English 270: Class Snapshot
Course Title: Creative Writing Narrative I
Professor: Dr. Donika Kelly
In Creative Writing Narrative, we are introduced to the art and framework of short fiction through daily writing exercises, workshops, and readings. In this class, our writing skills are developed along with a sense of our individual writing styles. Consistent participation is expected and welcomed by Dr. Kelly and other students, especially in workshops. It is through the required workshops that we acquire the most helpful input and feedback on our writing. Through assigned readings, we learn about characterization, narration, point-of-view, and many other components of creative short stories. As a freshman and Professional and Creative Writing major, this class is required. However, it is also beneficial to anybody interested in further developing their creative writing abilities.
Dr. Kelly emphasizes the importance of reading as much as you write, noting that the skills of a young writer are built through imitation. We do this through the readings assigned to us in Alice LaPlante’s “The Making of a Story.” Composed of a variety of short stories written by published writers, Dr. Kelly and LaPlante use these stories to demonstrate various writing techniques. She also posts some readings and podcasts on Moodle that further advance our writing skills. The exercises we are assigned often correlate with the readings and Dr. Kelly typically asks for three volunteers in class to read their pieces. Those who read are given feedback. Although Dr. Kelly does not grade these exercises, they are filed away in a portfolio that we are required to hand in at the end of the semester. Then she holds individual conferences with us to discuss our writing progress.
In addition to the exercises, Dr. Kelly highly recommended keeping a notebook dedicated to our creative writing processes. She advised writing down interesting experiences, conversations, and images, noting that these could be used for stories. Personally, I have written in notebooks for the past four years and have found inspiration for stories in some of the conversations I recorded. This very beneficial when it comes to new ideas for stories.
The workshop process has been the most beneficial experience for me because it allows me to consider various forms of feedback from all my classmates. We sign up for one of two groups: Group A or Group B. The groups consist of about five or six people in my class and the writers in Group A have their stories workshopped first. When you workshop, you are required to print out as many copies as needed for everybody in the class including Dr. Kelly. After the author passes out the copies of their story, they read it out loud while everybody writes in the margins, noting what works in the story and asking questions about some of the writing choices. Dr. Kelly emphasizes the idea that the feedback should not consist of “I like” and “I don’t like” because opinion is not helpful to the writer in terms of technique. In addition to the verbal feedback received in class, the author also receives the marked-up copies of their stories. These workshops are extremely helpful for writers who typically hesitate with sharing their writing. The process is more of a discussion than a critique which eased my nerves quite a bit. The individual conferences will be coming up soon and I am looking forward to mine. It will be beneficial to discuss my writing with Dr. Kelly one on one.
The assigned readings are interesting and unique. Also, being able to read and listen to our classmates’ stories is an enjoyable experience. Creative Writing Narrative is not only a beneficial class for those who wish to further develop their creative writing skills, but it is also just an enjoyable class.
