As writers, we have a number of thematic obsessions that are consciously or unconsciously revisited in our work. Through voice, point-of-view, plot, and structure, these obsessions take on shape and narrative form. In this class, we will write four stories in four weeks, each week trying a new point-of-view (first person, second person, third person limited, and third person omniscient). Looking at works by authors such as Alice Munro, Edward P. Jones, Flannery O’Connor, and Joy Williams, class time will focus on discussion of readings, weekly writing prompts, and detailed instructor feedback on story drafts. By the end of the course, students will revise a scene (or complete story), focusing on fine-tuning POV shifts and thematic unity.
After the fourth class meeting, each student will choose one of the prompts that they would like to extend into a full story draft, which will be submitted in the fifth week, which will not include a live class meeting. Kali will provide in-line comments as well as a formal workshop letter on this submission.
Students should have some prior workshop experience.
This class will meet over our video chat platform. You will need to use Google Chrome and a computer to join your class meetings.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- Understand how to use different forms of POV effectively, and practice through story submissions and exercises
- Four new short story drafts
- Revision techniques
- Written feedback from the instructor on weekly prompts and one short story draft
- Access to Catapult's list of writing opportunities and important submission deadlines, as well as a 10% discount on all future Catapult classes
COURSE EXPECTATIONS:
While this isn't a workshop, students are expected to have read the class readings and to have tried the exercises on their own. It is my hope students will leave the class with some familiarity working in each POV discussed, and hopefully have started several new short stories to revise later.
- Readings: Please read the scheduled short story (or stories) before each class. Readings will be e-mailed to students as a PDF. We will discuss how these stories use point-of-view to further thematic concerns. In addition to POV elements, students will study the authors’ use of theme, character, voice, and prose style, as each of these stories is written by a master of the form.
- Exercises: Each week I will distribute a story-generating exercise which will strengthen your use of point-of-view. These exercises are tailored to the reading and POV studied on that day. While these exercises are limited to in-class, it’s my hope that these prompts will increase your overall writerly toolbox and help create new story drafts.
- Responses: I will ask students to share a portion of their in-class stories and will offer my written feedback on what is working, what could be improved, and areas where I think the writer could dig deeper. I will offer suggested readings catered to individual students, and ask that other students consider their classmate’s shared work with empathy and seriousness. The goal is to improve and grow as writers.
COURSE SKELETON:
Week one, First Person. Reading: “First Day” by Edward P. Jones
Week two, Second Person. Reading: “Beg Borrow Steal" by Maurice Carolos Ruffin
Week three, Third Person Limited. Reading: “The Farm” by Joy Williams
Week four, Third Person Omniscient. Readings: “Carried Away” by Alice Munro, and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor.
Kali Fajardo-Anstine is a National Book Award Finalist and the author of Sabrina & Corina, a finalist for the PEN/Bingham Prize and The Story Prize, and longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her fiction and essays has appeared in GAY Magazine, The American Scholar, Boston Review, Bellevue Literary Review, The Idaho Review, Southwestern American Literature, and elsewhere. Kali has been awarded fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, and Hedgebrook. She has an MFA from the University of Wyoming and is from Denver, Colorado.
