Week Eight Greetings and Announcements

Missouri River at Brownville

Congratulations: We reach the term's conclusion.

Give the new video a listen, for I talk about the term's conclusion, which occurs for us on Monday, October 17.

Review the material here about the Short Story and the Final Project. You will get comments back on the Memoir/Creative Nonfiction and, I hope, some of the formal short stories through Sunday.

In addition to Fun with Words and your Short Story, you have a Final Project to complete, another Memoir/Creative Non-Fiction narrative or a Short Story. And then you complete as well your Final Video Project.

Remember that you have, as outlined in the Week Six Writing Assignment, two formal writing projects: the short story and the final project, for which you will write another short story or another work of creative non-fiction.

You must also complete your Final Video Project, which requires that you talk on a video published where I can watch it (and a link you should feel free to share with others) about a couple pieces you have written: suggest something about the genesis of these works and place them as much as possible in the context of what you read and discussed these past weeks.


I go very gentle on the Fun With Words and the short work with which you played last week, Nanofiction and Hyperfiction.


Just reading the stories by your fellow writers will inspire your imagination.

You have worked hard this term, and I appreciate your efforts.

Enjoy a productive week and a most excellent vacation, and I look forward to seeing many of you again in Spring 2012.

You might also enjoy watching and listening to Ellen Klages who visited campus last year at this time. If you want a copy of what Ellen Reads--"Ringing up Baby" and the final pages from White Sands, Red Menace--just let me know, and I will supply you with the material.

Go well, Bill

Week Seven Greetings

Hello Everyone,

I offer a fifteen-minute discussion about the final two weeks, sort of a focused pep talk.

Look over the weekly announcements carefully for this and last week, for you want to get all the dates straight. Last week's Writing Assignment offers a schedule for the final two weeks, which include this week's fiction essay and the final project.

And this week's assignment explains the basic ins and outs of experiments with Hyper- and Nano-fiction; you can have a lot of fruitful fun with these exercises in control--and with humor, to be sure.

Check out the links to various short stories, from "A & P" by John Updike to "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro.

You will have a good deal of production fun this week.

Enjoy, Bill

Week Six Arrives

Week Six Greetings

Hello Everyone,

We enter the final three weeks of the term. And as always in these courses, matters move swiftly.

This week's writing assignment lists the remaining writing projects, the "fun with words" fiction, a short story, and your last effort that you can complete before the final week, the Oral Project.  So read the instructions.
And make sure to turn in your short memoir, and I will soon get the Poetry Projects back to you. You have plenty of revision work to keep you busy until the final hours of the term.

Continue to experiment and write without fear. 

Read carefully this week's announcement for some important dates.  And remember:  I changed the final assignments:  you will write your "fun with words" piece this week and then work on a short story.  Instead of producing at the very end of the term another short story or memoir, you will revise work and, over the next three weeks, complete your Oral Project.





Enjoy a productive week, Bill

Week Five Begins

Greetings for Week Five

This week, you enter into a new area, Creative Nonfiction, and continue work on your previous endeavors. And everything you have practiced these past four works comes into play over the final weeks of the course.

So continue to hone this craft, for the results from your efforts will continue to develop long after this class ends.

All the reading and writing you have done over the past four weeks serve to make you all the more appreciative of this week's readings, from N. Scott Momaday to Langston Hughes. And the experiences you have considered over the past weeks will aid you with this week's writing assignmentt.

As the class notes suggest, Creative Nonfiction makes considerable use of the poetic devices, from simile to the senses, with which you have practiced these past weeks.

I wish you a productive week and a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.

Hello Week Four

Greetings for Week Four

Hello Everyone,

Well, we reach by the end of the week the half-way mark in the class. Keep plugging along, for I certainly will.

As usual, you have three Discussion Threads this week; make sure that you pay close attention to those first two, for you must respond to each of the two. Thread Three is for your enjoyment and sharing.

Read carefully the class writing assignment, the special link for Prose Poems, and the notes for the chapter; all three play a role in your Poetry Project due in two weeks.

I will get Week Two and, I hope, part of Week Three back to you over the next few days.

Everything you accomplish these first weeks will come into play over the second half of the term.

Enjoy a productive week, Bill

Week Three Greetings

American Indian Pictograph at Indian Cave State Park

Greetings for Week Three

Blue Jay

How quickly this class moves along always stuns me. At any rate, we enter Week Three, which includes some excellent readings and writing assignments that I hope will challenge you. Make sure to look closely, as always, over the class notes.

I have enjoyed very much reading your first assignment and will have everything that I have received back over the next few days; and then I will work on this week's assignments.

Take the time to do a revision, for my comments push each writer in a direction taken from their individual work--but feel free always to move in a different direction: work on the spirit of my comments.

This class, though terribly compressed, is one of my favorites, so continue to work with enthusiasm. I am very pleased with the group of folks who respond with energy to the discussion threads, and I hope you will find this week's threads of interest.

But more people need to take an active role in the discussions, to be sure.

Once again, you have images to work with, this time in the context of a William Carlos Williams poem. I hope, too, that you will incorporate some of the Derek Walcott material into this week's discussion. See this week's announcements for other links.

Scrolling down from this post, you will find some "graphic" information about making hyperlinks; push yourself to find material on the Internet to add to our discussions--the Internet offers a wealth of wonderful sites to expand our class.

In this particular post, I talk about this week's assignments but also spend time talking about revisions for the writing assignments from Week One.

I wish all of you a good week.

This video comes from Election Night 2008, so do not get confused. I will add a new video over the next couple days.

Tufted Titmouse

Creating a Hyperlink

Creating a Hyperlink on Blackboard

Just click on the following images and follow the instructions on how to add a hyperlink to your e-mail messages.

Greetings for Week Two

Welcome to Week Two

Hello Everyone,

We begin Week Two of the Creative Writing journey, as The Creative Writing Guide suggests about Creative Writing's process of discovery.

Here I talk (again) about Discussion Threads and this week's writing assignments, which will give you an opportunity to have a good time, to enjoy serious fun with, among other things, Haiku--for two of the seven, you will use two of these photographs to which we will return next week.

As always, take the time to read the notes and make use of our texts in your discussions--and surf around for interesting web sites that will add to our conversations.

Enjoy the still stunning weather, Bill

Welcome to Creative Writing on Week ONE

Creative Writing Week One Greeting

Hello Everyone,

Here I offer a brief overview of the course with specific mention of the requirements for Week One.

Remember to enjoy the process and remain open to experiment.

Sorry for the confusion about the Discussion Threads; I changed the minimum number of posts from THREE to TWO.

Making even small changes with an on-line course causes multiple problems.

Enjoy a good first week, Bill