A 2 Week IN-PERSON Fiction Workshop
Saturday, August 26 & Saturday, September 2
ALL LEVELS
“A novelist is a person who lives in other people’s skins.”
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” E.L. Doctorow.
These two oft-quoted gems from the late E.L. Doctorow each contain an ocean of wisdom and serve as an entry point to a broader discussion of the importance of gaining traction in short fiction by creating compelling characters. The best short fiction is character driven and thus writers need to establish a deep kinship with the characters they create. But how do writers learn to “inhabit” their characters? This is not a rhetorical question nor a how we know what we know exercise. Instead, exploring this question will allow students to develop strategies and skills to better understand and imagine the characters we create—and thus further and more quickly engage readers.
This is an interactive seminar/workshop using prompts and other exercises to discover ways to create nuanced and intriguing characters without sacrificing verisimilitude. Students will provide a week in advance a five-to-seven-page, double spaced piece of short fiction that will be distributed to all attendees.
These will be revised for week two and the authors will receive extensive written feedback from the instructor.
+SUBMIT After registering, participants are asked to submit a manuscript (a 5-10 page piece of fiction) by no later than 9:00 AM on Thursday, August 17th. Please email the manuscript to programs@mainewriters.org with the subject line: “PRATT WORKSHOP MSS.” Please help MWPA conserve paper by using standard formatting (1” margins, double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman) and keeping spacing between sections to a minimum (e.g. no title page). *Word docs (ideally) or PDFs only, please. Please save the document as "Last name, First name--PRATT MSS"
+ PLEASE NOTE This workshop will occur in-person in the Abbot Room at the Belfast Free Library in Belfast, Maine.
Bruce Pratt is the editor of American Fiction, which won the 2015 Midwest Independent Publishing Association Gold Medal for Best Short Story Collection or Anthology. He is the author of the novel The Serpents of Blissfull from Mountain State Press, the poetry collection Boreal from Antrim House Books, and has had more than three dozen short stories published in journals, reviews, and magazines in the U.S. and Canada. VISIT www.bepratt.com
ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via our website. We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.
PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICIES
If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION
QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact Meghan Sterling at programs@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-228-8263 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.
REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.
$100 Members / $130 Nonmembers
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one full scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Contact Meghan at programs@mainewriters.org to see if the scholarship is still available. Application Due on August 3rd at 9:00 a.m.
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MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
Registration in any MWPA workshop, program, or event constitutes your agreement to our terms and conditions. → MORE INFORMATION