Class Description
Love stories in fiction are almost as plentiful as fiction itself. There is of course an entire genre dedicated to love stories (Romance), but many short stories and most novels in every genre contain them. Love stories are so ubiquitous, in fact, that it’s a wonder most fiction writers don’t study them more systematically; this craft-oriented seminar is dedicated to redressing that gap.
We’ll dissect story structures and exemplary passages from classic and contemporary fiction by writers such as Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Graham Greene, Arundhati Roy, Annie Proulx, Marguerite Duras, Garth Greenwell, and many others, asking ourselves practical questions such as: How does a writer go about portraying love and/or attraction without falling victim to syrupy sentimentality or cringe-worthy objectification? Is there a universal structure to the love story? How and when does one go about writing a sex scene?
Participants will have the opportunity to bring in passages from their favorite literary love stories to analyze and discuss. Love stories of all varieties, flavors, and sexualities are encouraged.
Writing Roadmap: We've created a simple, goal-based writing roadmap to help you find the perfect GrubStreet course for your writing needs.
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.