Mari_Ang_Writes

First screenwriting class which focused on the basics of screenwriting as well as story structure.

Students will write approximately twenty pages of screenplay material, along with committed critiques of their peers' work. A wide range of projects will be considered, including but not limited to short films, feature films, one-hour episodic television scripts, half-hour comedy scripts, and scripts for animated series. At the end of the semester, students will submit their very best (and often heavily revised pages) along with a revision reflection that details this process. Ultimately, we want to see your script produced, so we’ll always be writing with an aim toward production.

Introductory course about creative writing techniques for English Majors. Focuses on fiction, creative non fiction, and poetry.

Students will read literary texts to feed their understanding of contemporary writing in fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry. They will apply the strategies that they learn from these stories, essays, and poems to their creative activities, become fluent in relevant writing terminology and concepts, gain insight into the emphases and specialties of the UCF creative writing program, and identify possible career paths and "uses" of a degree in English with a specialization in creative writing.

This course is an introduction to writing short fiction. We will complete short exercises, write stories, and read those written by our peers. Our focus will be on literary fiction, with an emphasis on the basic skills writers need to succeed in any genre. Students will discover their strengths and weaknesses as storytellers and learn basic elements of craft such as properly formatting dialogue. As peer editors, students will produce thoughtful and diplomatic critiques of work put forward in workshop and actively participate in discussions. By the end of the course, students should gain a newfound appreciation for the art and craft of fiction writing.

This course will introduce students to the basic theories and practices associated with game design, including brainstorming, the elements of gameplay, artificial intelligence, and storytelling within dynamic, interactive systems. Articles written by experts in the field will be analyzed as we explore the challenges and pitfalls of attempting to merge narratives with games. Students will begin working alone to conceive and outline their own game and produce interactive scripts for elements such as cut scenes and scripted events to be workshopped in class. Students will also be assigned to design teams to produce and present to the class 20-30 page Game Design Documents (GDDS) for an original game.

Drawing on the text Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Fiction Writers, we will explore the following: narrative drive, story structure, POV, scene, summary, style, dialogue, the role of research in fiction, revision, as well as craft techniques for developing and complicating characters and using time in fiction. We will learn and practice reading, analyzing, and critiquing our own work and the work of peers, and will discuss the writing process, literary citizenship, making a writing life, and publishing creative work.

This class explores the publishing industry and how to target, write for, and submit nonfiction writing to specific print and online publications. Some sections produce issues of the Web magazine IMPRINT for a campus and local community audience.

Students will learn and practice strategies for various levels of print and online editing important for writers in any career, but especially for editing positions in the publishing and other industries.