Class Description
You decided you want to try your hand at writing a short story (fiction or nonfiction) for the first time. You have roughly imagined the characters and the setting, and you have some idea of what’s going to happen. Now, you just have to sit down and write — but how do you actually construct a story from its beginning to its end?
In this crash course on the craft of short stories, we will introduce you to the basics of story structure. You will learn the steps of identifying your story’s plot points, mapping the plot points, and deciding how you’ll maneuver scene to scene. Within these steps, we will explore the fundamentals of plot structure, linearity and non-linearity, point of view, and pacing. You will have the opportunity to begin planning your own short story and drafting a scene in class. You will also have a chance to meet other writers and briefly share your writing.
This class is the “welcome mat” into the world of GrubStreet’s short story workshops. Join us to dip your toes in a new form of creative writing and find a writerly community!
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.