Dec 01, 2018
Raising the Stakes
Ran Fall 2017, 2018
What is the one thing your protagonist must accomplish? What happens if they fail? Why should the audience care?
These are some of the hard questions this course will have students ask of their own work. Taking a macro-level approach to story, it will guide students in fine-tuning the key narrative components that grip audiences and keep them coming back for more. Universal components useful to all writers across the genre spectrum, from literary to popular fiction.
This four-week course will include lecture, group discussion, and in-class readings. Students will complete conceptually-oriented, take-home writing challenges, examining and tweaking their stories from a big-picture perspective. Weekly progress on these exercises will be shared with the class for constructive feedback.