The purpose of this workshop is to help students write excellent fiction. Many workshops move toward final draft too quickly and encourage feedback that is largely editorial. We, however, will explore the writing of fiction anywhere on a spectrum from the earliest exploratory stages to polished final drafts. Editorial feedback is not appropriate for story ideas in their earliest stages when they are often incoherent, vague, and fragile; students will be encouraged to resubmit these early drafts until they begin to cohere. As stories move closer to completion, higher degrees of editorial feedback become appropriate. Students should expect to submit written material at least three times during the term, and they will be required to bring one of their stories to polished final draft or close to it. The social environment in this workshop should be warm, friendly, supportive, and cooperative. Students who like courses with fixed and unvarying syllabi so that they will know exactly what they will be doing in any class throughout the term should seriously consider not taking this course. The syllabus is variable and will change in response to student needs and interests.