MA in Writing Graduate Course Schedule, Northwestern University School of Professional Studies - Northwestern School of Professional Studies

Program Courses

Please note that course schedules may be amended due to low enrollment, faculty availability, and/or other factors.

Online Sync Sessions are an integral part of the online learning experience. Additional information about learning concepts and assignments may be discussed and sync sessions offer valuable opportunities for students to interact with their faculty and peers during the term. We encourage all students to attend live, but if they are unable to, sync sessions will be recorded and posted within Canvas to allow for an asynchronous model of success as well.

MCW 413-0 : Fiction Writing Workshop

Description

The goal of this workshop is to refresh our practice. It’s easy to fall into a rut, to think we’re only capable of working in certain modes, and it’s not true. It’s not true even when writing in extraordinary or stressful times, such as the one we’re currently living through. We can do a lot more, even now.

We’ll work through a series of exercises to generate material drawn from three seemingly disparate sources: (1) the fantastical, (2) our own lives, and (3) our complicated relationship to Internet culture. We will also have optional live online group discussions. Expect to generate a lot of material (we’ll write a very rough story per week) but also expect to have a lot of fun. We’ll come out with fresh stories as well as new approaches to our creative output. We will also find constructive and supportive ways to sustain ourselves and our literary community, with a special focus on the ways that web publications and submissions, as well as social media, have changed the writing life. Writing can be hard, it can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be---not all the time, at least---and there is real joy involved. Let’s get back to that joy.