creative writing classes guelph

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7000011 - Introduction to Creative Writing

Course Description

Find your voice and get started as a writer. Join a community of like-minded individuals and develop your writing talent. Highly recommended as a starting point for creative writing knowledge and skills development, Introduction to Creative Writing familiarizes you with the possibilities of the writing craft and its many forms.

Learn fundamental vocabulary, workshop practices, and basic writing skills that you can apply to any genre. Explore choices of point of view in fiction, basic requirements of narrative scene, dialogue, narrative structure in fiction and nonfiction, techniques of lively writing, metaphoric language and poetic forms. Techniques for generating material and finding a voice, along with some practical information about publishing and the writing life are also covered.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize creative writing elements used by published authors in fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama
• Demonstrate the use of creative writing elements in your writing
• Create and maintain a portfolio of your writing
• Give and receive effective writing feedback
• Develop a writing practice with other writers
• Identify with “the writing life”

Course Topics

• Drama: Subtext, Conflict, and Momentum in Dialogue
• Fiction I: Story and Scene
• Fiction II: Point of View and Style
• Poetry I: Formal Poetry
• Poetry II: Elements of Free Verse
• Creative Non-Fiction: Basics
• Structure & Revision
• Publishing and Performing

Job Market Overview

Additional requirements.

There are no prerequisites for this course. You may take this as an individual course or choose to complete the Creative Writing Certificate . This is one of two required courses for the certificate.

Your final portfolio will consist of one short memoir (a maximum of 500 words), one short story (a maximum of 1,000 words), one dramatic monologue, and two poems.

Please note that the course assessment is subject to change.  

Sponsoring Partner

• School of English and Theatre Studies, College of Arts

Applies Towards the Following Certificates

• Creative Writing Certificate : Required Courses

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*Course details are subject to change.

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University of Guelph 2020-2021 Undergraduate Calendar

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• X. Degree Programs

• Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

Creative Writing (CW)

The Creative Writing minor reflects the significant role that creative writing plays in our cultural life, from travel writing and blogs, gaming and journalism, to poems, novels and films. The minor hones students’ skills in expressive writing, and teaches students to situate their work within a broader context of local, global and historical creative texts. Workshops and a capstone seminar provide students with the opportunity to revise their work and develop a creative portfolio.

Minor (Honours Program)

A minimum of 5.00 credits is required including:

Students with a compelling reason to work in a genre other than prose or poetry at the 4000 level may substitute ENGL*4810 and ENGL*4910 for ENGL*4720 with the faculty advisor's permission.

Note : Substituted courses may have their own prerequisites; check the course descriptions in the academic calendar.

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Program Overview

Humans are story-telling creatures. Narrative and lyric modes are how we make meaning, and how we discover ourselves and the world. At this fraught moment of ecological peril, amid the ongoing need to address systemic forms of racism and social and political injustice, creative writing offers students essential skills for making meaning and gaining knowledge of the world as they imagine and describe their place and the place of others in it. The study of creative writing offers a range of widely transferable skills: heightened literacy, facility in narrative arts, the ability to listen to and collaborate with others.

As of the Fall 2022 term, the School of English and Theatre Studies offers a direct-entry, undergraduate honours major in Creative Writing in the Bachelor of Arts program that provides aspiring writers with a four-year creative educational experience.

In the Creative Writing major , with a focus on environmental awareness and social justice, students will learn to frame discussions and perspectives about the changing world in which they live through an exploration of a range of imaginaries. The program’s focus on social justice and environmental awareness will provide students with an enriched global understanding of issues affecting society and the environment, while encouraging students to engage with their communities for dialogue and change. In the lectures and readings of their literature and creative writing courses, students will learn to identify and understand the elements of storytelling and poetics, thereby gaining enhanced literacy skills and a broadened, culturally diverse sense of literary and cinematic possibility. Through workshop discussions, written assignments and peer critiques, students will gain critical and creative thinking skills as they analyze the techniques of creative craft and form in their writing classes and analyze how a text creates meaning in their literature classes. Through the workshop method of self- and peer-editing and evaluation, students will learn how to evaluate the application of the techniques of craft and form in creative work. In terms of communication, students will apply their understanding of these elements in the four-year formation of an extensive body of creative work, including writing exercises, short creative pieces, revisions, and a portfolio. By the end of the major, students will be able to create original, compelling creative work by achieving a breadth and understanding of the elements of storytelling and linguistic precision across genres.

The major offers students the opportunity to explore three writing genres , gain expertise in two, and create a polished creative portfolio in one. A portfolio and a broader, more expansive artistic repertoire prepare students for further study at the MFA level, which often requires applicants to submit a portfolio that shows literary skill in one genre and competency in another. The sustained writing practice gained in the major, accompanied by an ongoing, culturally diverse reading practice, prepares students for a variety of careers in which narrative and story-telling skill, linguistic facility, and empathetic awareness of an inclusive range of points of view are valued.