English 482: Advanced Fiction Writing is a creative writing course which focuses on your writing. It aims at helping you achieve mastery of writing prose fiction, specifically the elements of a novel.

English 482 will emphasize and re-emphasize the basic rules of fiction writing, such as show, don’t tell; concrete, not abstract; and avoiding clichés, melodrama, sentimentalism, and mannerism. While these rules can be broken to good effect—in art all rules can, and sometimes should, be broken—they cannot be broken until they are understood and mastered.

You will be expected to write and read extensively in this course, analyzing both the work of published authors and fellow students from the point of view of a writer. You will read to understand how a writer achieves what he or she does and to recognize what works and what doesn’t work in fiction. You will be evaluated based on five written assignments.