Experience As Metaphor

Lynda Schor

Office  453            Office hours:   Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:30 to 1:30
212 691-6337       lyndaschor@earthlink.net
 

Most writers’ strongest material comes from their personal experience.  But making
literature out of life is hardly a literal matter.  Rather it is a process of imaginatively
repossessing one’s deepest experiences, discovering one’s narrative strengths, and
inventing forms for them.  This course is designed to help you locate and gain access
to your inner sources, and to become aware of the connections that make for rich,
multi-layered writings.

There will be an emphasis on fiction writing as a process that involves specific skills.
The assignments are chosen to exercise as many of those skills as possible.  Revision
is a crucial part of the process.  You will also be encouraged to become sensitive to
your own personal creative processes.

During the semester we will read and discuss (as writers) the short stories of a variety
of authors, quite a few of whom are on the accompanying list.

Our class is designed as a workshop.  Learning how to listen to each other’s writing
and how to speak effectively about what might make each work stronger, or just sharing
ideas, are crucial elements of the workshop.  There is nothing more stimulating than
hearing the work of others, and discovering how varied each approach to an assignment
can be.

Given the nature of the workshop it is easy to see why your excellent attendance and
active class participation are essential.
 

                                                 Requirements

1. Students are expected to attend classes regularly and promptly.  For courses that
meet twice a week, more than 3 absences will result in a failing final grade.  For courses
that meet once a week, more than 2 absences will result in a failing final grade.  If a
student is more than 10 minutes late to class, this will count as an absence.

2. You must be prepared to read when asked.

3. On the days you are reading, you must have copies of your stories for your classmates.

4. Save every draft of each assignment.

5. Four of your favorite assignments, revised, are to be handed in to me at the last class
of the semester, unless we’ve made other arrangements.

                                       Assignments

1. Family story that takes place in a very small space.  This story should be told in the
first person, and in the present tense.  Should have the structure of a “scene” (immediacy,
dialogue, description) rather than a “narrative.”

a. Change the entire story so that it’s being told in 3rd person.

2. A story in 4 parts that are not chronological.  Only one character needs to be in all
Sections.

a. Add a fifth section that is full of every small detail, and takes place in a short time span,
slowing down time.

3. A body story—using the body, bodily functions, or body parts, as a central theme, or
major metaphor.  Think of things like hunger, desire, eating, sex, grooming or lack of, etc.

a. Add twenty descriptions.

4. Story about a triangular relationship—three people, instead of two.

a. Add two flashbacks.
b. Add one fantasy

5. Revenge story.

a. Add a story within the story.
b. Cut up the story and piece together arbitrarily.