SCHEDULE OF WORKSHOPS
October 10 - "Training Your Ear: Mysteries of Writing Strong Dialogue"
How do authors find the voices of their characters? How do writers capture patterns of speech authentically while, at the same time, putting a personal, authorial stamp on dialogue? How is one author's "ear" different from another's? In this seminar, we will try to demystify the process by studying texts from four different genres. This workshop will also include an in-class writing assignment.
October 17 - "The Narrator's Voice. Modes of Storytelling"
Whether one is writing fiction, nonfiction or poetry, there is always a fundamental issue for the author: Who is telling this story, conveying these ideas, making these observations? If you are writing in the first person, is the "I" you? And are you a reliable narrator? If you're writing in the third person, is your narrator a God-like speaker? Is this god omniscient and objective or is she subjective, limited in her knowledge? And who exactly is speaking on those rare occasions when a text is written in the second person, or the first person plural? We will explore all these issues in this seminar. We will be working with several texts but they are all relatively short. This workshop will also include an in-class writing assignment.
October 24 - "Caring about a Character: What does it mean for the reader? What challenge does it present to the writer?
One hears it all the time. A reader praises a book because she finds the characters "likable" or "relatable." Another reader dismisses a book because he couldn't "identify with the characters" or, more damningly, "didn't care about the characters." Why do some characters---or voices---inspire empathy in some readers while leaving others cold? By what alchemy do writers "make people care"? Should "caring" even matter? These are ancient literary mysteries, of course. All the more reason to explore them in a creative writing workshop.