ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a study that sought to illuminate the experience of a fiction-writing assignment in relation to L2 narrative identity construction. After arguing that L2 fiction writing shows promise and some preliminary evidence of having therapeutic, language-learning, and motivational value, this study focuses on how three L2 writers in graduate school programs in the United States negotiate their L2 identities, in terms of present and future dimensions, in two drafts of one short story. Results of analysis of the writers' stories and interviews suggest a complex interplay among therapeutic, motivational, and language-learning outcomes of L2 fiction writing. Vivid future imaginings and, therefore, the future dimensions of narrative identities important for L2 investment seem to depend on how writers view socially constructed possibilities for self-hood. Future directions for teaching and researching L2 fiction are presented.
