You have brilliant beginnings to a dozen stories. You have just as many promising first drafts — or second, or tenth. Now, what?

Moving past those first pages or drafts requires an author to listen closely to what their stories or characters have to tell them, which can entail a radical re-envisioning of the story’s shape, voice, point of view, plot, or characters. Or perhaps only a difference in one critical authorial decision. Or perhaps allowing the character to make the decision for you, the one which seems riskiest, the choice which is least like the one you yourself would make.

Growing as writers often means going beyond what we ourselves intended for our stories. In this intensive five-hour course, I will review the possibilities that the fundamentals of craft including plot, character, and point of view hold for unlocking the potential of your stories, and we will work in small groups to workshop – and literally cut up – your stories. Then you will brainstorm revision of your stories. Please bring five typewritten, double-spaced copies of a 3000-word maximum short story or beginning of a longer work of fiction. Also bring a pen, notepad, scotch tape, and scissors.