Tag Archive for: Online Learning

The Porch: The Origins of the Original with Visiting Writer Rebecca Makkai

When we sit down to write, the first words, scenes, characters, conflicts, and settings we come up with are often the least original ones of which we’re capable. Digging past the obvious, the stock (and even the products of the collective unconscious), we might finally arrive at stories that are strikingly new and memorable. In this class we’ll cover some key elements of originality — specificity, idiosyncrasy, complexity, repetition, and change — and talk about accessing them both in drafting and revision.

on April 15 2022· Tagged: author talk, character building, class, digital event, discussion, education, lesson, online, Online Class, online event, Online Learning, online workshop, Rebecca Makkai, The Porch, virtual class, virtual event, virtual workshop, workshop, writing class, Writing Workshop, zoom

Lighthouse Lit Fest: Interiority Complex

The great advantage of prose (over theater, film, and life) is that we’re privy to characters’ interior states. But how can a writer get thoughts and emotions across, other than by stating them flat-out or by updating us constantly on breathing and heart rate? We’ll explore ways to use tangent, gesture, backstory, action, association, and more to give characters a rich internal life without resorting to the old cardiopulmonary check-in.

This class accommodates 25+ writers.

on May 18 2021· Tagged: class, course, Lighthouse, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Lit Fest, online, Online Class, Online Learning, online workshop, workshop, Writing Workshop

Lighthouse Lit Fest Advanced Weeklong Fiction Workshop: The Arc Of Story, The Architecture Of Plot With Rebecca Makkai

No one’s ever going to force you to write a traditional plot arc, but the tools of narrative momentum—cause and effect, development, change, stakes, suspense—should be in every writer’s tool kit, if only so we know what to rebel against. We’ll workshop student fiction in this light—focusing on arc, on shape, on plot or the intentional lack thereof—asking, in every case, what moves the story along, and how it earns and keeps its audience.

Accepted participants will submit up to 20 pages of fiction by May 10, either a complete short story or a section of a novel, and will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with Rebecca during the week of class.

Priority applications for Lit Fest Advanced Workshops close at midnight MT on March 13. Accepted applicants will be notified and able to register for this workshop in early April. Apply here and learn more about Lit Fest here.

on May 18 2021· Tagged: Lighthouse, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Lit Fest, Online Class, Online Learning, workshop

Hugo House Workshop: “Blind Date”

Member Price: $135

Non-Member Price: $150

Minimum Class Size: 10 / Maximum Class Size: 20

on May 17 2021· Tagged: Blind Date, class, Hugo House, Online Class, Online Learning, Storytelling Workshop, workshop, Writing Workshop