Courses

The middle is all about the art of execution.
—Dani Shapiro

This course, a continuation of Creative Nonfiction I and II, embraces the highs and lows of the book-writing experience. In this course, we’ll delve into the “long middle” of your manuscript—which, depending on your project, can be anything past chapter one. Our theme for the quarter will be “the turning point”—an actual and metaphorical description for the type of work that must happen once manuscripts have moved beyond their beginning stages. Not only will your writing need to push characters into new territories—forcing self-exploration, revelation, and change (also known as turning points)—but also you, as the writer, must do the same.

We will start with some tough questions: Does your structure support your storytelling? Will the narrative choices you’ve made so far encourage the completion of a book? Next, we will push our writing to new highs through intense workshopping and discussion of character, scene, dialogue, plot, tension, and voice. We’ll address strategies for organization and conducting supplemental research, and we’ll cope with the anxiety that can affect morale. Over ten weeks, you will produce the equivalent of three chapters or linked essays (about fifty pages) and submit twenty-five of those pages for workshopping.