You can write a narrative all the way to the end and still not be able to say what it is about. Uh-oh. Learn how to capture the essence of a story in a few clear sentences. That analysis becomes your North Star. It is your way into drafting or revising a story, and it's your way into convincing someone they really should read it, with a pitch, synopsis, or flap copy. Learn to articulate the subject and idea of your story as a guide to its development and promotion. The workshop is fast-paced and fun and very practical. You will: 1.develop an umbrella statement of the action and its impact; 2. describe the vision and the world of the story, and 3. say how the fate of your protagonist proves your concept of the story world. Go away with a veritable banner of intention and focus! In this workshop, you will generate new material through discussion and exercises, and you will receive feedback from peers and the instructor throughout the two days.

Strong feeling is often what drives us to write. We want our reader to experience the sadness or outrage, the delight or sense of betrayal we feel when thinking about a fictional (or nonfictional) situation. But how do we do that, exactly? How do we tell a story that’s not cold, but that’s not melodramatic either? This class will offer exercises and prompts to explore a variety of ways to get emotion on the page. We will experiment with description, dialogue, action, and gesture, and also how we use language itself. For each technique, we will look at examples from the pros, discussing how a range of writers have tackled these challenges. At the end of the weekend, you’ll have several new tools in your tool belt, and you will have written some pages that can serve as a springboard for more complete works. Together we will strive to make our classmates cry, laugh, gasp, and maybe even tremble with fear. Useful for both beginning and more experienced writers in any prose genre. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments, and provide feedback on writing you produce in our weekend together.

Ready to write stories you had no idea you’d ever write, explore subjects you never thought you’d explore, take risks, experiment, and surprise yourself in the process? Ready to write a lot? This class will be more of a fiction workout than workshop (although we’ll do a bit of that, too) that will challenge you to write a complete, 300-500-word flash fiction by the end of the weekend, one that is ready to go out into the world. How will we do that? By thinking of our writing as an exercise. An exercise in dialogue, tone, imagery, point-of-view, setting, characterization—you name it, just don’t call it a “story” quite yet. That comes later. Together we will explore the world of flash fiction (stories of 500 words or fewer) through discussion of published examples and through multiple writing exercises that will break you out of your comfort zone. We’ll roll up our sleeves together and think of art as exercise. Whether you have a dozen story ideas in mind or none whatsoever, you will leave this class with a greater appreciation of the flash form. Read more...

The fast-paced, social media-dominated society in which we live today, combined with people’s enduring hunger to connect with true stories of others, has made flash prose a popular form of writing for both readers and writers. Generally under 1000 words and more often under 500, flash prose pieces can provide a welcome break from longer book projects while keeping our writing muscles active. Producing complete flash essays in a comparatively short time can also foster a sense of tangible accomplishment. But writing a successful flash essay is not as easy as it looks! In this weekend workshop for writers at all levels, you’ll learn how to craft creative nonfiction flash essays through the use of helpful prompts, exchange light critiques to help you polish your flash essays for potential publication, and read examples of effective flash essays for class discussion about the craft elements that make each of them successful. Expect to produce one or more rough drafts for flash essays in this class that you can further polish at home, and to have a lot of fun! In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments and provide feedback on writing you produce in your weekend.

Writing a short story can seem confusing, especially when there’s so much you want to say and so little space to say it in. What do you do with all those important details, those great side characters, and those pages of history? And how do you tie it all up in a meaningful way? This weekend course is designed to give you a simple, clear roadmap to the writing of the short story, and to travel that road with you step by step, so that you become familiar with each twist and turn. Through a series of in-class exercises, you will develop a character, design a world for her/him to inhabit, discover a plot, and then write a narrative with a clear beginning, middle and end. By the end of the course, you should have a complete first draft of a short story to revise—and to serve as a model for future stories. Read more...

We know them when we read them. “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” “I am an invisible man.”** Killer Openings. But how do we write them ourselves? In this weekend workshop, we’ll discuss the importance of not just a killer opening line, but also a strong opening paragraph, a compelling first few pages, and a powerful first chapter that moves our novels or memoirs forward. If we create “killer openings,” then agents will return our emails, editors will buy our manuscripts, readers will keep turning our pages, and pretty soon, we’ll be checking out real estate listings in the south of France. Right? But there’s another good reason for writing a compelling opening. When our first chapter includes all of the elements that will set up our novels or memoirs for success, then our books become that much easier to write, because our first chapter has become a road map. This weekend workshop is for writers of all levels, from beginners who have never written a novel or memoir before, to intermediate authors who are in the process of revision, to advanced authors who are on their third book. Read more...

When the circus shoves a clown onto the high wire it will appear to be a mistake, until we realize it has sent out its best aerialist. Likewise, many great authors (such as Beckett, Faulkner, Gertrude Stein, and more recently George Saunders) favor writing that is clumsy, off-kilter, or ridiculous—“tales told by idiots.” From a training point of view, there may be nothing more helpful to a writer’s development than trafficking in bullshit for a while. Bullshit (loosely defined as obliviousness to truth) can improve our freedom and originality on the page, take us beyond our conscious agendas, and crack the ice of our earnestness (earnestness being the number one writing crime). “The fool would be wise,” someone said, “if he persisted in his folly.” This will be a two-day generative course in the uses of bullshit, and bad writing generally, to forward our skill and imagination. There will be models, craft talks, and lots of practice. It promises to be fun, yet we’re not just clowning around. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments.

“The great questions – Who are we? Why are we here? What is our task? – are best answered by telling a story.” Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sachs, British theologian & philosopher It’s true we live our lives in narrative. Everywhere we go, we share a story or hear stories from others. But life stories are more than mere entertainment. Constructing our stories helps us to make sense of the world, so that in time, one story after the next, we get closer to answering some of the great questions! Archiving our most compelling stories leaves a lasting legacy. In a narrative, you describe a significant life experience. Then you share your reactions, feelings and lessons learned. Narratives include other pillars as well. We’ll discuss powerful examples of eight pillars – each a key element of personal narrative, after which I’ll lead you through strategic writing exercises, stepping stones to your working draft. Read more...

This is a “doers” workshop, designed to address the problems that present themselves to the writer faced with a public performance or presentation of their own work. We will investigate tactics and techniques essential for making those presentations stronger. How do I take the stage? How do I use my voice well? How do I relax in front of people? What do I wear? Do I use a prop? Do I memorize? How do I hold the text? Can I have fun? We will look at these questions, working through the presentations of every student in the class. We will begin with a monologue, essay, group of poems, or short story that you have chosen from your own writing. Suggested length is ten to twenty minutes when read aloud. Please plan to send your work to Beau two weeks before we meet in Iowa City, if possible (if you register later, no worries! We will adapt). In this workshop, we will provide feedback on writing you produce in our weekend; critique writing you bring from home.

We’re constantly seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching things in the world…and we inevitably compare what we sense with other things. These acts of comparison—seeing one thing as or like another—are at the heart of poetic making. On Day 1 we’ll enjoy reading model poems and try fun exercises that highlight how metaphor helps working minds naturally (and evocatively) move from sensory perception into realms of thinking and feeling. On Day 2 we'll explore how metaphor sustains different poetic forms—in particular, the sonnet, the pastoral, and the elegy—and consider figurative strategies that 1) liberate formal parameters, 2) sustain and challenge our ideas of place, and 3) generate, out of absence or the threat of loss, vivid and satisfying poems. An excellent course for poets of all levels and for fiction writers who want to explore the power of metaphor. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments.