MFA209 Point of View Basics
While we may each have a propensity or preference for a specific point of view, it is important that we use all the tools in our toolkits. The story varies greatly depending on the narrator. Successful fiction requires an understanding of these various points of view.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(May 05, 2022)
MFA760 Dialogue as Verbal Action
Some of the things you will learn in this course include:
What are the purposes of dialogue in narratives?
What exactly does it mean for a character to take verbal action through dialogue?
What are common errors in writing dialogue and how can an author practically correct them?
Why is subtext important and how do you craft it?
What are practical techniques for crafting dialogue that will echo in the reader's mind and elevate your narrative?
Course Length: 8 weeks
(May 09, 2022)
B101 WVU Orientation
(May 11, 2022)
MFA154 Flash Fiction Point of View and Voice
A bit of history on the beginnings of flash fiction and why with flash fiction, no matter how busy you are, literature can be part of your day.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(May 12, 2022)
B101 WVU Orientation
(May 18, 2022)
B114 Point of View - Main
(May 18, 2022)
MFA210 The Art of First Person
Point of view may be the single most important decision a writer makes. When using the first-person point of view we allow ourselves to inhabit or be inhabited by a variety of characters, we become that character. But once we’ve decided on this point of view there is still another decision to be made: Central or Peripheral. The narrating “I” of the story will set the tone and mood of the piece, determine what information the reader is given, and even establish the order and sequencing of events.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(May 19, 2022)
L210 Daisy Miller - Henry James
This novella depicts the traditions of polite society and what it’s like for a young girl who doesn’t fit the mold. Students participate in selected readings and topic discussions and have the choice of writing a review, an analysis of a specific element of fiction or a biography of the author. Text Provided.
Course Length: 2 weeks
(May 24, 2022)
B101 WVU Orientation
(May 25, 2022)
MFA155 Flash Fiction - One Page Fictions
In this essay, Jayne Anne Phillips talks about how she taught herself to write and where she began back in the seventies, with one-page fictions. What should a one-page fiction encompass and why?
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(May 26, 2022)
B101 WVU Orientation
(June 01, 2022)
MFA211 The Art of Third Person
Third-person is the most common point of view, it also has the widest range of variance. Will you give the reader a wide-angle view of your protagonist’s world? Or will you zoom in for a close-up angle that draws your reader deeper and deeper into the consciousness of the character; allowing them to experience the world through her eyes?
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(June 02, 2022)
B101 WVU Orientation
(June 08, 2022)
MFA156 Flash Fiction - Great Thoughts
Stuart Dybek is known for his strong narrative voice, his lyricism, and his vivid, almost folkloric memories of childhood, many critics consider him one of our foremost writers of flash fiction. Here he shares his process using a “Great Thoughts” notebook and how to capture “lint.”
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(June 09, 2022)
L235 Hemingway Short Stories (Dialogue and Exposition)
Students read “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, “Mr. and Mrs. Elliot”, The Art of Fiction No. 21, and “George Plimpton Interviews Ernest Hemingway”. Then write a response essay paying particular attention to the author’s use of dialogue and exposition. Text. Provided.
Course Length: 2 weeks
(June 14, 2022)
B101 WVU Orientation
(June 15, 2022)
MFA054 Flash Nonfiction: Singular Moments - Against the Grain
This five-week class is the fifth in a series of five flash nonfiction workshops. Each week will use readings and writing exercises to focus on different components of flash nonfiction: beginnings and endings, writing the contrary essay, and walking, gathering, and listening. By the end of the class, you will have written five short flash nonfiction pieces.
Course Length: 5 Weeks
(June 16, 2022)
MFA212 What is a Plot?
‘The Story Spine’: Once upon a time there was . Every day, . One day . Because of that, . Because of that, . Until finally , was created by Kenn Adams in 1991 and has been reproduced in various forms throughout the literary world. According to John Barth these steps can be more appropriately defined as Incremental Perturbations. How many perturbations are needed? And how many are just enough?
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(June 16, 2022)
MFA702 Subtext
We see and use subtext every day. It exposes motivation, guilt, fear, insecurities, intelligence, ethics, strengths, and weaknesses. It is the truth beneath the surface. In this course, we study the 11 ways in which subtext is expressed and how we can take advantage of those techniques to give depth to our characters and strengthen their stories. Based on the book, The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter.
Course Length: 8 Weeks
(June 20, 2022)
B101 WVU Orientation
(June 22, 2022)
MFA213 The Art of Sequencing
Writers are master manipulators of time. Story time, with its own laws and effects, may move in any direction. Determine when and how to use this to your advantage by employing flashbacks, flash-forward, slow-motion, looping, and even reverse order to bring your story to its natural conclusion.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(June 23, 2022)
MFA157 Flash Fiction - The Story in the Title
The title of a story is the frame that surrounds it, holding it together. Follow along as Michael Martone shares the many ways a title can and should affect your work.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(June 23, 2022)
L234 Barth and Borges (Form and Content)
Each week of this two-week class students will read a short story and Paris Review interview with the author. Response essays concentrate on the author’s form and creativity, with a particular focus on content. Text Provided.
Course Length: 2 weeks
(June 28, 2022)
B101 WVU Orientation
(June 29, 2022)
MFA214 Describing and Withholding
Writing concrete descriptions should be the beginning writer’s first goal. It is all too easy to be seduced by the sound of language, to forget what Edgar Allen Poe coined as “The Single Effect Theory” or the unified effect. Knowing how and when to release information is an acquired skill. Through draft and revision, we intuit the real beginning of our story. Much depends on the story we wish to tell and the unified effect we wish to reach by story’s end.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
(June 30, 2022)