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I've always felt that art is the highest

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expression of the human spirit

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and art is the way that we communicate

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with one another.

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But that instinct to transcend the

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particular and the finite and to reach

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for something universal

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that speaks to people across

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generations.

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I think that is the instinct for all

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kinds of art.

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But I think a born writer wants to tell

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a story and that instinct to tell

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stories is very natural. All you need to

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do really is to take that instinct and

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transform it into a craft.

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So if anyone who's listening to me feels

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that he or she is a writer, you probably

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are.

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This class is not not about theory or

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philosophical background so much as it

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is about the craft of writing and and

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and getting you habituated to writing

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because we all have stories to tell but

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some people just don't have the the form

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quite yet. Uh the master class follows

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the outline of my class my undergraduate

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fiction writing class at Princeton

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University. So I've been teaching there

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for for many years and it's the the same

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syllabus that we go through like 12 15

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weeks with the short assignments

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beginning with really short paragraph

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page two pages. So it's basically

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working with telling stories which is my

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anthology which is for writers because

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when you're a writer you're not reading

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just for pleasure you're reading as a

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writer. So you have special eye for

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pros. I have a great love for fiction

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which I hope I can u uh share with with

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you. And we're going to begin with

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shorter forms. And we're beginning

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focusing on just the act of writing. The

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short the short nar narrative can be

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like one paragraph long and move into

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writing as you might move into a

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fastmoving river where you just take a

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little step at first and another step

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and another step and you get acclimated

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to what you're doing and get to love

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writing and and feel always you should

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be having a good time writing.

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As time goes on, you may take on more

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complicated projects. But in the

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beginning, the assignments are very

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short and you may even be working in

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fields like memoir or journal and diary

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that are not necessarily fiction but you

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use for fiction. Writing is a process.

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At the end there may be a product. Maybe

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a book or a story that's the product but

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you are living in the process and the

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product is is what is in the future but

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a short story is is the best form for

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starting out.

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I'm Joyce Carol Oats and this is my

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master class.