Unit 1

The Writing Process

In common with all writing courses, in English 482: Advanced Fiction Writing, the emphasis is not on an intellectual or theoretical understanding but on the process, the “doing.” Still, as a student in this course, you will write, think, and read closely. Writing itself is a type of thinking, a method of understanding the world, drawing on and connecting the mind and the emotions.

The purpose of this course is to help you improve your writing. English 482 focuses on the techniques of fiction writing, such as a personal style and precise observation, but those techniques are transferable to other kinds of writing. Many of you may want to become professional writers. This course cannot offer a guarantee of success. It will offer goals, guidance, discipline, and coaching. Wallace Stegner, an important prairie writer, and the head of the creative writing program at Stanford University for many years, said: “Young writers should be encouraged to write and discouraged from thinking they are writers. The process of becoming a writer is a long, long apprenticeship.” A good course can shorten the apprenticeship a little, for there is no magical formula, no secret truth that can be imparted. You learn how to write by writing and reading and rewriting. And even when you are a professional writer, if you are growing and developing and doing your job, you have to teach yourself how to write each new book.