**This course is full. Click link for information on waitlisting.

Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance will have me in to teach a two-session class on experimental revision for fiction writers.

Mondays, Feb 21 and 28, 2022, 6-9 PM Eastern

Description here:

For many of us, a full page is scarier than a blank one. A draft becomes a mess of problems to be solved, triggering insecurity and perfectionism. Workshop critiques echo in our brains, drowning out our own thoughts. Or, revision turns into minor tweaking for fear of upsetting a house of cards. Inertia becomes a normal state of being. But what if revisions were done in the spirit of playful curiosity, not problem-solving? What if text, by its nature, is alive—meaning never finished? In the words of Ellen Bryant Voigt, "It's all a draft until you die." What if the point of revision is not to “fix” the story, but to learn from it?  

In this workshop, perfectionism is banned. Results are secondary: what matters is process. Participants will approach a single text with multiple modes of revision to release the hidden story inside the story, sharpen the story’s friction and energy, discover metaphor, and make the language more singular and alive. We will take inspiration from the methodologies of Robert Boswell, Lynda Barry, Natalie Goldberg, Philip Metres, Brian Eno, and others. Exercises will encourage lateral thinking and happy accidents. Participants are invited to bring a short passage (500 words) to revise, or to use a new passage generated in the first session. Work will be shared aloud.