Fiction Workshop

The focus of most of our discussions will stem from the students’ work. Whose story is it? What is a particular writer’s intention for tone? How is the voice in keeping or in counterpoint with the subject matter? How is the story structured in time? What are you beginning to recognize as the most mysterious and promising material of the story? Which details seem spooky and informative of a larger revelation? What actions, events, and memories are beginning to form a pattern in the story, and how can these patterns be recognized and better developed? The questions, conceptions, and issues that arise in the workshop are as rich and varied as the enterprise of fiction. As a complement to the discussion of students’ work, we will spend one-third of our time reading essays on the craft and process of fiction, as well as master stories by selected authors. All of the members of the workshop are encouraged to contribute these readings.