Unit 1: Getting Started
- Getting acquainted with one another and the course
- Autobiographical input
- Working with notes
- Practising discussion and critique of fiction-writing
Unit 2: Voice
- Developing an individual emphasis
- pace and style
Unit 3: Descriptive Writing
- Scene-making: Sharpening the senses
- Fashioning a world
Unit 4: Point-of-view
- Who tells the story? Owns the story?
- Making choices about 1st, 2nd and 3rd person narrative
Unit 5: Character
- Constructing individuals
- Back-stories
- Conflict
Unit 6: Dialogue
- Writing the authentic, the important and the plausible simultaneously
Unit 7: Plot and Momentum
- Patterns of Story
- From story to plot
- Subplots
Unit 8: Genre and Length
- Choices that shape the stories we read
- What we expect
- How we may differ
Unit 9: Theme
- What kind of a story will you tell?
Unit 10: Re-writing and Editing
- Finishing, polishing, re-making, re-telling, expanding and cutting
We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.