Class Description
The filmmaker Howard Hawks once said, "A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes." Substitute "essay" or "memoir" for "movie" and we might have a prescription for how to beef up your writing. In this course, we'll look at great examples of scenes in personal essays and memoirs—what I call "live moments" and "close-ups"—where things are happening, characters are interacting, stuff is being said, action is going on, and big things change. Writers examined include Bill Bryson, Cheryl Strayed, Junot Diaz, Meredith Maran, Lee Martin and others. We'll show how to shape your scenes so they have a beginning, middle, and end, as well as a turning point that ups the drama. We'll also look at how to deftly interweave necessary expository information. During in-class exercises, we'll practice some techniques and write new scintillating scenes you can apply to a current nonfiction writing project.
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.