Course Description


The aim of this workshop is to help participants develop skills to write creative fiction and non-fiction. At the end of the course, participants will have a more thorough understanding of the process of creative writing as well as knowledge of how to pursue its commercial opportunities.

The class begins with an investigation of best practices not only for creative writing but also for cultivating creativity itself: things that a writer ought to carry around in his or her head from day to day, what to look for, and where original ideas come from.

The course continues with techniques to describe things originally, evocatively, and memorably. The discussion includes literary devices, sensory language, and prosody.

The next section addresses storytelling and plot. Students will learn how every coherent story, no matter how abstract, contains certain elements called beats in a particular order. Students will learn the qualities of and relationships among story beats so they may recognize the structure of any film, short story, novel, or play, and be able to construct stories of their own.

The elements of creative writing learned in this class will be discussed in the context of the short story, the narrative essay, certain aspects of the screenplay, and, in passing, poetry.

Skills acquired in this workshop are applicable to additional areas such as copywriting, job search writing, design, marketing, video production, and speech writing.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, successful students will be better able to:

  • Find material as a part of daily life to use in creative writing
  • Write in an interesting way, and describe things in an engaging manner to the reader
  • Construct a complete plot
  • Write a short story
  • Write a narrative essay




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