How many of us have heard these criticisms and questions: “Too much telling.” Or “This section feels flat. Can you put it in scene?” Or “I don’t know what this scene is about.” This class will help you sharpen your scene writing so it doesn’t get bogged down in telling, non-essential description and too much connective tissue.

Scenes are where the story happens. If they aren’t revealing character or advancing the action, your reader is likely to go to the kitchen and make a cheese sandwich. How do we make the reader carry the book into the kitchen, grab a bag of chips and keep reading because they don’t want to put it down?

Participants will learn effective use of dialogue; cutting a scene short to increase intrigue; finding the intent of a scene and writing to it; and using character and setting effectively in scene. We will examine and discuss the scenes in published work as well as those of the class participants. If you would like to workshop a scene, please send it to Program Director Michael Noll (michael@writersleague.org) by March 27.