There are so many reasons to write about your life. Capture what would be lost. Remember what could be forgotten. Make your own myth. Create history. Segue into fiction, essay, poetry, drama, song. Some stories cry out to be told. Some are secret but you own the page. This class is for those of you who want the time--and the gift of companions--to collect and record ideas to feed your writing, and for those who are compassionate and curious to hear others' stories. It will focus on new ideas and writing in the week, rather than prior manuscripts, with an emphasis on oral interaction. You will work with an array of forms. You can expect to make discoveries in the class--don't plan to recycle old ideas, though you may find yourself revisiting your writing and seeing new possibilities. You should go home with strategies for writing truly new work.

In this class, you will generate new writing through exercises and assignments and will share it in class.

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.

This is a class for those who have done substantive work on a novel and are seeking peer and instructor feedback preparatory to completing a first draft or revision. You will describe and evaluate your novel using instructor templates. Write and share new passages, especially of character interiority. Participants are expected to do substantial work between classes, and are encouraged to work in pairs or small groups. The instructor will read/review written summaries and short passages. A writer beginning a novel from scratch might not be able to keep up, but it is not necessary to have a lot of pages written if you have a strong premise and a basic plot. You will receive intensive feedback on ideas, but we will not workshop manuscripts. Based on the concepts in Scofield, The Last Draft: A Novelist's Guide to Revision.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments; critique writing you bring from home.