Fiction I or Creative Writing I?
You want to take a writing class, but you can’t decide if you should take Fiction I or Creative Writing I—they both look great, but which one will be a better match for you? Take our quiz to find out!
1. When you tell a story about something that happened…
a) people laugh in recognition and cry, “Yes! That’s exactly how it happened!”
b) people roll their eyes and say, “Um, I don’t think the goat was SEVEN feet tall! Exaggerate much?”
2. When you dream about winning the lottery...
a) you think about all the credit card debt you could pay off.
b) you immediately start planning to buy your own zoo.
3. Your college application essay was about...
a) how much you learned volunteering at the nursing home. You later heard the essay moved the admissions committee to tears.
b) the time you got abducted by pirates and escaped by training sea birds to hold still for you so you could tie tiny pieces of dental floss to their legs, which, when you’d gathered enough birds, allowed you to fly back home to Ohio.
4. The writers you most admire are...
a) David Sedaris, Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, and Sarah Vowell—you aspire to capture life in such hilariously true and moving ways.
b) Marilynne Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, and Haruki Murakami—you’d kill to create such strong character voices and vivid worlds!
5. The last fish you caught was...
a) a good-sized lake trout, but the fish wasn’t the point; what mattered were the profound lessons you learned that day about being a father and a son.
b) a giant white whale. Sure, your vengeance against it was a little insane and possibly an allegorical representation of man’s struggle against fate, and okay, in the end he ate your boat and took you down with him, but it was a hell of a ride.
6. Your next writing project will be…
a) something? Maybe an essay? Or a story? Your kids are always doing funny things, maybe you’ll write about them?
b) a short story. Or a novel. Or both!
7. You want to take a writing class…
a) to explore different forms of writing, mess around with different styles, meet other writer types, and generally improve your writing.
b) to get you started on the road to writing the Great American Novel, dammit!
If your answers were mostly “A”:
You’re all about the Creative Writing I. This class will give you the opportunity to explore both creative non-fiction (memoir, personal essays, etc), fiction, and sometimes even poetry as you begin to find your voice and discover the best media for the stories you want to tell.
If your answers were mostly “B”:
It’s Fiction I all the way, baby! So you’re not so good at telling the truth—all the better for your career in fiction! Fiction I will help you focus on story structure and the craft of fiction as you hone your narrative voice.
If this quiz isn’t definitive enough for you, or if you still need more info on upcoming classes, check out our website at http://www.storystudiochicago.com,
email us at or give us a call at 773.477.7710.
