This course will run for 12 weeks and cover many aspects of creative writing. We will spend time on the four essay types (that can be adapted for additional purposes) or expanded beyond the basic 5 paragraphs; poetry; short stories; and scripts.

Week 1: Intro to Writing
We'll talk about 3 basic rules for writing and how to make those work for us. We'll talk about how to narrow down topics by considering our knowledge, purpose, audience, style, and topic we want to write about. We'll also talk about the basic structure of a 5-paragraph essay. We'll also compare the P.I.E. (persuasive, informative, entertaining) classifications of essays with the four types we'll focus on during the next four weeks.) (Homework: To complete a topic web and decide on an audience and purpose for the topic.)

Week 2: Better Essays (Descriptive)
We'll talk about uses of description essays, the kinds of hooks that work best with this type of essay, and how to use sensory details to add interest. We'll look at a basic outline structure and consider topics, audiences, and purposes that work best for this essay type. (Homework: To complete an outline for a descriptive essay, including a hook and some details that would engage the reader.)

Week 3: Better Essays (Expository)
We'll talk about how to use research and facts to share ideas. We'll talk about hooks that work best with report-type writing and how to arrange our ideas with transitions that connect the paragraphs smoothly. We'll also talk about how this essay style can be expanded for reports in many subjects. (Homework: To complete an expository outline with a strong introduction paragraph, including an appropriate hook.)

Week 4: Better Essays (Persuasive)
We'll talk about how to organize essays to best convince our readers to do something and how to add a call-to-action to our conclusion. We'll also talk about hooks that work best with persuasive essays. (Homework: Complete a persuasive outline with a strong introduction and a conclusion that clearly tells the reader what the writer wants them to do next.)

Week 5: Better Essays (Narrative)
In the P.I.E. classification, narrative and descriptive essays are the same, but they're closer to cousins. We'll talk about essays that tell stories and how they differ from short stories. We'll talk about sensory details that make entertaining essays clear and intriguing. We'll also talk about how to connect personal stories to our readers. (Homework: Choose one of the essay styles we talked about and complete a rough draft of an essay.)

Week 6: Poetry (Rhyming and Patterns)
We'll explore various rhyming schemes and some syllable-pattern poetry like the haiku. We'll talk about why rhyming poetry was so popular, how it is similar to songs, and about the difference between perfect and imperfect rhymes. (Homework: Use one of the rhyming schemes and try writing a poem about something in your home. Write a haiku and consider the difference between rhyming and syllable patterns.) 

Week 7: Poetry (Prose and Free Form)
We'll explore narrative, experimental, free form, and visual poetry. We'll talk about how slam poetry often bridges the gap between rhyming and free form and how modern poets often write with prose or non-standard structures. (Students might want to make a copy of a book page or find a magazine their family is finished reading to experiment with blackout poetry.) (Homework: Try writing a poem with a prose or free form style. Think about how the poem would be different if it followed a rhyme scheme.)

Week 8: Short Stories (Definition, POV, Characters)
We'll talk about the length of short stories (and the difference between "flash fiction," "fan fiction," and "short stories"). We'll discuss point-of-view and how to create the characters we want to write about, what their goals are, and how best to tell their stories. (Homework: Describe a protagonist and antagonist including their physical appearance, goals, and what about their personality might prevent them from reaching their goals.)

Week 9: Short Stories (Plot, Structure, Outline)
We'll talk about how to get our characters into motion, how to decide when the story actually begins, and what happens in the end. We'll talk about storytelling in past, present, and future tense and why past tense is the most common (and probably the easiest). We'll chat a little about the different ways to structure a story (hero's journey, etc.) and how to use internal conflict to push the plot forward. (Homework: Decide when the story begins and create an outline that gets the characters from the beginning to the end.)

Week 10: Short Stories (Dialogue, Backstory, Narration)
In this week's class, we'll talk about how to go from an outline to a finished draft with narration, backstory, dialogue, and conflict. We'll explore different ways to write dialogue and why "show, don't tell" isn't always good advice. (Homework: Finish drafting the short story outlined in week 9.)

Week 11: Scripts (Speeches vs Fiction)
We'll talk about the difference between writing scripts for our own use (like a YouTube channel or class speech) and for other's use (like plays and movies). We'll talk about the formatting and how much direction or description is needed for different purposes. (Homework: Write an advertisement script for your favorite game.)

Week 12: Editing
In the final week of the course, we'll talk about how to take a rough draft and turn it into a polished piece. We'll talk about editing "passes" and how longer pieces (like short stories or reports) might require more editing passes than shorter pieces (like radio scripts or poetry). We'll talk about tools we can use to help us edit and when to break the rules of grammar and structure (and when not to). (Homework: Choose one work from class, edit it based on feedback from teacher and/or peers, and turn in a final draft.)