BA (Hons) Single and Joint

Creative Writing

Level 2 module: ENL2061M The Craft of Fiction

Tutor: Dr Guy Mankowski

WEEK ONE LECTURE

Introduction to the Module
Structuring a story 1
Welcome to
The Craft of Fiction lecture programme.

For many consumers and creators, prose fiction is the

most popular and desirable format of creative writing.
Despite constant fears over the last few years its
popularity would be eroded by new technologies, the
reverse has happened; more people than ever are
reading flash fiction, short stories, novellas and novels
on a multitude of formats.
The focus of this module will be on the
short form, as many published writers
begin with this challenging yet hugely
rewarding style.

The short form allows new writers to

learn the fundamentals of narrative
composition, and have the satisfaction of
completing something to a high standard
in a relatively short period of time.

Following on from the work undertaken in

the Level 1 core modules ‘Introduction to
Writing Formats’, ‘Writing Narrative’ and
‘Writing Portfolio’, this module aims to
push the creative, technical and narrative
abilities of the student while expanding
their written portfolio.
This module aims to encourage and promote the
further development of engaging and effective
storytelling, referring to exemplar texts and authors
to contextualise the students’ learning with the
focus on employing these methodologies to help
the student develop their own skills and craft their
own texts.

Through a series of lectures and follow-on

workshops, key storytelling skills will be explored
and practised.
Areas of focus will include-

• Effective character and

environmental description

• Use of monologue and dialogue

• The employment of differing perspectives and

representations of time for narrative purposes.

The module will culminate in you writing a single creative text

(and accompanying critical analysis).

The student will be required to generate initial ideas for their texts,
then undertake continuous drafting, revision and proof-reading as
independent study (fully supported by materials provided by the
tutor on Blackboard) until the work is ready for final submission.
At this level, there’s no substitute
for being in the Lecture and
Workshops; the requirement for
engagement is even higher than
the previous year. This is an
optional module and, by definition,
has been actively selected by you.

I’m even throwing in a supporting

Module Workbook for use during
the classes with additional
information and exercises.
 What does this module consist
of?
This module runs throughout the first semester and looks
something like this:

You can find this structure in the Module Guide.

What are the Learning Outcomes
for this module?
Come to think of it... what are Learning Outcomes?

These can be found in the Module Guide and also in the document
‘Tutor guidance to classes, exercises and assessments’ on Blackboard
in Week One’s ‘Module Content’ section.
What is the module’s assessment?
Assessment Submission Instructions:
Date set: W/C Week 1 (see Academic and Assessment Calendar)
Deadline: 13th January 2023
(Submit via Blackboard to TurnitIn by 23:59)

Date for Return of Feedback: 3rd February 2023

Format for Assessment:

PORTFOLIO: Single creative text plus critical analysis

Word count: 6000 words Creative text 5000 words

Critical analysis
1000 words

NOTE: There is no +/-10% leeway for either of these elements.

 What is the module’s assessment?
Description of Assessment Task and Purpose:
Working individually, the student will produce one self-contained short creative written text.
It may be in any genre the student wishes. On submission, a minimum of two previous drafts
should be included as appendices at the end of the document to evidence the developmental
process of the narrative. One can be partial, but the other must be a complete version of the
narrative and, as such, word counts can vary. However, the word count for the final
submission is 5000 words (excluding drafts and analysis).

In addition, the student will produce a 1000 word critical analysis that should be located
after the final draft text but before the appendices detailed above. This critical analysis
should consider the following points: generation of ideas, development of characters and
narrative structure, issues with drafting, editing decisions, working practices and an
evaluation of whether the completed draft meets the creative aims and objectives of the
student. The student should also select any creative, technical and/or thematic device from
their story and directly compare it to a single professionally published short story. All
relevant referencing conditions should be adhered to, with subsequent references not
included in the word count.

The FINAL DRAFT of the creative written text and the analysis should be written in 12 points
Times New Roman with a minimum 1.5 and maximum 2.0 line spacing to allow for annotated
comments and to follow industry submission guidelines for short stories. Previous drafts can
be in any format you wish.
The assessment is designed for you to evidence the
further development of your creative, technical and
academic skills. As such, the workshops, tutor
feedback and peer review are all designed to support
your journey along the way. It’s time to push
yourself, stretch your storytelling and character
development.
What is the reading list
for this module?

Those books currently available in the

library can be found on Blackboard in
the ‘Reading List’ section. This full list
can be found in ‘Learning Materials’,
Week One.
Using the forum
 I’ve set up a forum so you can share your work with each other
both on specific weeks when I make it part of the homework,
but also (if you post on the ‘General’ thread) when you just
want to get feedback from your fellow students on any work
throughout the term!
 Under Module Content, click on ‘Craft of Fiction discussion
forum’, General thread.
Before we introduce our first guest rule-maker, ask
yourself this question: do you actually know what a
story is – short or otherwise?

Consider this:
A little boy. named Joe. who haunts about the bar-room
and the stoop, about four years old. in a thin short jacket,
and full-breeched trowsers. and bare feet. The men plague
him. and put quids of tobacco in his mouth, under pretence
of giving him a fig. and he gets enraged, and utters a
peculiar sharp, spiteful cry. and strikes at them with a
stick, to their great mirth. He is always in trouble, yet will
not keep away. They dispatch him with two or three cents,
to buy candy, and nuts and raisins. They set him down in a
nitch of the door, and tell him to remain there a day and a
half; he sits down very demurely, as if he really meant to
fulfil his penance:—but, a moment after, behold there is
little Joe, capering across the street to join two or three
boys who are playing in a wagon.

The American Notebooks of

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Is this a story? No. It’s a vivid bit of description for sure, but in
actuality it’s a synopsis, a sketch, an outline.

Consider this:

Bill was a sophisticated college junior, and I was only a

senior in high school when we went on our first date. After
the movie, he suggested we go to Green Hill Park—a local lovers' lane
—to look at the stars, but I murmured some excuse.

I found myself liking Bill more and more, but on the

second date I still refused to go "look at the stars."

On the third date I finally agreed. Bill stopped the car in

an isolated spot. I closed my eyes as his face came close to mine, but I
opened them as quickly as I heard his voice in my ear. "Now over
there," he was saying, "that's Sagittarius.. . .“

Joan P. Fouhy, in
Reader's Digest
Is this a story? No. It’s something that happened for
sure, but It’s isolated from a narrative perspective, an incident.

Consider this:

The story goes that Mrs. Vanderbilt once demanded to

know what Fritz Kreisler would charge to play at a private
musicale, and was taken aback when he named a price
of five thousand dollars.
She agreed reluctantly, but added,
"Please remember that I do not expect you to mingle with
the guests.“
"In that case. Madam," Kreisler assured her,
"my fee will be only two thousand.“

Bennett Cerf, in
Try and Stop Me
Is this a story? No. It’s very similar to an incident
in that it relays something that happened, but it’s
attached to a real person mentioned by name.
That makes it an anecdote.

Consider this:

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room.

There was a knock on the door. . . .

Anonymous
Now that’s a story.

Yes, it’s only two sentences but it is complete by

Implication (look to previous notes on preferred
reading etc) and it’s charged with meaning in a
way none of the others are.

But here’s the thing – the sketch, incident and

anecdote could be worked up into a story with
additional characters, playing around with
structure, changing (or maintaining) perspective…

But what’s the point of all this?

Right at the beginning of your creative process,
particularly for
short fiction, look at your story idea: is it really nothing
more than sketch, an incident, or an anecdote?

If so, make it into a story by adding an emotional

involvement and an obstacle.
So... On to some ‘rules’* for writing (available
in this week’s Learning Materials) from
someone who knew more than a little about short
story creation – Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also
know as…
Mark Twain

*from his 1885 essay On

The Literary Offences of
James Fenimore Cooper
As we explore these ‘rules’, consider how they
apply to stories you have read – and written.
1. A tale shall accomplish something and
arrive somewhere.

2. The episodes of a tale shall be necessary

parts of the tale, and shall help develop it.

3. The personages in a tale shall be alive,

except in the case of corpses, and that always the
reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the
others.

4. The personages in a tale, both dead and

alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being
there.
5. When the personages of a tale deal in
conversation, the talk shall sound like human
talk, and be talk such as human beings would be
likely to talk in the given circumstances, and
have a discoverable meaning, also a
discoverable purpose..

6. When the author describes the character of

a personage in his tale, the conduct and
conversation of that personage shall justify
said description.
7. When a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-
edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar
Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph,
he shall not talk like a minstrel at the end of it.

8. Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the

reader by either the author or the people in the tale.

9. The personages of a tale shall confine

themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if
they venture a miracle, the author must so plausably set
it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable.
10. The author shall make the reader feel a
deep interest in the personages of his tale and
their fate; and that he shall make the
reader love the good people in the tale and
hate the bad ones.

11. The characters in tale shall be so clearly

defined that the reader can tell
beforehand what each will do in a given
emergency.
Added to this, he goes on to say an author should:

12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near

it.

13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.

14. Eschew surplusage.

15. Not omit necessary details.

16. Avoid slovenliness of form.

17. Use good grammar.

18. Employ a simple, straightforward style.

Much of that excellent
advice applies equally
(and arguably more) to
longer forms of prose
than short fiction, but the
advice on character,
structure and function is
nevertheless sound – and is
already (hopefully) making
you think.

Before we move on to what

our next guest rule-maker
has to say about writing,
let’s consider some
structural basics for writing
fiction:
The basic three-act structure still applies to short
fiction:

How does this apply to Twain’s rules?

To short fiction in general?
On to guest writer number two and his ‘Six key
rules for writing a bestseller’:
 1. The basics: forget plot, but remember the
importance of 'situation'

I distrust plot for two reasons: first, our lives are largely plot-
less; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of
real creation aren't compatible.

A strong enough situation renders the whole question of plot

moot. The most interesting situations can usually be expressed as a
What-if question:

What if vampires invaded a small New England village?

(Salem's Lot)

What if a young mother and her son became trapped in their

stalled car by a rabid dog? (Cujo)

These were situations which occurred to me, and which I

eventually turned into books. In no case were they plotted, not even
to the extent of a single note jotted on a single piece of scrap paper.
 2. Similes and metaphors –
the rights, the wrongs
When a simile or metaphor doesn't work, the results
are sometimes funny and sometimes embarrassing.
Recently, I read this sentence: 'He sat stolidly beside
the corpse, waiting for the medical examiner as patiently
as a man waiting for a turkey sandwich.' If there is a
clarifying connection here, I wasn't able to make it.

My all-time favourite similes come from the hard-

boiled-detective fiction of the 40s and 50s, and the
literary descendants of the dime-dreadful writers.
These favourites include 'It was darker than a carload of
assholes' (George V Higgins) and 'I lit a cigarette
[that] tasted like a plumber's handkerchief' (Raymond
Chandler).
 3. Dialogue: talk is 'sneaky'
Dialogue gives your cast their voices, and is
crucial in defining their characters - only what people
do tells us more about what they're like, and talk is
sneaky: what people say often conveys their
character to others in ways of which they - the
speakers - are completely unaware.

Well-crafted dialogue will indicate if a

character is smart or dumb, honest or dishonest,
amusing or an old sober-sides.

Good dialogue is a delight to read; bad

dialogue is deadly.
 4. Characters: nobody is the 'bad-guy'
Two things: pay attention to how the real
people around you behave and then tell the truth
about what you see. No one is 'the bad guy' or 'the
best friend' or 'the whore with a heart of gold' in
real life; in real life we each of us regard
ourselves as the main character, the
protagonist, the big cheese.

If you can bring this attitude into your fiction,

you may not find it easier to create brilliant
characters, but it will be harder for you to create
the sort of one-dimensional dopes that populate so
much fiction.
 5. Pace: fast is not always best

Pace is the speed at which your narrative unfolds.

There is a kind of unspoken belief in publishing circles that
the most successful stories and novels are fast-paced. Like
so many unexamined beliefs in the publishing business,
this idea is largely bullshit... which is why, when books
like Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose suddenly
climb the bestseller lists, publishers and editors are
astonished. I suspect that most of them ascribe these
books' unexpected success to unpredictable and
deplorable lapses into good taste on the part of the reading
public.

Each story should be allowed to unfold at its own

pace, and that pace is not always double time.
Nevertheless, you need to beware - if you slow the pace down
too much, even the most patient reader is apt to grow restive.
 6. Do the research, but don't overdo
it

You may be entranced with what you're learning about flesh-

eating bacteria, the sewer system of New York, or the IQ
potential of Collie pups, but your readers are probably going
to care a lot more about your characters and your story.

Exceptions to the rule? Sure, aren't there always? There

have been very successful writers - Arthur Hailey and James
Michener are the first ones that come to my mind - whose
novels rely heavily on fact and research.

Other popular writers, such as Tom Clancy and Patricia

Cornwell, are more story-oriented, but still deliver large
dollops of factual information along with the melodrama.
So… two very differing views of what’s
important in writing – and yet similar in some
respects. Twain talks about narrative theory without
even mentioning the key terms; King’s beliefs have
been formed via his hugely successful career.

But consider this – neither of them might fit exactly

with your idea of what’s
important in writing, which
is why I’m presenting them – and others to come –
to you.

Regardless, when you’re

generating an idea, be
wary of tunnel vision.
Tunnel vision

When you think about a story you are going to

write, you may see it as a bright ‘disc’ up front with a
grey tunnel stretching away into the distance to
another disc, not quite so bright, at the end.

That’s because you’re looking at the story-to-be-

written the way you see a story when you read it;
you’re looking down the tunnel of the story, and of
course you can’t see its structure very clearly.

To see the structure in a story, you must look at it

from the side. Doing this also reveals the vital
connection between character and narrative
Tunnel vision

Most students begin writing a story when they

have a general idea and a beginning – they work
out the rest as they go along, and hope to wind up
with some sort of ending.

That’s very much in the Stephen King ‘ignore plot’

camp and, personally, I find this the quickest and
easiest route to disaster.

What’s the alternatives to this tunnel vision?

Consider these methods to turn that tunnel on its
side:
Tunnel vision –
avoiding it

 Do you begin with one vivid image?

Look for another one at the end of
the story. Now at least you have both
ends, and maybe that’s enough (just
like King’s ‘situation’). If it isn’t, look
for at least one other image in the
middle. HUMANS ARE VERY VISUAL!

 Remember that in the universe of

your story, you are God. You have the
magic power to spy on your
characters wherever they are.
By going back and forth along the tunnel of the
story before you write it, you will find you are able
to make all the parts fit together. In a well-
constructed story, every part fits; the ending is
implicit in the beginning.

You may be able to bring this off by a kind of

unconscious juggling act as you write, but it is
much safer to plan it in advance.

Trust me, it really is.

To that end…
Next week’s lecture: