. W. P. Kinsella This course is primarily a literature and technique course. Students will carefully and critically read foundational and contemporary texts in the genre, always with this goal in mind: to become students of every book they read. There will be no major workshop component. Instead, students will complete smaller assignments with the goal of incorporating larger ideas of novel writing into their process. Students will develop a solid working knowledge of novel plot, structure, and other many craft issues. In this course, you will be reading three novels, as writers. The first is the classic, Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved from Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. The second is The Yiddish Policeman s Union, a contemporary (and genre-melding) novel from Michael Chabon, a bestselling writer who has also won the Pulitzer Prize. The third book that you will read and study will be one of your own choosing, that you may wish to emulate in some way in your own novel. This is not to say that you re looking for an existing mold into which you could pour your text (if only it were that easy, some might say) but a working example, stylistic or structural, for something you think you d like to pull from, because you like the effect that it had on you as a reader, and wish to recreate that effect for others. You will write pages weekly, either completing writing assignments on specific craft topics or generating pages of your novel-in-progress. Students will develop a solid working knowledge of novel voice, world creation, point of view, and other craft issues. You will begin reading and analyzing a published novel of your own choosing in Week Eight. When figuring out how to structure, shape, and ultimately revise your own novel, the best tool in your arsenal will be another novel that bears some resemblance to the one you want to write. Through structural analysis and reverse outlining, you will gain expertise in novel plot and structure. From the start of the course, think about what novel you might want to read closely. Here are some narrative angles to consider, as you make your selection. TIME SPAN: How much time do you want your novel to span? On one end of the extreme, we have a novel like Ian McEwan s Saturday that spans a single day. On the

2 other, we have Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Each of these authors paces his scenes and jumps around in order to fill very different time lines. Do you anticipate that your novel will cover a week? A summer? A year? Thirty years? Maybe you don t know exactly yet, but estimate and perhaps find a novel that covers roughly the same length of time. LINEARITY (OR NOT): Here is another question having to do with time. Will your novel be a more or less straight shot, a linear novel? Or do you anticipate jumping back and forth often, perhaps having several narrative strands set in different time periods that braid together? Try finding a structural model that operates similarly, so that you can see how this author negotiates movements through time. POINT OF VIEW: How many point of view characters are you working with? One? Many? Are you using first person? Close third? Multiple close third persons? Omniscient? Second person or first person plural? Some combination of the above? Find a novel that uses the same point of view strategy, to see how the author wields it. VOICE/TONE: Are you writing a novel that is darkly comic? Historical and lyrical? Postmodern with a lot of playful narrative modes? Find a novel that s tonally similar to yours. In other words, readers of X (famous author) would also enjoy what you are trying to do. IDEA/GENRE: Perhaps you re an idea-driven writer, and you want to look at how another idea-driven writer has used story in the service of philosophy or theory. Maybe you are writing science fiction or young adult fiction, and you want to study another practitioner of the genre who has gotten a lot of great press. This is an excellent idea. Familiarize yourself with your "competition." Know what has already been done well, so that you can break new ground. Required Reading: 1. Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose ISBN-13: People/dp/ /ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= &sr= Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life, edited by Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi ISBN-13: Fiction/dp/ /ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= &sr=1-1

3 If Amazon is sold out, you can purchase it from Michigan Press here: DB87?id= Beloved, by Toni Morrison ISBN-13: Morrison/dp/ /ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= &sr= The Yiddish Policemen s Union, by Michael Chabon ISBN-13: S/dp/ /ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= &sr= One novel of your own choosing Grading: Breakdown is as follows: 50% writing exercises/meeting word count goals 50% participation (weekly responses to published and peer work) Weekly Schedule: MONDAY: I will send out an to the class introducing the week and directing you to the new Forum threads, including your Discussion Points about the week's readings and your weekly writing exercises. (NOTE: Because many of you may have busy work schedules, the weekend might be your preferred time to work. Because of this, I will always post up the assignments on the prior Friday so you can get a head start.) I will create the Forum threads where you will turn in your exercises, but you won't actually post them there until the next week. WEDNESDAY: Every other week, you will have a specific writing assignment to post within your small groups. Make sure this is up by Wednesday at 5pm (Pacific Time), although you may do so as early as you are ready. THURSDAY-FRIDAY: Please post your workshop responses and answers to the weekly discussion questions by Thursday evening. But again, I encourage you to join in these "conversations" throughout the week. THURSDAY: I will hold weekly office hours in the chatroom for our classroom on Thursdays (exact time to be determined). Here we can talk more informally, discussing any general questions as well as specific issues you might be having with your exercises or stories. You can get immediate feedback on your concerns from me and from your

4 classmates. You're not required to come to office hours every week, and feel free to drop in for shorter periods of time within that hour. These chats will always be recording; the transcripts will be available in case you are unable to attend. WEEKEND: IF you want, use the weekend to get a jumpstart on reading assigned chapters and drafting your writing exercise. I won't be in the classroom over the weekend, but you're welcome to start posting for the next week whenever you're ready. The classroom is always open! SUNDAY: Every other week, you will be generating at least 500 words of your novel (See Weekly Writing Exercises and Word Limits). You will them to me as a Word document before you go to bed on Sunday. I will be reading and responding to the Forums most weekdays, usually in the afternoons. I will not be online over the weekends. I always read every single forum post, even if I do not respond to them all. You will have access to the reading and writing assignments for the upcoming two weeks in the "Schedule" section of Blackboard. This will give you the option of getting a head start if you desire it. Keeping Your Workload Manageable As a writer, you should not be online all the time. It s not good for your creative process to treat this class as a 5 day-a-week or 24/7 commitment. More than two or three days per week spent online for class one day to post assignments and one or two days to follow up with comments from others is not necessary for grading purposes and, honestly, it may not be in the best interest of your novel project. Turn your wireless card off when you re writing, and work on your book first thing every day, before you do anything else, even class work. If you produce a page a day you ll have a first draft in a year, and if you produce 500 words a day, you ll have a short novel nearing completion within six months. While this is more than the requirements of this class, it s important to see it as a viable option. Don t let internalized social pressure lead you to focus on class at the expense of your book. You will be a better student, have more fun participating in class, and give more incisive feedback to your fellow writers if you are writing every day. Plus, you ll be happier! Brief Syllabus of Weeks 1-10: Week 1: First Impressions: Voice We enter a novel as soon as we hear the voice of the opening paragraph. Our first week, we ll hone in on beginnings and the voice that gives personality to our novels. Week 2: Character is Destiny

5 Who are characters are will determine the path our novels take. We will look closely at the characters of Beloved, the purpose of villains, and our own developing cast of characters. Week 3: Keeping the Reader Reading: Plot and Structure We ll step back and evaluate the patterns that every novel creates. How does Beloved s structure help it achieve its ends? What overall design do you have in mind for your own novel? We ll also discuss the importance of scene and narrative spandrels. Week 4: Who Tells Your Story? Point of View and Narrative Looking at the beginning of The Yiddish Policemen s Union, we ll investigate the power of point of view and the effect of the narrative on tone and mood. We ll discuss all the major players, from omniscience to first person, in order to find this best narrative fit for your own project. Week 5: Hard-Boiled Dialogue What is said (and what goes unsaid) between your characters shapes the characters, plot, and structure of your novel. This week, we ll examine how dialogue propels and colors The Yiddish Policemen s Union and your own novel project. Week 6: Your Novel Is Its Own World: The Magic of Setting Every novel is an alternate universe, even if it doesn t include Jewish settlers in Sitka. How solid is the world you re creating? How can we breathe life into the ground under our character s feet, the cities and homes they sleep in? Week 7: The Sum of Its Parts: Language In the end, every novel is simply a collection of paragraphs, every paragraph a collection of sentences, every sentence a collection of words. This week, we ll look at the smallest units to understand their bigger picture, giving you the tools to evaluate the building blocks you re building your novel from. Week 8: An Exercise in Close Reading This week, you will read your selected novel like a writer. Be an inspired thief. What techniques can you smuggle into your own novel? Week 9: The Reverse Outline Make concrete what you ve only grasped in the abstract. Without blueprints, an architect will not learn how to build. Week 10: Moving Forward In this final week, we ll pull together all of our lessons to forge a blueprint for our novel. We ll share our hopes and goals, and we ll look forward to the Novel I class. How All This Works:

6 Each week begins with an introductory craft talk that you ll find in the Schedule section. I will also assign readings from the books that I ve asked you to get for this class (along with a few other selections) to illustrate and illuminate our craft discussions. You ll find these listed under This Week s Reading. Under Topics for Discussion I will pose a couple of questions based on the readings to help you think through how craft techniques are actually being used in published fiction, and how you can use them in your own writing. Under Writing Assignments, you ll find several different exercises designed to allow you to focus on an aspect of your fiction. Our group conversation begins when you post your comments and exercises in the Discussion Forum. The Forum is a bulletin board where all the action happens. Here, we ll have ongoing conversations about your work, the books we read together, and different fiction topics. This is where you ll post your work, and where our discussions will take place. Weekly Writing Exercises and Word Limits: In this class, we will complete writing assignments every other week. I ask that you keep your weekly writing exercises to around 700 words. If you turn in more than this, you will not receive feedback on the writing that goes beyond the maximum. If the class shows an interest, I will happily create a special forum thread for students who want to write and share more than this, but I can t offer feedback on this supplemental writing. I wish I had time to read more than this, but I'm sure you understand why it's not possible in a classroom setting. In the weeks without official writing assignments, you will be expected to complete at least 500 words towards your novel project. For those of you who have not yet settled on a single novel idea, it s fine to explore multiple projects over the course of this quarter. For those that have already completed an early draft, you can turn in at least 500 words of revision or new material, whatever is the most help for you. In order to provide a nonjudgmental space for your early writing process, I will not be reading or critiquing these weeks. I will only be noting whether you are meeting the required word count. For many writers, external deadlines are the key to productivity. It s my hope this balance between assignments and page accumulation will result in the highest level of productivity for your novel project. By the end of the class, both your fresh pages and your specific writing assignments should provide an initial foundation for your continued novel work. Mini-Workshops: Becoming a good reader is an important part in your development as a writer. Learning how to identify the strengths and weaknesses in others fiction will help you recognize the strengths and weaknesses in your own. In week s with official writing assignments, we will form small groups. The purpose of the groups is to foster intensive community, and to make sure all students receive peer feedback. You will be responsible for reading and commenting on the writing of the members of your group. To keep things fresh, and

7 so that you receive feedback from a variety of students, we will periodically rearrange the groups. However, please note that groups are public. While you are always obligated to comment on the work of your group members, you may additionally respond to students outside your group. So if you develop a strong rapport with a particular student, you may continue to read/comment each other s work once the small groups are rearranged. Mini-Workshop Feedback: When I m critiquing someone s work, I like to read the assignment twice the first time through, I read for pleasure and an overall sense of the work. The second time through, I know enough to begin asking questions and paying attention to specific issues. I might describe what makes the piece memorable; articulate its underlying ideas; and offer some specific suggestions for revision. Be kind. Be generous. Read another s work as you would like your own work to be read. Don t shy away from making suggestions. (Being too nice is its own kind of irresponsible workshop behavior.) Comment with an eye towards helping another writer write the best fiction possible. My Commentary: I will comment with a short paragraph and line notes on each of your weekly exercises. I post these responses in the forum where anyone can read them. This is because, in a live course, I d be making many of the comments during class discussions so that everyone benefited from them. Although we aren t sharing the same physical space, you should think of Forum and the discussion threads as a place to interact with each other. After posting your critique, you may read someone else s and find yourself wanting to elaborate on his or her comments or offering a different perspective. I will also read your comments to one another and pipe in when I have something to add. These discussions will be as lively as you make them. My Online Presence: I ll be online and actively responding to new posts most weekday afternoons. I also check my at least once a day and respond as promptly as I can. The beauty of an online class is that we can all do our work when our schedules permit; we don't have to be working simultaneously. So log on when it's convenient for you, morning or night, daily or every few days. I will hold a one hour chat session, a kind of live office hour, once a week. Participation is encouraged by not mandatory. A Final Important Note: Although many students take online courses with the absolute best intentions of doing every last assignment, "real life" family, illness, professional deadlines often has a way of making that impossible. Sometimes, the frustration this causes prompts students to drop completely out of the class. Hold on! Even you have to skip a couple exercises, this doesn t mean you should drop out of the course. As long as you're getting most of the work done and commenting on your classmates' submissions, you'll be fine. Please don t

8 hesitate to get in touch if you have any concerns about your standing. If you foresee some bumps in the road, let me know. We ll work together to find the best possible solution for you. This is your class. I m the guide, yes, but the quality of our discussions will depend upon your engagement, insightfulness, and good humor. This course will be as good as you (and you and you and you and you and you.) give. So, please participate fully and generously in discussions. Read your classmates work with a keen eye and a sense of possibility. And please, let me know if there s anything I can do to make this a better experience for you. I welcome suggestions, detours, and even shortcuts on gravel roads. If there s something you want to discuss, let me know. If there s an assignment that you think would work in this class, tell me. This is your class. One more note: writing workshops are built on trust. I think this is even truer in online workshops where we re not all sitting together in the same room. To build this trust, it s important that we all agree that the work you present here stays within the workshop. If you love someone s piece and want to share it with your husband/wife/best friend/crazy cousin, ask the writer first. Chances are, she (or he) will be thrilled and give you the go ahead. But please first get permission.