Department of English

How can revising your writing be a transformative act? Generating a rough draft is a great first step, but the real work of story craft comes in revision. This class will focus on rewriting, revising, and workshopping previously generated works of speculative fiction. Short stories, novellas, and novel projects are all welcome. The semester will be divided into units on scene, sentence structure, and narrative design—with the goal of expanding your focus on each element of your writing, from the granular to the gestalt. You will be challenged to wholesale abandon your initial ideas about your work, and to see it through new perspectives, new styles, and new structures. Through author-centered work-shares and collaborative discussion, you will develop a vocabulary for understanding the work of your fellow writers, with the idea that generous scrutiny is the highest form of respect. This class welcomes, though is not limited to, works of genre writing, including fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, and experimental prose. Our study of revision will encompass discussion of worldbuilding, defamiliarization, and the principles of imagination, all tactics that can also be applied to works of realism. Throughout the class you will complete multiple drafts of multiple projects, and end the semester with at least two polished final drafts. Permission to enroll is required. Please send instructor 1-2 paragraphs about your interest in the course. In addition to this, you have the option of sending a single-page PDF of the first page of the project you are interested in revising during the class.