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Creative Writing Course Offerings Fall 2024

ENGL 3900 
Introduction to Creative Writing: Fiction

Time: Thursdays  7-9:30pm, A3033
Instructor: Dr. Aaron Tucker

Course Description:

Students of this course will produce bi-weekly submissions of their own writing for peer and instructor evaluation with the goal of producing at least one piece of work for submission for publication.

This course will discuss the introductory elements of fiction, such as plot, character, language, and narrative structure, while also putting a premium on the editing skills required to produce publishable work. Students will also be introduced to the basics of submitting for publication, including how to choose a literary journal to submit to and how to write a cover letter.

Alongside writing, students will be expected to read their peers’ work and be able to provide feedback in class and group discussions. These discussions will be combined with examples of fiction, from a diversity of authors and genres, that are intended to provide inspiration and models for student writing.

Students interested should submit a portfolio of 750-1000 words of their own prose by August 10. Please submit portfolios to aaron.tucker@mun.ca

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ENGL 3903 
Introduction to Creative Writing: Nonfiction

Time: Wednesdays  7-9:30pm, A3033
Instructor: Dr. Michelle Porter

Course Description:

This class is a creative writing workshop that invites writers to play with the creative nonfiction genre. In this class we will focus on creative nonfiction’s potential for pushing the boundaries of genre.

Students will create original creative nonfiction pieces and workshop each other’s writing. Students will learn approaches to drafting their pieces and responding to each other’s work, including the concept of Métis visiting as an approach to reading and responding to each other’s work. Students will read examples of published creative nonfiction that demonstrate a variety of approaches. Students will discuss aspects of writing, including time, crookedness, relationality, structure, voice and more.

To be considered for admission please submit a writing portfolio by August 10. For your portfolio, please submit up to 5 pages of your best nonfiction writing (or another genre if you have no experience with nonfiction) and a short (one paragraph) description of your writing experience to date. Class size will be limited. Please submit portfolios to: michelleporter@mun.ca

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SPECIAL TOPICS 4922
Screenwriting for Production

Time: Mondays  7-9:30pm, A3033
Instructor: Lisa Moore

Course Description:

This course will continue to explore the collaborative aspects of screenwriting, with a focus on serialized story telling. We will be working on scripts for a comedic parody of the soap opera genre called Behind the Curtain which will allow students the opportunity to exercise their comedic muscles while learning to work with each other to complete television scripts, so they are production ready. These scripts will be produced in the concurrent Television Production class where students of this screenwriting course will be given opportunity to attend the shooting of these scripts, giving them hands on experience with one of the writer’s key jobs during production.  Students will experience the excitement of watching their creative work captured on film.

We will also explore writing individually authored film scripts which are adaptations of short stories produced in class.

Through in-class written assignments, as well as take-home assignments, students will learn the procedures of moving ideas from page to screen; how to write dialogue that both develops character and moves the plot forward; how to weave together the A, B, C plotlines of several different characters in a single episode as well are over a series’ arc. 

Each student will finish the class with a short film script ready for production.  We will also write and discuss critiques of already produced short films in order to understand how the various elements of filmmaking create evocative storytelling.

Classes will take place in person on Monday nights from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30p.m., with occasional ‘field trips’ to the production studio.

Prerequisite – ENG 4920 or other screenwriting experience or the submission of a portfolio with screenwriting script.

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For more information about the Creative Writing program, students are invited to contact:

Dr. Michelle Porter, Program Coordinator
Phone: 864-8292
Room: AA 3007