Next Semester, Part II
One thing I like about the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts is that the students don’t follow cookie-cutter class schedules from semester to semester. Between the electives and the flexibility of the requirements, there is broad room for customization. People do generally take a heavier schedule early on to allow for more time spent on the thesis later, especially students who will try to complete the program in two years.
With this in mind, I have been shaping my plan to let me slowly focus more and more on my major and thesis. This takes me almost entirely outside my genre next semester, as I will be taking both craft and workshop classes in nonfiction, and a directed reading in fantasy. Now obviously fantasy is a subgenre of fiction, but in this case the class is oriented toward writing for children and young adults, as opposed to a more general look at fantasy fiction.
In other words, it is technically fiction, but according to the class list it doesn’t count towards the fiction major, so it’s still outside my genre. If you kind of squint your eyes and look at it just right.*
As part of the program I am required to take a craft class and a workshop in a different genre, and those two classes don’t have to be part of the same major. I could take craft of poetry and CYA workshop, if I wanted to. I chose to take both in the nonfiction major because I could see myself continuing to write nonfiction throughout my life, and this may be my best opportunity to learn more about it. I may try to squeeze in a craft class from one of the other two, if I can find the room in my schedule, because frankly, I could use them.
The course in fantasy may be an elective, but for me it might as well have been mandatory. My bookshelves contain more fantasy than anything else (well, perhaps not more than folklore and mythology, but it’s close), so I could not possibly skip this class.
Of course, what worries me now is how many must-take classes I’m going to see on that schedule every semester. I thought that hardest part of leaving, when that time comes, would be missing the people and the fun I have in the program. It might just be accepting that I can’t take every class and moving on with my life.
Fortunately, I have plenty of time before it comes to that.
*All right, I’m teasing. Children and Young Adult is a classification because it is a different approach to writing, with its own goals, styles and priorities.
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On the submission front, I have sent a short story (one written this past semester) to Realms of Fantasy. Wish me luck!
