ENG 307 · Spring 2026
This course deepens your involvement with the practice and craft of writing fiction. We read extensively. We write intensely. You'll be asked to think about how things happen in fiction, to analyze technique, and discuss effects. You will be encouraged—and expected—to work outside your comfort zone.
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."— Anton Chekhov
"Anybody who has survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of their life."— Flannery O'Connor
"All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. And there are trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake."— Jean Rhys
"Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final."— Rilke
"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."— Red Smith
Required text: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. All other stories available on Google Classroom.
"In order to be able to write well you must read well. Jorge Luis Borges described himself as 'first and foremost a reader.'"— Course Philosophy
Conversations and craft talks.
The escalation ladder
Anne Lamott
Compression and implication
Ask questions about craft, readings, or course policies.
15 weeks. Two stories. Exercises. Workshop. Portfolio.
WEEKS 1–5
POV, voice, structure, character
WEEKS 6–12
Your work under the light
WEEKS 13–15
Where real writing happens
"Revision is where true writing takes place. It is where ideas are amplified and forms created and honed. Writing is often about problem solving."— Course Philosophy
"Murder your darlings."— Arthur Quiller-Couch
"The good piece of writing startles the reader back into Life."
— Joy Williams