Instructor: Joe O’Connell.
Contact: Home phone (will be on syllabus handed out in class)
Email is josephoc@stedwards.edu (I check it compulsively!)
Facebook discussion group: http://www.facebook.com/joemoconnell?ref=name#/group.php?gid=297146513573
Texts:
(to come! I’m still selecting them…)
You will also need:
A flash drive to bring to class weekly for your word-count check.
Requirements for the course:
You will turn off your personal censor and write a 40,000-word novella in 10 weeks this semester. That’s the long and short of it. Writing is often a journey of fits and starts. Our goal is to write a long draft of a story. It won’t be perfect, and you will be urged not to try to revise during this semester to make it perfect. You may choose (I hope many of you do) to revise what you write as part of your MLA final project.
For my former fiction writing students (which is most of you): There will be very little to no workshopping of writing during this course. Workshopping leads to revision. I don’t want you to think about revision; I want you to write. You will instead work together to figure out where you are going. Weekly class sessions will include progress reports, gripes, etc. as you move forward. You should also join the Facebook group listed above to communicate between classes with your fellow writers. Part of your job is to cheer each other on.
We will spend the first few weeks of class preparing to take off on this journey as we look at the larger structure and do character work. We will lean heavily on screenwriting structure techniques in this early going. You will create a blueprint for your novella that will help you to keep from getting stuck along the way.
It is fine if you have a project already begun; it is also fine if you are starting from scratch. Our goal is completion of a story arc: beginning, middle and end. If you’ve already go 20,000 words, for instance, I ask that you add another 40,000 to that total.
During the semester, we will read five novellas as models. The reading assignments are heavy in the early going but spaced out during the latter part of the semester as you concentrate on the writing.
While 40,000 words sounds like a lot (it is), you will be working on weekly deadlines. Each week your assignment is to write 4,000 words—about 12 pages of double-spaced, Times New Roman text. A good schedule will have you writing two pages a day, six days a week. Or three pages a day, four days a week. Because I can’t be a credible teacher unless I join you on this journey, I will write along with you, and it won’t be pretty. In fact, I give all of you permission to create an ugly novella. I also guarantee you that hints of beauty will shine through.
On research: It’s OK at the beginning of the semester, but a no-no during the 10-week march forward. Why? It’s too easy to get lost in the research. Our goal is to write. A lot. If you come to a point in your writing where research will be necessary, simply make a notation in parentheses (RTC)—“research to come.” Note it and keep going. The same goes for any place in your writing where you need additional information.
Accommodations
for Students with Disabilities
If you
have a medical, psychiatric or learning disability and require accommodations
in this class, please let me know early in the semester or as soon as you are
eligible. You will first need to provide documentation of your disability to
the Student Disability Services Office located in Moody Hall 155.
Academic
Integrity
St.
Edward's University expects academic honesty from all members of the community,
and it is our policy that academic integrity be fostered to the highest degree
possible. Consequently, all work submitted for grading in a course must be
created as a result of your own thought and effort. Representing work as your
own when it is not a result of such thought and effort is a violation of our
code of academic integrity.
SCHEDULE: (THIS IS THE SCHEDULE FROM LAST TO GIVE
YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT—IT IS NOT CORRECT FOR THE SUMMER CLASS!)
The works should be read by
the date listed. F is for readings from E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel;
B is for readings from Chris Baty’s No Plot? No
Problem! I will give you a number of handouts along the way as well as what
is listed below.
1/25 Intro to course: The big picture and using screenwriting structure.
2/01 Character development
Read: Handouts; Adultry by Andre Dubus, F-Chs. 1-4; B-Chs. 1-2
2/08 Plot and getting ready to leap in
Read: Handouts; Good Will by Jane Smiley; F-Ch. 5; B-Chs. 3-4
2/15 To write: your first 4,000 words
Read: Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry; B-Ch. 5
2/22 Word count: 8,000 words
Read: F-Ch. 6;
3/01 Word count: 12,000 words
Read: F-Ch. 7; B-Ch. 6
3/08 Word count: 16,000 words
Read: Hunger by Lan Samantha Change
3/15 SPRING BREAK (don’t stop writing!)
3/22 Word count: 20,000 words
Read: F-Chs. 8-9; B-Ch. 7
3/29 Word count: 24,000 words
Read: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4/5 Word count: 28,000 words
Read: B-Ch. 8
4/12 Word count: 32,000 words
4/19 Word count: 36,000 words
Read: Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
4/26 Word count: 40,000 words!
Read: B-Ch. 9
5/03 Reading from your completed (imperfect) work.
Discussion of revision