Creative Writing
2013-2014
Semester Two
Corey McCartney
WHS English Dept.
Room 230
425.408.7450
www.nsd.org/cmccartney
cmccartney@nsd.org
“I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.”
—Ray Bradbury
Description
Creative Writing draws on skills and imagination to convey meaning through language.
This class will read and write within genres of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, exploring
various forms of each. You will analyze literature for authorial choices and literary devices
in order to understand the craft of writing. You will apply a variety of genres and devices
to your own writing, learning new skills and applying important techniques. You will
collaborate routinely and effectively through workshops as you give and receive feedback.
By the end of our semester together you will have read and written much, resulting a final
30-page portfolio of your own best original work.
Texts: 50 Essays, Cohen
Siddhartha, Hesse
(Additional texts listed below)
“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.”
—Hunter S. Thompson
Schedule
A typical week in Creative Writing will consist of the following:
Monday: Introduction of new skill
Wednesday: Skill practice activity
Thursday: Writing day
Friday: Writers Workshop
February (Fiction Emphasis)
Defining “creative writing,” “literature,” and “story”
Project: Flash Fiction
Introduction to Writers Workshop & editing technique
Basics of narrative arc, structure and sequencing
Basics of characterization
Basics of narrative mode
Project: Children’s Literature
Texts: Various Saint-Exupery, Sendak, Steinbeck, etc.
etc.
Film: Various author interviews
March (Nonfiction Emphasis)
Creating imagery
Sensory detail
Figurative language
Tone & mood
Project: Nature Writing
Texts: Various Markham, Abbey, Krakauer, Duncan, etc.
Film: Selected scenes from Into the Wild, Sweetgrass. Adventures at the End of the World
April (Characterization Emphasis)
Point-of View
Memoir
* First half portfolio due (15 pages)
Portfolio presentations
Texts: Various Orion Magazine, etc.
Film: Stranger than Fiction, various excerpts
May (Poetry Emphasis)
Bantu, Haiku and Renga
Villanelle
Concrete Poetry
Presentation Skills
Project: Poetry Collection
Project: Lyrical Analysis
* First half portfolio due (15 pages)
Portfolio presentations
Texts: Dead Poets Society
June (Film Analysis)
Full Portfolio Due (30 pages)
Writing Presentations
Film: Finding Forrester, TBA
“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.”
—Jack Kerouac
Essentials
Organized Creative Writing folder/section of binder.
Planner
Composition notebook
Reliable, accessible means of storing electronic documents at home and school (e.g.
server folder, USB drive, email)
o Pen and pencil
o Turnitin.com account: www.turnitin.com Course ID: 7602609 Password: writing
o
o
o
o
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway
Assessment
“Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all,
give it now.”
—Annie Dillard
Proportions
Classwork (e.g. skills activities, freewrites, notebook): 50%
Portfolio (i.e. 30 pages original work): 50%
Grading Scale
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
F
100–93%
92–90
89–87
86–83
82–80
79–77
76–73
72–70
69–67
66–60
59–0
+
100%
+
90
50
75
0
4.0-3.8
3.7-3.4
3.3-3.1
3.0-2.8
2.7-2.4
2.3-2.1
2.0-1.8
1.7-1.4
1.3-1.1
1.0+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
(Based on collegeboard.com)
“Write while the heat is in you. … The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron
which has cooled to burn a hole with.”
—Henry David Thoreau
Deadlines
If you fail to meet a deadline on an assignment, then it likely means one of a couple
different scenarios. (1) If you have been absent, then you will be given the number of days
absent as the number of days to make up all missed work for full credit. One exception to
this is for in-class participation, which occurs in class only (e.g. seminar, debate, puppy).
An absence during an in-class participation assignment will result in an alternate
assignment will be assigned. (2) If you have not been absent, then 10% will be subtracted
from the grade of the late assignment for each class day that it is late. No assignment will
lose more than 50%, no matter how late it is submitted.
“Writers are always selling somebody out.”
—Joan Didion
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of taking another’s work or idea and submitting it as one’s own.
Plagiarism is a serious offense and will result in receiving no credit for that assignment
and contact with home. Collaboration and plagiarism are different things. If you are ever
unsure of what constitutes plagiarism, just ask.
“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large
in his works.”
—Virginia Woolf
Attendance & Tardiness
Arriving less than 10 minutes late is marked as tardy.
Arriving more than 10 minutes late is marked as absent.
Unexcused absences will receive a phone call home from the WHS attendance desk.
Attendance errors are resolved by the student collecting the appropriate form at the
attendance desk, getting the teacher’s signature, and returning it to the attendance desk.
Regarding school attendance policies, see WHS Handbook.
“All readers come to fiction as willing accomplices to your lies. Such is the basic goodwill contract
made the moment we pick up a work of fiction.”
—Steve Almond
Classroom Principles
The most vibrant classroom culture is one in which each student takes full responsibility
for him or her self through constant awareness and self-monitoring, with occasional
helpful feedback from peers and teacher on this. Some essential rules will be established
at the beginning of our class, and additional rules will be dispensed and enforced as is
necessary to fully protect the emotional, intellectual, and physical well being of all class
members. Rules are limitations, and progress will be hindered by having too many of them
in our class. It is a shared goal of all class members, then, to always act responsibly,
respectfully, and keep additional rules unnecessary. This is a classroom of shared inquiry - a safe environment for reading, writing, speaking, listening and exploring.
Creative Writing is a special class. We will be sharing more, perhaps much more, with one
another than most other classes. I expect this semester to be many things: challenging,
rewarding, exciting, and meaningful, among them. I look forward to it, and trust you do as
well.
Sincerely,
Corey McCartney