This workshop provides a two-day entry into defining and manipulating prose styles. Most writers and readers will tell you that to have an engaging style, we need to capture the sound of a “real person speaking,” but it is equally true that good prose is not merely “writing down what people say.” How do we navigate getting the sound and resonance of our “style” down on the page, and how would we even begin to describe the sound we’re trying to achieve? How has artificial intelligence come to create a certain “sameness” for prose? In this workshop, we will begin by composing a piece in our most “natural voice,” and then through a series of exercises manipulate the writing into a range of styles—from the comic to the absurd. We’ll take a short look at some examples, including a famous one by the French writer Raymond Queneau. One exercise will stretch our style by shortening every word we write into words of one syllable. Another will have us put all assertions in the form of negatives, even to the point of zaniness. We’ll survey short prose passages from writers with very distinctive styles, to learn what we can about how words and sentence structure create the sound of an author’s voice and style upon the page. We’ll take a stab at describing what we think of as our own style, as well as discern what elements of prose are most fetching in achieving the style we want for a particular piece. By the end of the weekend, writers will probably not be “masters of style,” but they will understand in much more concrete terms what determines the sound, authenticity, and power of prose style in writing. Writers of all levels and genres welcome.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts.