English CFMR. Interiority & Experience: Writing Character-Driven Fiction: Workshop

Instructor: Claire Messud
Wednesday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 269
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students

This course approaches the writing of fiction with character at its center. If fiction is an exploration of what it’s like to be alive on the planet, character is paramount: we are who we are because of a combination temperament and experience. You can’t write convincingly if you don’t know your characters: plot, voice, detail, dialogue, setting – all these elements of story are interwoven with and dependent upon character. While it will be primarily a workshop of student fiction, we will read and discuss fiction through the lens of character – including works by Gustave Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Anton Chekhov, Brandon Taylor, Min Jin Lee, and Tayari Jones.  

Supplemental Application Information: This course welcomes writers of all levels. Please submit 2-5 pages of creative (ie not academic) prose -- fiction or non-fiction -- along with a substantive letter of introduction. I’d like to know why you’re interested in the course; what experience you’ve had writing; what your goals and ambitions are for this course. Please tell me about some of your favorite narratives – fiction, non-fiction, film, etc: why they move you, and what you learn from them.