If you would like an infusion of creativity (with accountability) in a dynamic, but safe environment for positive critique, here are my current course and workshop offerings. Open to writers of all levels—instruction focuses on developing your voice as well as your writing skills such as POV, plot, tense, structure, pacing and rhythm, figurative language, believable dialogue, sensory detail, narrative strategies, poetic forms, experimentation—and more.

 2023 COURSES — OTIS COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN

CREATIVE WRITING: A CONSTELLATION OF FORMS

Engage and expand your creative writing skills with a constellation of compressed and intermediate length forms including flash fiction; micro memoir; short stories; stand-alone chapters; personal essay; prose poetry; Ekphrastic prose or poetry (writing inspired by art); a blend of text & image; and other hybrid possibilities. Acquire multiple strategies for revision & techniques to enhance your piece with visuals for maximum impact. You may focus on a specific selection of forms or experiment with all of them. Catalysts for expanding your repertoire include readings, videos, visual presentations, and discussions.

Ideal course (& critique environment) for beginning or established writers, artists, or anyone interested in exploring hybrid forms to create a collection of written and/or visual & verbal pieces for personal expression or for those seeking publication.

6 Meetings: TBA

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 MICRO STORIES & POEMS: MACRO IMPACT

Works of extreme brevity go to the heart of human experience with intensity and clarity. Learn to distill language to create urgency and depth – with elements of the unexpected. Acquire narrative skills to compress stories to moments, transform fragments to tales, and shape the impressionistic to lyrical landscape. Compressed prose forms include Flash and Sudden Fiction (less than 1000 words), Micro-memoir (200 – 250 words), Drabble (100 words), Mini-saga (50 words), Vignettes, Hint Fiction (25 words), and 6- Word stories (made famous by Ernest Hemingway). Poetry forms include Haiku, Tanka, Acrostic, Lune (American Haiku), and Nonet (Disappearing Poem). This course serves as a perfect introduction to Creative Writing or an ideal way for Intermediate or Advanced students to learn to whittle their long form writing for more intense impact.

6 Meetings: TBA

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STORY BY STORY: THE COMPOSITE NOVEL OR MEMOIR

Just as life unfolds story by story, the Composite Novel or Memoir links multiple short stories (or prose poems) by character(s), theme, setting, plot, or even uncanny coincidence to create an intriguing hybrid. First, acquire the art of writing the short story—an engaging compressed form in sync with contemporary time constraints. A short story (or narrative poem) is not a mini-novel— it is a self contained, focused piece of writing—intense and often unexpected. Whether fiction or memoir, you will learn craft skills to render compelling characters, invent or reimagine believable dialogue, learn to show not tell, evoke atmosphere, integrate figurative language, twist a plot, maintain rhythm and control pacing. Focus is to create one story (or prose poem) at a time—to be collaged, configured and woven together in the end. A structure that mirrors life!

10 Meetings: TBA

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EKPHRASTIC POETRY & PROSE

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MEMOIR, FICTION, OR PROSE POETRY

Mine life experiences and transform raw material for a memoir, work of fiction, or prose poetry. Discover your voice and stimulate your creativity. Develop strategies to shape your story, achieve clarity and hone the craft of nuanced language. Acquire skills to render complex characters, distill believable dialogue and incorporate sensory detail. Like contemporary art that breaks down boundaries between art and life, experiment with points of view and tense, invent and reinvent from memory. This dynamic course focuses on the art of compelling narrative. Finished works may be a short story, chapters of a memoir or novel, a collection of prose poems, or hybrid.

10 Meetings: TBA