Creative Writing

The art of writing is not only a means of creative expression, but it is also an eminently practical skill. By enrolling in the Creative Writing courses at Chester College Online, students will study writing representing a wide variety of cultures and styles, while honing their critical-thinking and artistic abilities.

Course Benefits:

Skills: While enrolled in the Creative Writing courses, online students will face rigorous and challenging coursework that will extensively improve their creative thinking and writing abilities. The online workshops give students extensive opportunities to receive feedback on their work from professionals as well as peers.

Opportunities: The Creative Writing courses gives students the opportunity to create a significant body of work that can help them enter a Master of Fine Arts program. After completing the courses, students are prepared to enter graduate school, pursue writing full-time, or work at a literary journal or publishing house.

Convenience and Flexibility: The Creative Writing courses allow students to earn credit hours online while balancing a full-time career and education.

Introduction to Fiction (CRW200), The Essay: Memoir, Confession and Insight (CRW215), Advanced Fiction (CRW300), Forms of Fiction: Style and Structure (CRW310), and Professional Practices and Portfolio Preparation (PRW 400 are required courses. Students can choose one of the remaining electives.

Growth Potential: Students who complete the Creative Writing courses can move on to a variety of careers in the publishing or journalism fields. Students who complete the Creative Writing courses and already have a BA degree, can fully advance into an accomplished Masters of Fine Arts program.

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Requirements:

A portfolio of fiction and nonfiction is required for enrollment to the online creative writing courses. The portfolio should contain around ten pages of fiction and one shorter nonfiction essay. The nonfiction essay may be an artist’s statement, a personal statement, a creative nonfiction piece, or a memoir. Poetry may be included in the portfolio; however, the fiction and nonfiction pieces are required.

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Courses (all courses are in 8 week terms):

Introduction to Fiction (CRW200): This course provides an overview of the craft of fiction writing and the creative process, focusing on narrative structure, the importance of conflict, sensory detail, the revelation of character through dialogue and action, and the importance of point-of view. Students will read and discuss online published short fiction, write assigned exercises, and critique the completed manuscripts of class members.

The Essay: Memoir, Confession and Insight (CRW215): The discovery of an individual’s voice through writing is an avenue by which we create, recreate and invent ourselves. In this course, students will read and write exploratory essays that reveal and examine the self. This writing workshop will not only focus on questions of technique but also on the larger, philosophical question that is connected inexorably to those concerns—the question of how we know what we know.

Advanced Fiction (CRW300): In this writing workshop, students will serve as an audience and critic for each other’s work. Students will be encouraged to experiment, take risks and find their unique style and voice. In-depth readings by theorists and practitioners will be assigned.

Forms of Fiction: Style and Structure (CRW310): This course has two purposes: (1) to acquaint the apprentice writer with various aspects of craft and technique practiced by a wide variety of writers, and (2) to consider technique on a more philosophical and theoretical level. How has the map of contemporary fiction acquired its current shape? In what ways can the writer respond? Assigned texts may include work by Toni Morrison, Don DeLillo, Haruki Murakami and Milan Kundera.

Professional Practices and Portfolio Preparation (PRW 400): This course is designed to assist students in planning for life as a writer. Students will research publishing, employment and graduate school opportunities. Once these opportunities are identified, students will learn how to assemble the materials necessary to enhance their chances of being published, getting hired and gaining graduate school admission. In addition, students will be given feedback and guidance as they prepare their final portfolio for review.

Elective Courses (students choose one):

Speculative Writing: Science Fiction, Horror and the Surreal (CRW220): This course provides an overview of the map of speculative fiction, ranging from “hard” science fiction, fantasy and horror to more experimental models, such as the works of ltalo Calvino, Franz Kafka, Angela Carter, Kobo Abe and the surrealists. Students will read and discuss online the work of accomplished practitioners; write short, speculative exercises and complete stories; and critique each other’s manuscripts in an online workshop setting.

Surrealism and Rebellion (CRW275): In this course, students use surrealistic concepts and practices to produce new work. It introduces the major tenets of surrealism and how they are used to rebel against logic, authority and received ideas in the hopes of enlivening the imagination and deepening creative action.

Introduction to Poetry (CRW205): This class provides an overview of the craft of poetry with some workshops. Students will read and discuss online the work of a broad selection of poets. Various exercises will be assigned to demonstrate the relationship between form and content. In addition, students will be introduced to basic concepts of poetic form (sonnet and ballad, for example), rhyme and meter.

Advanced Nonfiction Workshop (CRW315): Students will build upon skills gained in the introductory level essay course, proposing and then pursuing a semester-long writing project with specific goals such as volunteering in the community, taking part in a political campaign, learning a new skill, etc. This will diversify their interaction with and contribution to the larger world while creating a more expansive framework in which to write their own life stories.

Writing for Young Adults (CRW210): This course will teach students how to write imaginative prose for children ages 10-16. The workshop will also provide a platform for online discussion of larger issues related to this specific realm of creative writing. These issues include the topic of censorship and the writer’s responsibility to educate his or her audience, depending on the chosen approach. Is a work designed purely for entertainment or does it have an educational value beyond that goal? The special demands of this audience call for special skills from the creative writer.