In this class, we’ll discuss best practices for writing dialogue and put them into practice. We’ll also explore the power of the unspoken.
Landscape features prominently in fiction and nonfiction. In this class, we’ll work with three categories of landscape: the outdoors, the interiors of structures, and the interiors (thoughts and emotions) of characters. We’ll look at examples of landscape, and participants will write descriptions of landscape for their own pieces.
Have you wanted to write but just can’t get started? Are you feeling blocked? In this class, we’ll do a variety of exercises to get you started on your first or next project. You can share a sample of what you generate with classmates or keep your project top secret.
The shutdown of 2020 changed us all in some way. Maybe you learned how to live more authentically. Maybe you were isolated from people you loved. One true thing, for me, was that the pandemic has taught us about love–heroic displays of it, heartbreak, grief, finding your passion. In this class we’ll draw from our pandemic experience to create stories and essays.
How do writers make up characters? How do you create believable characters? What do you name them? I used to find this a daunting task. I was suspicious when writers would say that characters spoke to them. I’ll share what I’ve learned from my favorite mentors and teach you methods that took some of the overwhelm out of this critical aspect of writing fiction.
I like to use the term landscape versus the traditional term setting when talking about the environments where stories take place. When I was working on my MFA, I studied the work of another student who classified landscape in three categories: the outdoors, the indoors, and the minds of characters. This fascinated me and really expanded the idea of setting and how it can influence a piece of writing. We’ll look at examples of each type of landscape and participants will create landscapes for their writing.