We’re adept at narrativizing our own lives. Even the dullest and most dreadful experiences become fodder for a good barstool story. Yet when faced with the blank page, too often our skill and our joy abandon us. In this generative workshop, we’ll transform our rich experience as veteran storytellers into the key to unlock our voices and our narratives. The goal of this course is to translate our stories to the page, to mine our memories for sensual details, and to find new meanings in the stories we keep telling. This course is for poets and prose writers who long to write about their lives but don’t know where to begin. We’ll draw inspiration from published work across genres, building an arsenal of stylistic and structural approaches to writing. Through a guided discussion, generative writing exercises, and peer feedback participants will tap into their wellspring of self-narratives and explore those moments where the page invites greater depth and nuance. This class is for beginning and experienced writers alike. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.

Whether your story unfolds in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, an urban stockyard, a college campus or a quiet neighborhood, setting is a vital element. It shapes mood, deepens themes, and influences character. Setting is not necessarily a lengthy description of native plants and trees, although—if it’s integral to the unfolding drama—it can be. Nor is setting simply a backdrop. Setting is more akin to the air we breathe and, in some stories, the way we breathe it. In this course, we’ll explore techniques that evoke atmosphere, integrate sensory details, and make setting an active part of the plot. Together we’ll analyze literary examples of iconic worlds and identify the elements that make them vivid and unforgettable. We’ll consider the scope of setting, by comparing stories whose drama sprawls across entire towns to those contained within a home’s four walls. We’ll consider how sensory details create mood, genre, and atmosphere. Since all worlds—whether speculative, contemporary, or historical—have their unique histories and rules, we’ll study a variety of techniques for worldbuilding. We’ll use the language of film, too, to think about framing place through long-shots and close-ups. Whether you’re seeking inspiration for a new project or revising something old, this course will help you hone the contours of your fictional worlds. Participants will be given writing prompts at the end of each class and will share their short responses on the following day. Feedback will be given in class. Through a combination of collaborative craft talks, writing exercises, and peer feedback, participants will learn how to infuse their settings with sensual details, to evoke tension and mood through setting, as well as how to frame their settings. This course is for beginning and experienced writers alike. Participants will revise existing material or generate new material in response to daily prompts. Participants will share their responses in class and receive instructor and peer feedback orally. While we’ll draw largely on published fictions for inspiration, this course welcomes writers of all genres who wish to imagine and compose evocative settings. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.