FICT 38 W — The Past Is Never Past: Writing Historically Based Fiction
Summer
Date(s)
Jun 22—Aug 28
10 weeks
Drop By
Jun 25
3 Units
Fees
$795
Limit
17
Closed
The past may be a foreign country, but it is a country we all love to visit. Recent bestselling novels have found their stories in World War II, pre-civil rights Mississippi, and the Court of Henry VIII. In other words, the historical novel is reaching new heights—and audiences.
In this hands-on course, you will plot and begin writing a historical novel of your own. Our approach will be systematic. First we’ll look at what constitutes great work, examining books as varied as Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, Walter Moseley’s Devil in a Blue Dress, and Sena Jeter Naslund’s Ahab’s Wife to see how they successfully handled plot, theme, place, and characterization. We will discuss what makes these novels work and why they remain so pressingly relevant to our time. We’ll employ research and plotting techniques to simultaneously begin writing the first chapter of our novel. Finally, we’ll share our chapters in workshop to get feedback on what works and what doesn’t. By the end of the quarter, you will have completed a chapter of ten to twenty-five pages and have a foundation for the longer work. This course is appropriate for those who are just getting started or those who have been working on an idea that they want to bring to life.
In this hands-on course, you will plot and begin writing a historical novel of your own. Our approach will be systematic. First we’ll look at what constitutes great work, examining books as varied as Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, Walter Moseley’s Devil in a Blue Dress, and Sena Jeter Naslund’s Ahab’s Wife to see how they successfully handled plot, theme, place, and characterization. We will discuss what makes these novels work and why they remain so pressingly relevant to our time. We’ll employ research and plotting techniques to simultaneously begin writing the first chapter of our novel. Finally, we’ll share our chapters in workshop to get feedback on what works and what doesn’t. By the end of the quarter, you will have completed a chapter of ten to twenty-five pages and have a foundation for the longer work. This course is appropriate for those who are just getting started or those who have been working on an idea that they want to bring to life.
This is an online course. For more information about the Online Writing Program, visit continuingstudies.stanford.edu/onlinewriting.
Deborah Johnson, Author
Deborah Johnson’s new novel is The Secret of Magic. Her previous novel, The Air Between Us, received the Mississippi Library Association Award for Fiction. She has been a translator and editor, a broadcaster at Vatican Radio, and director of the Colom Foundation in Columbus, Mississippi. She attended Lone Mountain College in San Francisco.Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (ISBN 978-0679745204)
(Required) Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (ISBN 978-0743451796)
(Required) Elizabeth George, Write Away (ISBN 978-0060560447)
(Required) Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (ISBN 978-0743451796)
(Required) Elizabeth George, Write Away (ISBN 978-0060560447)