This course will use as its basis my craft book, Turning Life into Fiction, which has been in print for thirty years (though it’s not necessary to purchase the book). As the title suggests, our week will focus on the transformation process needed to take a real event and turn it into compelling narrative. Whether the event is from your own life, the life of relatives and/or friends, a newspaper article, an historical event, it’s necessary most often to tell not what is but what if. Among topics we will discuss: anecdote versus story, writing about real people (some of whom might not particularly want to be written about), writing about real events and real places, and legal and ethical questions surrounding such writing.

Turning Life into Fiction is also used by memoirists, so if you’re a memoirist, you’re welcome, too. If you’re not sure what you are, no problem. Come and find out.

The class will be generative, but you may also bring an excerpt to class (up to 1000 words) of something you’re working on that fits these parameters.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.