How to Write a Gripping Scene with Kim Purcell - In this workshop, writers will learn how to build tension in their scenes. We’ll start by examining the characters: their fears, flaws, failures, past trauma, misbeliefs, desires, love, and heartbreak, to find ways to make them suffer so that the reader gets nervous for them. Then, we’ll look at tension techniques, such as hooks, mysterious details, sounds, lighting, foreshadowing, danger in the setting, scene questions, tough decision-making, desire lines, stakes, subtext in dialogue, and cliffhangers.
Middles: Why You Gotta Be So Difficult? with Elena Hartwell - Writing a beginning can be exciting. Writing an end can be a challenge. Faced with a vast, blank middle, writers can balk. Why are middles so hard? The middle does almost all the heavy lifting! This session investigates common problems, such as maintaining pace and story arc.
The Ethical Use of AI: An Author’s Perspective with Troy Lambert - Can AI be used ethically? What is an author to do with these new tools? What are some things authors should not do? We’ll take a look at the ethical use of AI and LLMs: is it possible? If so, what does that look like?
Using Five Senses in Personal Essay and Memoir with William Kenower - Memoirists can sometimes forget about the need for physical description in their stories. But focusing on what a scene looks and smells and sounds like not only brings it more fully to life, but often stimulates buried memories in the author. In this class we’ll look at how to focus on descriptive language in personal narrative to unlock a story’s meaning and power.