Instructor: Blair Hurley
Date & Time: Saturdays, January 25 to February 22 | 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Location: Online
Level: Beginner/Intermediate
Maximum Attendees: 10
Fee: Member: $245 | Nonmember: $320
Registration Closes: January 16
How does a writer develop an idea into a finished work of fiction? Writing is not just jotting down ideas as they arrive: it’s a process of drafting, shaping, and revising that leads to a polished final work. In this course, participants will dive into how to jumpstart their story ideas, from inception to the creation and revision of drafts.
Participants will explore the elements of fiction writing craft—such as voice, structure, character, and perspective—and will work on honing and revising stories. The class will discuss how to make writing bold, vital, and believable, and how to craft and sustain narrative and thematic threads. Participants will read classic examples of short fiction, as well as early drafts of classic stories, and study how stories change from a rough draft to the final published work.
Weekly readings will include stories by Raymond Carver, Zadie Smith, Karen Russell, George Saunders, Rick Moody, and Flannery O’Connor, and novel excerpts from Virginia Woolf and Nabokov. Short, optional exercises will be offered as prompts for writing between classes. Participants will also be expected to read and offer feedback on each other’s work.
CLASS TAKEAWAYS
In-depth peer and instructor feedback on a novel chapter or short story and short homework submissions
Each week’s session will include manuscript workshopping and discussion of fiction-writing craft.
Strategies for staying productive and keeping your writing going in the future
SUBMIT
After registering, participants are asked to submit a manuscript (short fiction or a novel excerpt) of up to 5,000 words, double-spaced, by no later than 9:00 a.m. on January 16. Please email the manuscript as an attachment (Word files only, please; email Hannah Perry if this is not possible for you) to perry@mainewriters.org with the subject line: “HURLEY WORKSHOP MSS.”
DATES
The workshop will meet every Saturday between January 25 and February 22, unless unforeseen scheduling issues should arise.
PAYMENTS
MWPA members may pay for this workshop in one payment, or may pay in two installments of $122.50, due at registration and on February 17. *PLEASE NOTE If you have selected to pay for this multi-week workshop on the installment option, once registration for the workshop has closed, you are responsible for paying the remaining installment. If you should, for any reason, leave the workshop after registration has closed, you are still responsible for paying the remaining installment.
CEU
The MWPA is proud to offer Continuing Education Units (CEU) for this workshop. The CEU is a nationally recognized method of quantifying the time spent in the classroom during non-credit learning. Ten hours of instruction equal one (1) CEU. (*Please note that by definition, CEUs are non-credit continuing education and therefore not transferrable as academic credit.)