This course introduces students to the art of storytelling by focusing on such elements as character, setting, plot, conflict, point of view, and theme, which are the building blocks of any fictional story or book. Furthermore, the narrative triangle, with which students will also become familiar, is a literary or narrative structure that helps readers identify “where they are in a story.”
Students tend to think more analytically about the art of writing when they are given creative opportunities to assemble their own story elements--perhaps with the goal of one day publishing a book or submitting a Hollywood-movie screenplay. This course will also inform students about self-publishing online and prepare them to complete a manuscript for a short work of fiction. Teaching methods will include lecture, question-and-answer, and coaching. Coupled with discussions about figures of speech (e.g., metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, etc.) and elements of storytelling, students will complete daily writing exercises, designed to deepen their understanding of and to sharpen their proficiency in the craft of writing.
The final project will entail individual readings of selected excerpts from each student’s completed story to an audience of classmates and parents.
