1. 351:407:01 Advanced Fiction
Tadzio Koelb
T Th 2:50–4:10
Murray Hall 002
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“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
― Samuel Beckett
Office Hours: TBA
Contact: tadzio@tadziokoelb.com
Required Texts:
There are no required texts, but please note that you will often need to print and bring to class texts uploaded to the Resources
section of the class Sakai site, and either your own work or your classmates’ work for workshop.
Recommended Texts:
Campbell, Joseph, 2008. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. San Francisco: New World Library.
Gardner, John. 1991. The Art of Fiction. NY: Vintage.
Harvey, W.J. 1970. Character and the Novel. London: Chatto & Windus.
McCormack, Thomas. 1988. The Fiction Editor. NY: St Martin’s Press.
Wood, James. 2008. How Fiction Works. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Computer Requirements:
• Functional knowledge of word-processing software
• Internet access to read assigned works from contemporary literary magazines
• An e-mail account that you check frequently (i.e., every day) for class updates and reading materials
Other Required Materials:
• Writing materials including pencils/pens and a notebook
Course Description:
Advanced Fiction is a workshop course with an emphasis on technique. Fiction as used in this class means prose adhering to
an accreted convention of artifice whose ultimate goal is, paradoxically, a certain level of plausibility.
The most immediate articulation of any convention is through rules. Unlike other “high” art forms such as painting, dance,
composition, and poetry – even, to some extent, architecture – which have since Modernism made a virtue of undermining and
flaunting conventions, the writing of fiction is today more rule-bound than ever, in good part because of the condition and
nature of the publishing industry, but also because of the various forms – emerging and established, from cinema to social
media – that compete with fiction even as they build on and interact with it.
Writers should be free to write what they want, not reduced to doing what limited ability allows. In the context of
contemporary publishing, such freedom demands a critical understanding of the rules. While writers need not always follow
the rules (and may indeed be celebrated for the skillful ways in which they break them) they must nevertheless be aware of
them, and master them, because it is only in this way that they can rise above them: “one cannot fly into flying”. An ability to
apply this knowledge is what our course will call technique or, because art is sometimes precious and pretentious, craft.
Students’ application of technique in their work will be evaluated through workshopping. Workshop classes are a direct result
(and reflect the current state and status) of how fiction is consumed: i.e., the workshop format not only helps writers see their
work through their readers’ eyes, it assumes that writers are interested in developing a critical understanding of shared
conventions. It also closely mimics the publishing process, in which an author’s work is evaluated according to those
conventions by a roomful of underpaid strangers who have their own problems to worry about.
Nota Bene: Some writers believe that a refusal to master the rules of fiction as defined by convention is a successful and
meaningful rejection of the status quo, of crass commercialism, of commodification and inauthenticity, and so on. That belief

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is almost certainly correct. Such writers might be brilliant, visionary, and prophetic; they probably do not belong in
workshops. This is not because they aren’t good enough, but because their goals and the goals of this (or any) university
workshop course are fundamentally incompatible, and the structure will only serve to hold such writers back.
DANGER: Be aware that this course will also treat short fiction as a gateway form leading to the novel.
Coursework:
Reading:
Students will analyze both published and peer work in order to explore and expand their analytical and diagnostic abilities
through discussion and debate. Discussions will focus on such elements as style, voice, character development, symbolism,
application of the plot arc, and other technical issues. Frequent reading assignments will include various published works of
fiction as well as a number of related critical texts. While not all students taking this course will be familiar with close-reading
techniques when the course starts, they will be when it ends.
Writing:
Because of the emphasis on craft, the class will involve regular – one might even say relentless and incessant – writing
exercises designed to develop certain basic techniques. These will usually be critiqued in small groups. All the workshop
commonplaces such as POV consistency, “show don’t tell”, storytelling through dialogue, plotting, and so on, will be inflicted
and then inflicted again.
Students will at the same time produce several works of short fiction. They will then rewrite these in response to workshop
feedback, because one of the ideas this course will stress is that revision is a vitally important part of the creative process.
While changing work for its own sake is not a goal, insightful and creative responses to consistent criticisms will be
encouraged in the form of better grades. Stories must be written specifically for this course: you may not workshop pieces from
other classes or that have been workshopped elsewhere.
Students will write critical responses to both published and peer work; they will also take turns making short presentations on
aspects of the assigned reading, for example discussing the symbolism of a certain story, the application of the plot arc to a
specific character or set of characters, or just about anything else that occurs to me.
Workshopping:
For our purposes, criticism is defined as “the analysis of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work”. In workshops we
consider one another’s writing with the intent of helping the author understand how the work appears to readers’ eyes. We do
this by discussing and debating how the piece functions; we will call this discussion analysis. In the sense that we look for both
merits and faults, we are “nothing, if not critical”, but please remember that our goal is to create an atmosphere that is
challenging yet supportive, with an emphasis on developing tools for critical self-analysis.
While there are presumably many systems of workshopping, we will be using the “silent author” method, according to which
the author is simply a witness to the discussion. This means the author does not add to the discussion, and readers will not
address questions to the author; rather, they will question one another. Silent-author workshopping is based on two ideas:
first, that most readers of a published work wouldn’t have the benefit of the author’s presence; and second, that the author
can’t gain a clear idea of readers’ views if these are interrupted or piloted. The goal is to experience the truth of reader
response, not assess the effectiveness of the writer’s counter-criticism, which is often an exercise in stridency more than
anything else.
Workshop will focus on technique, so obviously “I like it” and “I don’t like it” are pretty unhelpful. Your course instructor
doesn’t like football, but he can tell when someone makes a touchdown. Workshop participants need to analyze the technical
aspects of the text, and how these affected the reading experience.
Final Project:
The goal of the class will be for each student to produce a piece of publication-quality work in the form of one longer or several
shorter stories which will be submitted as the student’s final project.

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Course Requirements and Evaluation:
Class participation: Class participation is absolutely central to this course. This not only includes attending all classes and
taking part in assigned work, but being a prepared, active, vocal participant in class discussions and workshops. For the
purposes of grading, exercises to be workshopped in small groups count as class participation. This is worth 20% of the final
grade.
Short story assignments: Students will be asked to submit work throughout the semester for grading, often in more than one
draft. This is worth 30% of the final grade.
Critical assignments: Students will submit critical reactions to published work to the instructor, and reactions on peer work
to the author at the time of workshop. This is worth 20% of the final grade.
Final project: Your final project will consist of a story that has been workshopped and revised, to be submitted by the end of
the semester. This is worth 30% of the final grade.
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Course Attendance and Policies:
It is impossible to over-state the importance of attendance in this class. Workshops, discussions, and in-class exercises all
require your presence. Students are expected to attend all classes; if you expect to miss a class, please use the University
absence reporting website https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ to indicate the date and reason for your absence. An email is
automatically sent to me.
If you are concerned with the number of absences you have accrued, you should come to me. I will not automatically
notify you.
Late work will not be accepted unless you make prior arrangements and have an adequate need for additional time. Once we
agree to an extension, you must turn the work in at the new agreed-upon time, or the work will not be accepted.
Religious holidays have already been scheduled for the next several millennia. For this reason, work that cannot be handed in
on time because of religious holidays must be submitted in advance; any absence for this reason must likewise be notified in
advance. The autumn of year 5777 (Fall ’16) has High Holidays falling on four consecutive Tuesdays in October; if you will be
observing Jewish holidays, please see me as soon as class has started so we can arrange a schedule of make-up work and
sessions.
In the event of classes or assignments missed because of medical or family emergency, students may be asked to provide a
letter from a dean.
All work should be typed unless stated otherwise. Use Times New Roman, 12-point font, and one-inch
Margins. Fiction submissions should be double-spaced.
THERE IS NO CELL PHONE USE PERMITTED IN CLASS! You must turn off your cell phone before you enter class.
Tablets and laptops are similarly not allowed. This policy is strictly enforced. Using cell phones, tablets, etc., will lead you to
be considered absent from class.
Plagiarism of any kind is against Rutgers’s academic integrity policy. Please familiarize yourself with the university’s
policies at http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/academic-integrity-policy if you have not done so already. Plagiarizing in a
creative writing class would be pretty weird, anyway.
Please read the Workshopping Guidelines for policies about peer review. These are handed out at the beginning of the
semester and again before the first workshop. They are also available on the Resources page of the Sakai site for this class.