In this course, we will be discussing the fundamental building blocks of fiction. We will focus on six aspects of narrative craft that every fiction writer must master:

1. Characterization
2. Setting and Description
3. Plot
4. Structure
5. Point of View
6. Dialogue

Whether you are writing short fiction or a novel, understanding these elements of craft will make your fiction more complex, compelling, and, ultimately, more satisfying to the reader.

We'll also talk about the role of research in fiction, and we'll end with a discussion of revision.

Course Structure

The course is divided into nine sections. Each section includes at least two lectures. The video lectures expand upon and reinforce the material in the written lectures. The lectures have been arranged to build upon one another, so starting from the beginning is the best way to digest the material.

I suggest that you read or watch each lecture in a section before proceeding to the exercises. Please take your time on the exercises, and feel free to do each exercise more than once. Every story or scene is different; repeating an exercise can only help you to gain more practice in a particular area of narrative craft.

Quizzes:

The multiple-choice quizzes allow you to evaluate how well you have digested the basic terms and lessons of the lectures. You can take them at the end of each section, or wait until you've completed the course to test your overall knowledge and see which sections you need to revisit.

For further reading:

Within the lectures, you'll find numerous references to published stories and novels that demonstrate the principles under discussion. Because I believe that all good writers are, first and foremost, readers, I encourage you to read the books that speak to an element of craft about which you would like to learn more.

Where possible, I have included links to the works online. In cases where works are available in the public domain, I have linked to free versions. In the case of contemporary novels, I have most often linked to retail sites where the novels can be purchased or to licensed excerpts. I do not link to free downloads of books that are under copyright protection, because as an author, I believe it is extremely important to respect copyright.

Discussion:

I welcome questions and comments in the discussion section beneath each lecture. You can sign in with Twitter, disqus, or Facebook. (I'm using a disqus account to make it easy to follow the discussions.) Please note that we will not be using the discussion forums for critique of student work.

Optional critique add-on:

If you would like feedback on your completed assignments each week, you may enroll in the Critique Add-On. When you enroll in the critique add-on for this course, you will receive feedback from the instructor eight writing assignments.

Conclusion

Writing is a struggle; that's okay. Don't expect to write a perfect story the first time around. Much of the work of writing a story or novel happens in revision, which is why this course concludes with a section on revision. Having published four novels and two story collections, I can testify to the joys, as well as the challenges, of writing. Having taught creative writing and literature to hundreds of students at the undergraduate and graduate level, I can assure you that, while talent cannot be taught, narrative skill can. The more you write, the more you read good literature, the better you will get.

I hope that this course will serve as your foundation for many wonderful stories.

Thank you for your interest in this course. Happy writing!