Creative Writing Syllabus
Creative Writing Syllabus
Last Updated Aug 2025
Last Updated Aug 2025
Creative Writing will have students study modern and historical texts in order to create their own original writing that explores a variety of writing styles, audiences, genres, techniques, and skills. Afterwards, students will share their work in a collaborative, supportive environment that will use constructive criticism to help push students to find their own authorial voice. Writing projects will span short stories, poetry, song lyrics, and experimental forms.
The primary goal of the course will be to increase student creative writing, narrative writing, and presentation abilities through immersion in a supportive and engaging environment. Additional goals will include mentorship, integration of high and low English proficiency students, and improve overall confidence and self-esteem for all students involved. In this class, literally any student can succeed regardless of proficiency and ability.
We’re all beginners here and this class is NOT designed for professional creative writers. Instead, it’s designed for regular people (just like you) who want to experiment, play around with writing, and have fun. So, don’t be afraid to write poorly! The fear of writing is the biggest thing that prevents people from writing!
Students cannot write if they are afraid, feel ashamed, or don’t feel safe. My number one goal is to make every student feel safe (they can express their voice freely and without judgment) and valued.
When people write to please other people, they externalize the value of the writing. In other words, they won’t write unless they get a reward! This is a huge problem! So prompts and assignments will be open-ended so that all students really focus on the most important thing: finding a unique voice that they feel satisfied with.
When we share or comment on work, it will be to focus on what kind of reaction or response the work generates, and NOT whether or not it is ‘good.’ This is not academic writing, so no one in this class (myself included) has any right to say something is objectively ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Instead, what kind of reaction does it produce in the reader?
My cell phone policy is mostly about protecting your mental health. Research shows that excessive cell phone use, especially social media, is linked to increased anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and reduced focus and critical thinking (Twenge et al., 2017; Przybylski & Weinstein, 2017). In short: doom-scrolling is literally rewiring your brain, and not in a good way.
Because of this, I will be more vigilant about limiting cell phone use in class. Yes, phones will sometimes be allowed for research, reference, music, or communication. However, unless I explicitly say otherwise, phones stay away, and so do the head phones. It should also go without saying, absolutely no photos, videos, or recordings in class without permission.
To help with this, I’ll make sure there are alternatives: coloring books, graphic novels, games, or just space to breathe and exist. You don’t always have to be grinding away at work, but I do ask that you be present. Be mindful. Be alive.
When in doubt, remember: I’m not at war with you, I’m at war with TikTok zombies, Instagram-induced existential crises, and the general apocalypse of attention spans. Let’s try to resist that together.
Boredom is excellent for creativity. Seriously. Here's a Harvard Professor explaining it in 5 minutes.
Think of it like this: when you wake up, your brain is an empty, pale-white room. Throughout the day, things pass through and paint the walls. A friend's comment. A meme. A bad grade. A crush who waved; at someone behind you. The more impactful the moment, the stronger the paint.
But what happens if you never stop to notice the paint? If you're always scrolling, one meme to the next. Or hustling from one assignment to another. Never sitting still long enough to look at your own walls.
If you're not aware of the paint on the walls of your mind, you're not creating. You're reacting. Creativity requires boredom. It needs empty moments; moments to do "nothing" and see what surfaces. That's why this isn't an English class. Here, you're basically asked to be unproductive.
And that's hard. Some psychologists argue boredom is a sign you can't stand yourself. I'd say it's a sign you don't yet know yourself, that the emptiness makes you anxious, so you run from it.
So. Let yourself be bored. Stop doing homework for other classes in here. Stop being "productive." Stop scrolling. Draw. Color. Stare into space. Write the worst thing you've ever thought. Paint an egg. Find every way you can eat a fruit. Deprogram yourself.
And keep that phone away. Before I take it from you and eat it. ヽ༼ ಠ益ಠ ༽ﾉ
I'm going to keep this short: using AI in a creative writing class is like having someone else run a marathon for you, then bragging about how you did it. Just... don't.
I'll be honest: there will be times we use it. But we need to be careful. The creativity of humanity is at stake here. You are the future generation. You will determine where this goes. Help with word choice by generating word lists? Sure. Want something to review your work and give you feedback? Sure.
But having AI revise your work, fix syllable counts in your poems, or write sections for you is unethical. At that point, you're not showcasing human creativity or your own skill. You're just showing me what ChatGPT or Claude or whatever spat out, and asking me to read more AI slop.
You need to cook your creative work. I don't want AI cooked writing in this class. Please. And if you do use it, you must disclose where and how to the rest of this creative team we are building.
Each student will write their own, original pieces on an almost-weekly basis. These works will be creative and focus on eliciting a specific reaction from their reader.
Each writing assignment will begin with a study of at least 2 similar literary pieces. For example, a student may be asked to write a descriptive paragraph about their home. They would first study 2 or more varying paragraphs to see how those descriptive words convey certain experiences. Then, students will attempt to replicate similar experiences in their own, original work.
Each writing assignment will end with a writing circle, where students will share their writing piece to the rest of the class. Each student will be responsible for sharing their work at some point in time.
Assignments will start off small and increase in complexity. The goal is to increase student confidence in reading and writing on a weekly basis. Almost all feedback during the course of the class will focus on positive elements; criticism will not be accepted or encouraged.
Whenever we open a unit, our first task is to get exposed to the style of writing I'll be asking you to do. If I'm asking you to write a poem, we'll read poems. If I'm asking you to write a short story, we'll study short films and short stories. This phase is all about knowing "which sport we're playing," without any specific lists or targets.
Next, you'll be given tasks, often 2 to 4 of them. These tasks ask you to try specific elements of the unit. Maybe you practice your descriptive writing of people specifically. Then, of setting. Then, of movement. The idea here is NOT to finish a short story or product. Rather, you want to practice the skill. Often, I'll simply ask you to submit 2 or 3 pages of your attempt, even if the piece isn't finished.
Here, I'll ask you to select from a range of new and old options. You'll get numerous poems you could write, or short stories or assignments you could do. Your goal is to think: what do I want? Then dive into that task and complete it to the best of your ability. Here, you narrow your scope of assignments, and you're given more time to finish one polished product.
Finally, present to your class. Funny enough, you can present ANYTHING you did during the unit. Here, you share your creative process, your findings, your reactions, your reflections. Many students take this as an opportunity to practice their own improvisational abilities, performance art, and more. This is a time for you, the students, to take control of the class and share your creative whims.
One more important note: it's all about what you feel comfortable sharing, under your terms. Want to read a selection of your work? Great. Want to make it available, but talk about your process and inspiration instead? Great. Want to turn it into a piece of performance art or a comedic skit? Great. It's your time to shine.
Students need to come to school with a charged and working chromebook. Should a student consistently fail to do this, a parent-teacher conference will be held to see why this cannot be done.
The school’s dress code will be enforced in this class. If another teacher does not enforce it, that does not make inappropriate clothing acceptable. Parents and administration will be involved as needed.
Restroom - Students must follow the following procedure: (1) communicate to the instructor that they need to use the restroom, (2) request bathroom pass through SmartPass, (3) take hall pass and (4) sign out using the restroom log book.
Students need access to a chromebook to use the bathroom! Why? Because their bathroom breaks are monitored through SmartPass.
Students must be in their seat when the bell rings.
Must be cleared through the attendance office. I assume a student has ditched if the absence is not excused. In-class assignments will be given a ‘0,’ and homework will be considered ‘late’ (see late policy).
Should any student mark, damage, or steal any property in the class that does not belong to them, they will be dealt with swiftly and to the fullest severity that I am allowed to pursue.
The best way to check on your student’s progress is to send an email to Tretyak.Pavel@lompocschools.org OR Tretyak.Pavel@lusd.org. A simple email (“How is Jimmy Doing?”) is perfectly fine. Usually, I will focus on your student’s work habits, classwork, notes, etc.