Class Description
"All writing is re-writing," Nabokov said. It's only when the messy first draft is finished that the real work begins of finding a story or novel’s true potential. In this workshop, we will look at the radical re-envisioning that goes into thoughtful revision. Participants will refer to readings from Raymond Carver, Zadie Smith, and others to discuss lesser-known revision tools that professional writers employ. In-class exercises and practical techniques will help make the process of revision playful and creative, with the goals of shopping for conflict, exploring character motivations, and streamlining language.
Students will leave the class with new tools to radically re-envision their fiction, and a revised five pages of their own writing.
This course is ideal for beginning and intermediate writers with some portion of a project completed or a complete draft.
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.