Creative Writing Signature Experience

We’ll Make It Up As We Go Along:  The Different Ways We Tell Stories

Goal:  To paraphrase Christopher Busa, editor of Provincetown Arts magazine and Provincetown Arts Press, our goal is to create, with words, an alternative reality that most people find more compelling than conventional reality (at least temporarily).

Plan:  We’ll read, discuss, write, listen, speak, revise, repeat.  As Francine Prose claims, . . . the advantage of reading widely, as opposed to trying to formulate a series of general rules [for writing], is that we learn there are no general rules, only individual examples to help point you in a direction in which you might want to go.  So we need to look closely at what stops us in wonder, traps us in marvel, encourages us to gasp or snicker or spit.  We may be a long way from creating a string of words that encourages these responses in others, but we all probably want to.

How:  We will review and practice basic storytelling elements that appear throughout short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and dialogue. Students in the class will generate and workshop pieces and sharpen skills such as structure, voice, narration and description. Second-year Signature students will also develop and revise material from summer work in preparation for their Capstone Project.

Note: Only available to Signature Experience students