Introduction:
My 11th grade English teacher, Mrs. Walsh, was a tough battleship of a woman. She navigated our classroom like a man-of-war as she led us through the steps of planning, researching, and writing our first research paper. I didn’t expect to enjoy the process, but to my surprise, I did. The library! The card catalog! The MLA index! Index cards! Pencils! Paper! Taking notes! Scissors! Tape! Footnotes! Bibliography! That high school assignment would prove to be a lesson that I would carry to college and to grad school and to each of my nonfiction projects today. I share this anecdote because I want you to know: if you’ve ever written a research paper – even way back when – and if you love a true story, then you already have what it takes to plan, research, and write a long-form narrative nonfiction book. This Creative lab is geared to take your writing craft to the next level.
Skill Level:
If you didn’t have a Mrs. Walsh, no worries. This lab will be geared toward experienced writers who may or may not be published YET.
Description:
Participants will familiarize and refamiliarize themselves with narrative craft elements such as story form, plot, structure, voice, setting, character development, characterization, point of view, and the figurative, but with an eye toward deepening and strengthening these elements in an intensive, graduate-level workshop designed to take your writing to the next level.
Come Prepared:
Please bring a work-in-progress or completed rough draft, preferably printed out with room for notes. You’re welcome to bring printed-out images (black-and-white’s okay). Bring a yellow legal pad, pen or pencil, tape, scissors (TSA approved) and maybe your laptop. The presentation will be PowerPoint. If you have a mentor text, bring that, too.
Objective, or What I Hope You’ll leave With:
You’ll have a lot of thinking and revising to do when you leave – but you’ll have the tools and a strategy to do it.
