Teaching
Scott Driscoll, an award-winning instructor (the University of Washington, Educational Outreach award for Excellence in Teaching in the Arts and Humanities 2006), holds an MFA from the University of Washington and has been teaching creative writing for the University of Washington Extension for seventeen years.
He has also taught fiction and creative nonfiction in the Writers in the Schools (WITS) and Path With Art programs and online through the Seattle-based Writer's Workshop.
Upcoming courses
UW Literary Fiction II Fall Intro class: Story Structure
Reg #149722 Course: WRI FIC 204 A
For more info: info@pce.uw.edu or 206-685-8936 or to register go to www.keeplearning.uw.edu.
Course description: The fall class will focus on story structure: story premise, story design, and the five-focus plot structure. Early in the course we'll consider the shift from real-life events to structured dramatic story. We'll next examine non-linear forms of story telling that might employ an ironic narrator or an organizing principle based on something other than causally connected events. In the second half of fall quarter, we'll look at the conventionally plotted linear story arc and consider standard deviations. Each week, we'll do short in-class exercises aimed at exploring story design.
CLASS STARTS: Oct. 6 and goes to Dec. 15, 2015, meets Tuesday evenings 6:30-9 PM (no class Tues Nov. 11 due to Veteran's Day).
Required texts: Writing for Story by Jon Franklin; The Boys In The Boat by Daniel James Brown; The Writer's Portable Mentor by Priscilla Long; Narrative Design by Madison Smartt Bell; Best American Short Stories 2014 edited by Jennifer Egan; and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a novel by Neil Gaiman.
UW Literary Fiction I: Intro to Literary Fiction
The Certificate on-campus Course Reg #149275 course: WRI FIC 105 A
To register, go to: http://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/literary-fiction-foundations/uw-seattle-fall-2015/.
Course description: 105 is designed to explore fiction writing as craft. We will cover points of technique (plotting, character development, point-of-view, etc.), read from and discuss stories, and do occasional "sudden writings" in class to practice technique. You'll be given opportunities to bring in your own work for workshopping. In the final class meeting, all participants will be expected to workshop a finished story (or novel chapter).
Course objectives: Identify writing techniques such as plotting, character development, and point-of-view. Read stories and discuss writing techniques. Demonstrate writing techniques in their writing. Complete a short story.
CLASS STARTS: October 1 - December 10, 2015, meets on campus Thursday evenings 6:30 – 9:30.
Required texts: Writing Fiction, The Eighth Edition by Burroway, Janet, 2011, Paperback: ISBN: 978-0-205-75034-4, The Best American Short Stories 2014, edited by Jennifer Egan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: ISBN: 978-0-547-868868, and How Fiction Works by Wood, James, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-3741-734-01.
Explore these other current and upcoming UW courses on the University of Washington, Extension website.
Teaching testimonials from Scott's former students:
Through taking your [literary fiction] course, I transformed from someone who thought they might want to write seriously to someone who truly thrives when they write and finds the process exhilarating. R.F. 6/2010
Such a great experience. Every class thought provoking. A. C. 6/2010
Scott, you are (this is no hyperbole) the best writing teacher ever. A. B. 6/2010
I absolutely love our class. It's my favorite...and I've taken quite a few these last years. I like to be constructive and learn techniques that will make me a better writer. So, I think you're running the class pretty much to perfection. K.G. 10/2009 (from Path With Art)
I never forgot how you welcomed students of vastly different experience and made us feel like a community. I think of other teachers I've had and know that, if it had not been you teaching class that first night, my writing career could easily have been over within a few hours. I'm writing to you now because I have a tremendous stroke of good fortune-my novel is being published. I've always known that, if and when this day came, I'd be proud to report the news back to you, where it all began-and to let you know that your teaching changes lives. C.K. 2/2010
Contact: sdriscol@u.washington.edu