Craft of the Short Story
This class returns in Fall 2011. Email us to be notified when registration opens.
The short form is unique in its demands: how do we tell a compelling story with not a word wasted? The best stories are served by strong characters and tight plotting. But how do sentences and rhythms play a role? Voice and point of view?
The short story gives us an ideal venue for experimentation and delving deep into craft. Use this form to play with ideas and push your comfort zone, which can lead to new levels in all of your writing endeavors. Besides that, short stories are just plain fun to read and write.
This class will:
- provide tools for getting started writing short fiction
- provide writing prompts to help you develop ideas and characters
- sharpen your storytelling craft skills
- delve deeper into scene setting, character and language
- help you find the right “voice” for your story
- workshop student drafts
Useful and focused feedback on written submissions is provided by the instructor.
Writer’s Roadmap: This class is best for students who have completed Fiction I or Creative Writing I, or Creative Writing Fundamentals. If you’re unsure, send us a portion of a short story draft and we’ll help you find the class that’s the best fit.
After completing this class, writers may choose to re-take the Short Story Workshop or move into the Advanced Fiction Workshop. You may even be interested in generating material in the Story Workout class.
About the Instructor: Lee Strickland’s short stories have appeared in Gettysburg Review, StoryQuarterly, Somerset Review, S’ouwester, Other Voices and other literary magazines. She is an Illinois Arts Council grant winner and has been listed in Best American Short Stories among the authors of “100 Distinguished Stories of the Year.” She has an MFA from Warren Wilson College, where she focused on the short story. These days, Lee is finishing a memoir, an excerpt of which appears in The Sun magazine’s November 2010 issue. Other personal essays and academic non-fiction have appeared in anthologies and academic journals.