E341W
Intermediate Fiction Workshop
TH 6-9:00
University of Texas at Austin Extension

Instructor: Scott Blackwood, M.F.A.
Email: blackwood@mail.utexas.edu
Phone: 232-2730 (voice mail) or 471-6222
Office Hours: After Class (8:30-9:30)


Description:
In this class, our goal is to help one another achieve what John Gardner calls the "vivid and continuous dream of fiction" in our own stories. To this end, we will spend the first few weeks establishing general aesthetic principles for fiction and discussing common errors that distract from the fictional dream. We will also read and discuss at length Kenneth Burke's essay "Psychology and Form" which details how good writing creates appetites in the reader and then adequately satisfies them (even if undermining them). While Gardner and Burke are the principle guides, your texts will be the distinct fictional worlds of Marquez, Carver, O'Conner, Cortazar, and others (if read carefully, these authors will continue to teach long after the class is over). We will read as writers read, sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, analyzing how fiction writers build appetites and evoke the vivid and continuous dream.

So when do we get to the writing? We'll be writing all along, some in imitation of authors we've read, some in assignments that can be folded into a larger work (your own stories, for instance), and often in response to one another's work (workshop). You will ultimately produce two revised short stories by the end of the semester, demonstrating your grasp of aesthetic principles, your ability to revise your work in light of criticism, and your practiced avoidance of Gardner's "common errors."

Texts:
Where I'm Calling From (Vintage)	Raymond Carver
Collected Stories	Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Collected Stories	Flannery O'Conner
Blow-Up and Other Stories	Julio Cortazar
The Art of Fiction	John Gardner
Articles:
"Psychology and Form"	Kenneth Burke
"On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense"	Nietzsche
"Nature and Aims of Fiction"	Flannery O'Conner
"On Writing"	Ray Carver

Requirements:
For this class to function successfully as a workshop, everyone must participate in the discussions. We will develop a writer's vocabulary to talk about stories and fiction aesthetics in detail. You will also be asked to write (type) and turn in commentaries on your peers' stories. By the end of the course you will have written and revised three full-length scenes or stories (roughly 21 pages, 12point, double- spaced).

Class Participation	20%
Peer Responses	20%
2 full-length stories (Approximately 21-26 pages, grade based on mastery of course goals.)	60%
	Story/Scene 1	25%
	Story/Scene 2	35%