INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING WORKSHOP
English 206, Section 2 * Fall 2012
RANDALL KENAN
Meeting Place: Bingham Hall 306
Time: Tues-Thurs, 3:30-4:45pm
Office: Greenlaw 313
Office hours: Tue/Thurs: 2:00-3:30 & tba
Office#: 919-962-4014
Cell Ph#: 919-923-3675
email: rkenan@email.unc.edu
Course Description: The goal of this course will be to re-enforce and exercise the
basic techniques, strategies and craft of carefully constructed prose fiction.
Emphasis will be placed on characterization, plot, language, scene-crafting, and –
most important – revision. Learning to intelligently assess the work of other
writers (and thereby one’s own work, it is hoped) is also a major goal of this
course. By the end of the course the student should emerge with not only a better
grasp of the skills of fiction writing, but also the ability to constructively critique
the writing of others.
Required Texts: All required reading will be posted to class website:
http://english206intermediatefall2012.web.unc.edu/ (see more below)
Expectations: Students’ presence will be requested each class meeting. Significant
absence will decidedly affect a student’s grade adversely. Students will be
required to produce two full-length, original stories over the course of the
semester – with the option of turning in a revision of one of these stories, or a
third, original story at the end of the semester. And no less important will be the
active engagement of other class members’ work in the form of verbal critique
and written critique. Each student will also be responsible for a presentation and
craft paper.
Grade: A student’s grade will be based on three elements:
(1) Attendance and class participation;
(2) Dutiful and timely completion of writing assignments, and class presentation;
(3) Demonstrable advances in technique and development between story drafts.
Assignments:
(1) Two original works of fiction, no less than 10 pages or 2500 words in length
(2) Written critiques of all the stories of fellow students, via class website with
other options (See below);
(3) A ten minute presentation on a short story collection and its author, along
with a 750 word craft paper;
(4) Revision of one of the original two stories; OR an original third story;
(5) Reading and discussion of published work.
General Information:

All assignments are to be typed, double-spaced, paginated, with the author’s
name and address in the upper right hand of the 1st page, with the title
appearing, centered, mid-page, and the text beginning several spaces below.
Each subsequent page should have in some fashion at the top of each page the
following information: Author’s last name, part of title and page number.

Student will be expected to post the scheduled story for the entire class on the
class website. A hard copy of this story will be provided to the instructor at class
time.

Students are expected to respond to the workshopped stories with written
critiques. Also comments and corrections and suggestions on the text itself are
strongly encouraged for the benefit of the author to be provided either by text file
or by hard copy.

There will be no final examination for this course. However, the student will be
given the option of either revising of one of the two workshopped stories, or
writing an original third story. Students will be judged on demonstrating positive
growth in grasp and abilities and understanding of craft. (The third installment
cannot adversely affect a student’s grade --unless it does not materialize or is
late.) This third draft or original story will be due on December 12th.
A NOTE ON WORK-SHOPPING STORIES AND USING CLASS WEBSITE:
The term “workshop” in writing courses is generally used to describe a student
presenting her or his story to fellow classmates for criticism and comment. A roster will
be presented to the class, and the designated student will make a copy of the story
available to each member of the class, due at class time of scheduled day. The class will
be responsible for oral and written comments on the story.
Using WEBSITE: Our class website is located at:
http://english206intermediatefall2012.web.unc.edu/
You will need your Onyen and password to login. Stories will be posted here, and
students may also comment on stories alongside designated story. You must
access the “Dashboard” feature in order to post your story, and you must be
logged in to comment.
Posting critiques: Critiques may be posted for the appropriate author via
3
comments thread. The instructor will provide a number of questions to help
organize and prompt responses, but students are encouraged to add any other
comments they might have. Be sure to always “categorize” your posts
appropriately.
Students also have the option to submit a hardcopy of their comments, due at
class time. In this case, hardcopies should be given to author and instructor.
In addition to comments, most authors find it helpful to have comments provided
on the actual text. You will have the option of marking up the text via file and
posting this to your comments, OR, giving a hardcopy of the story to the author
with your comments.
Also please note: This is a large class and though the schedule is designed to give
everyone an opportunity to be workshopped, the schedule is still tight. If a student
fails to deliver the scheduled story on time, the workshop class time will be
automatically forfeited. Students will still be asked to read the story and make
comments, but we will not be devoting class time to the story.
Class Schedule:*
Date
Topic
Assignment (due on date shown)
8/21
FIRST DAY OF CLASS
8/23
“The Cryptozoologist, Tony Earley”; “The Floating Bridge,” Alice Munro
8/28
“Place in Fiction,” Eudora Welty; Aristotle’s “Poetics”; Point-of-View (handout); “Farangs,”
Rattawut Lapcharoensap
8/30
On Character (handout); “Choc-Mol,” Carlos Fuentes; “Hidden Meanings,” Michael Parker;
“Brownies,” Z.Z. Packer
9/4
FIRST DAY OF WORKSHOP (See schedule)
9/6
WORKSHOP
9/11
WORKSHOP
9/13
WORKSHOP
9/18
WORKSHOP
9/20
WORKSHOP
9/25
WORKSHOP
4
9/27
WORKSHOP
10/2
WORKSHOP
10/4
WORKSHOP
10/9
PRESENTATIONS
10/11
PRESENTATIONS
10/18
** FALL BREAK**
10/23 PRESENTATIONS
10/25
WORKSHOP
10/30 WORKSHOP
11/1
WORKSHOP
11/6
WORKSHOP
11/8
WORKSHOP
11/13
WORKSHOP
11/15
WORKSHOP
11/20
WORKSHOP
11/22
**THANKSGIVING**
11/27
WORKSHOP
11/29
WORKSHOP
12/4
** LAST CLASS **
12/12 SECOND READING DAY: REVISION OR THIRD STORY DUE
By 5pm at Greenlaw 313
*Subject to change
5
But the sureness of touch, the characters that move about, the speech that sounds
like speaking, the fact that it happens, that one is never conscious of how a thing
is said but only of what is said. I know the why and how of that. It’s the millions
of words written, all the short stories, even the ones that weren’t any good.
Without the millions of words written it is impossible to write a book like this.
And by the same token -- those millions of words are a guarantee that the last half
will not falter for a moment.
--John Steinbeck, on reading the manuscript of Louis Paul’s novel,
The Wrong World (1938), [from Working Days: The Journals of
The Grapes of Wrath]
6
[APPENDIX A: Proper Format]
Harry Potter
1313 Mockingbird Lane
Hogsworts Center, WW 37ZY
The Beginning of Things
All work and no play make jack a dull boy. All work and no
play make Jane a dull girl. All work and not play all work and
no play. All work and no play make jack a dull boy. All work and
no play make Jane a dull girl. All work and not play all work
and no play.
All work and no play make jack a dull boy. All
work and no play make Jane a dull girl. All work and not play
all work and no play. All work and no play make jack a dull boy.
All work and no play make Jane a dull girl. All work and not
play all work and no play. All work and no play make jack a dull
boy. All work and no play make Jane a dull girl. All work and
not play all work and no play.
7
Potter, Beginning…2
“All work and no play make Jane a dull boy,” said Jack who
worried about his Janeness.
“Go away,” said Jane. “You’re a freak.”
“You hurt my feelings.” Jack ran from the room in tears.
Jane laughed and played her x-box.
All work and no play make jack a dull boy. All work and no
play make Jane a dull girl. All work and not play all work and
no play. All work and no play make jack a dull boy. All work and
no
“All work and no play make Jane a dull boy,” said Jack who
worried about his Janeness.
“Go away,” said Jane. “You’re a freak.”
“You hurt my feelings.”
Jack ran from the room in tears.
Jane laughed and played her x-box.
All work and no play make jack a dull boy. All work and no
play make Jane a dull girl. All work and not play all work and
no play. All work and no play make jack a dull
Please Note: Acceptable fonts are Courier and Times Roman, 10 pt or 12 pt.
Please do not turn in stories with extra large or extra small point sizes.
Allow at least an inch margin at top/bottom and on both sides.
DO NOT DOUBLE-SPACING BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS!]