English 143C

Book List

Forster, E.M.: Aspects of the Novel; Mitchell, David: Cloud Atlas

Description

The purpose of this workshop is to begin to write a novel. It is unlikely that you will finish writing a novel in the three months we spend together. Novels take time. There are some reported exceptions to this—Jack Kerouac wrote the first draft of On the Road in three weeks, Jonathan Safron Foer drafted his first novel in two months—but we will restrict our goal this semester to: “a start.” Much of the semester will be devoted to drafting, revising, and helping each other improve our nascent work. We’ll read one sprawling, multifarious, genre-bending work, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (2004), in order to explore the various shapes a novel can take. We’ll also read E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel (1927). We may as well have some inkling as to what we’re trying to make.

Only continuing UC Berkeley students are eligible to apply for this course. To be considered for admission, please electronically submit no more than 5 double-spaced pages of your fiction, as well as (at the end of the same document, please) a rough outline/plot summary of your idea for a novel, by clicking on the link below; fill out the application you'l find there and attach the writing sample as a Word document or .rtf file. The deadine for completing this application process in 11 P.M, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27.

Also be sure to read the paragraph concerning creative writing courses on page 1 of the instructions area of this Announcement of Classes for further information regarding enrollment in such courses.