A 4-Week Online Fiction Workshop

Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance is having me back! Hooray! This class is for all creative prose writers, not just fiction.

Wednesdays: September 3 – 24, 7-9 PM

The sentence is an infinitely elastic instrument containing thousands of microdecisions. So which decisions make your sentences become YOUR sentences? This class will examine virtuosic sentences—from Herman Melville to Toni Morrison—exploring what these sentences might have been in the hands of another writer, exposing what makes them unique. We will look at syntax, diction, and sonic elements, as well as attitude and subtext, and we’ll audaciously re-cast familiar sentences to see their inner mysteries, using work by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, NoViolet Bulawayo, Vivian Gornick, Charles Dickens, and others. We’ll look at theories of the sentence as well, from Garielle Lutz, Zadie Smith, and William Gass, applying them to our own sentences to push them deeper into singularity, sharing our discoveries and revisions. Part bootcamp, part yoga—all on the page, of course—this hands-on workshop will focus on strength and flexibility in the prose line, building confidence in composition and revision. 

Designed for writers of fiction and narrative nonfiction. Session format will be interactive lecture, discussion, and playful sharing of experiments aloud. Light reading and writing homework. Takeaways: practice slowing down while reading and writing, a sentence-level revision methodology, and feedback on the emotional subtext of microdecisions in a small portion of your work-in-progress. We'll celebrate uniqueness, risk, experimentation, and the sound of language.