ENGLISH 2403 
CREATIVE WRITING
 
 
Dr. Ingrid Shafer
 

English 2403, Creative Writing, is a highly flexible course generally taught on an individual basis to accommodate student needs and prior experience. During the first week of each term, students will be assigned to Level I (Beginning), Level II (Intermediate), or Level III (Advanced) categories. In addition, for level II and III the main area of interest, i.e., narrative fiction or poetry will be determined. 
 

LEVEL ONE OBJECTIVES: 

A) Rediscovery of an almost child-like delight in using words to reflect one's inner and outer worlds by tapping into the productive, creative, pre-conscious mind (generally identified with the non-dominant brain hemisphere) with its aesthetic talent for wonder, wholeness, subtlety, metaphor, natural rhythm, and the ability to reconcile and juxtapose opposites. 

B) Practice in joining this primal kind of natural, dynamic, metaphoric, playful, imaginative, intuitive expression with the conscious, critical, analytic, syntactic, formal and grammatical abilities of the dominant brain hemisphere in order to produce simple vignettes, short stories, one-act plays, and poems. 

C) Introduction to the methods of getting writings published, such as surveying the potential market and proper manuscript preparation. 
 

LEVEL TWO OBJECTIVES: 

Continuation and intensification of Level One objectives with increasing emphasis on specialization in the student's area of particular interest, leading to an appropriate work or works in publishable form. 

LEVEL THREE OBJECTIVES: 

Continuation and intensification of Level Two objectives for potentially serious writers and/or poets. 
 

EVALUATION: 

The course grade will be based on the extent to which students complete assignments as well as the quality of their work in light of their individual abilities and initial level of accomplishment. 

You are welcome to send assignments to my main e-mail address. ihs@ionet.net.

11 September2002
 
 

COURSE SYLLABUS

LEVEL I: 

A) Completion of all the exercises in the text, Gabrielle Lusser Rico's Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers. B) Completion of your individual writing project. 

You should expect to spend considerably more time on assignments than suggested in the text. Stop only when you feel that you have accomplished what you set out to do. Revise until you feel you have done your best, but be sure to bring all rough drafts to your weekly meetings. You should expect to spend at least nine hours per week writing.  
 

Topics include the following:  

         
      • Making contact with the secret writer within
      • Clustering: doorway to your intuitive mind
      • Becoming a child once more
      • Words and the brain
      • Discovering patterns: the trial web
      • Zen of improvising: Re-Creations
      • Recurrences: the unifying thread
      • Rhythm, melody, and harmony in language 
      • Imeges: Inner eye directing your writing
      • Images and metaphors 
      • Nuances: many voices in the one 
      • Creative tension: juxtaposition of opposites 
      • Re-vision: the art of revising--less is more 
      • Completing the circle 
      • Personal project: a short story, a little
You need to complete all the assignments of at least one new chapter per week. If you want to get started in a hurry, go through several chapters in the first few weeks, and slow down as the exercises get more complex and time-consuming. We'll use the final two to four weeks of the term for exploring individual areas of interest and writing the final project. 

Except for your own  rough drafts, all work must be typed or word-processed. If you compose at the computer, be sure to save your work in progress under different file names regularly, otherwise you'll overwrite the drafts. At the end of the term, please hand in clean typed or word-processed copies of ALL your revised writings plus your personal project.  
 

CLASS ATTENDANCE FOR ALL LEVELS: 

This course is taught on an individual basis. Please put your full name into one of the time slots on the sign-up sheet. I expect to meet with you (and your writings!) every week. In addition, I hope to schedule a couple of week end/evening/late afternoon group meetings. I'll let you know in advance. You should do your best to attend at least one of those meetings.  
 

TEXT BOOK: 

Gabrielle Lusser-Rico, Writing the Natural Way: Using Right Brain Techniques to Release your Expressive Power. 
 
E-mail Dr. Shafer
Copyright © Ingrid Shafer 1998-2002