Class: Introduction to Creative Writing (The College of William & Mary)
Genre: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry
Purpose: To consider how writers of three genres go about approaching similar subject matter; to introduce distinctions between the genres; and to introduce key drafting and revision considerations based on reading from Janet Burroway’s Imaginative Writing
Readings: Chapters 1 (“Invitation to the Writer”) and 7 (“Development and Revision”) in Janet Burroway’s Imaginative Writing
- Pick a favorite nursery rhyme, myth, or religious tale that you know by heart. Write a brief summary of the story in 2 to 5 sentences.
- If you were writing this narrative as a short story, how would you change it? What elements would you include? How would the style change?
- If you were writing this narrative as a poem, how would you change it? What would be your first steps to writing the poem? What would you leave out? What would you add in?
- If you were using this narrative as a basis for nonfiction, how would you frame it? How can you approach this subject matter in that way?
- Free write for ten minutes and begin to convert your summary into either a short story, a poem, or personal essay.
Emilia Phillips 