Class Description
As writers, we often begin as readers, and as fans. We fall in love with the fantastic, impossible fictional worlds that we read in books, comics, online, or see in movies, TV shows, and video games. We want to inhabit and explore those other worlds. But as we explore, we begin to want to write our own rules, to become the authors of our own fantasy worlds. We’re ready to move from imitation to innovation, the way Dianna Wynne Jones, John Gardner, and Gregory Maguire over-turned the stale Pure Evil Villain trope to create rich nuanced characters and worlds.
If you love to write fan-fiction but are tired of inhabiting worlds where everything is familiar then this one-day class is perfect for you. Make the leap to creating original fiction! We’ll examine classic and contemporary books, comics, games, and websites, identify the themes and tropes that make them so exciting, and then dig up those fictional roots to uncover unseen life teeming below the loam. Class will consist of in-class writing exercises, examples, discussion, sharing our original writing and sources of inspiration, and verbal feedback. By the end of the day, students will have some new scenes, character and world outlines, and maybe even a revised and expanded scene.
Writing notebooks will be available, but feel free to bring your own. Laptops or tablets are optional, as long as they have quiet keys! For writers age 13 - 18 ONLY.
Join GrubStreet’s Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), a FREE creative writing workshop for Boston-area high schoolers. Our students come from a wide variety of high schools in the Boston area and enjoy cool writing exercises, mingling with fellow young writers, snacks, and an optional open mic. After four great years, YAWP has already been recognized by the Boston Globe as Boston's hub for writing teenagers. You must be 13-18 years to register.
Parents/guardians must also complete this permission form online before the start of the class.
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If you are registering on behalf of your teen, add their email information in the “For a Friend or Child?” field on the right-hand side of the screen before you check out. This will send them a direct link and reminder to create their own profile with GrubStreet.
(After adding the class to your cart, click "Checkout" and click “Add” next to “For a Friend or Child?” on the right-hand side to fill in their email. This is an easy way of linking the class to your child and encourages them to create their own account.)
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.