Class Description
Language is paint. It’s the means by which a writer builds a picture. But visual writing has power well beyond mere picture-making because it is through the pictures we paint that our readers empathize and fall in love.
More than any other sense, our sense of sight triggers empathy. When we watch someone perform an action, our mirror neurons mimic the action we see as if we were performing the action ourselves. Sometimes referred to as the “empathy” neuron, mirror neurons are what make us flinch when we see someone fall.
For avid readers of fiction it will come as no surprise that mirror neurons are activated not just by watching actions but also by reading words describing them, so long as that description evokes a visual experience. “Show, don’t tell.” It’s more important to writing than we ever dreamed.
Most of this class will be spent in lecture and discussion on how visual writing effects emotion. We will explore how to use visual detail to build empathy for our characters and to pull our readers in. We'll discuss the three levels of seeing and how to infuse your detail with all of them. We’ll examine the techniques visual artists use to build empathy for their subject matter, and through a variety of exercises we will see how those same techniques can be used by the writer to great effect.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.