- Total price
€180.00
6 sessions
- Schedule
Every other Saturday
Oct 3 – Dec 12
- Time
13:00–15:00
- Class size
Min 5 · Max 10
This class is intended for teenagers aged 13 - 17.
Whether you’ve already drafted tens of pages of novels or short stories, or you are a beginner writer who wants to try out fiction writing, finding inspiration and getting your feet wet, this class is an opportunity to learn and sharpen creative writing skills in a community of peers. We’ll meet every other week for six sessions. In the first two, we’ll focus on exploring published works and doing writing exercises to learn some foundational tools of fiction writing. After that, we’ll turn to workshopping: each student will have two opportunities to submit their writing-in-progress for a formal class workshop discussion, where we’ll describe how the pages currently affect us, pinpoint why, and brainstorm about what they might do differently.
Throughout the course, students can work on developing their already-existing projects, or they can create new works and gain inspiration within the class. Our focus is fiction, but if students want to practice dramatic writing or creative nonfiction, that’s fine too! Students will leave having worked thoroughly with concepts like character, setting, conflict, POV, plot, structure, and more, and will have received substantive feedback on 10-20 pages of original writing. By being attentive, thoughtful, and passionate readers of others’ work, we will become better readers of our own drafts, and, ultimately, better writers of the stories we dream to produce.
Oct. 3: Opening Exercises. Why Do We Write? Exploring Setting and POV.
Oct. 17: Exercise 1 Due. Practicing Reading like Writers. Exploring Character, Plot, and Conflict. Optional: Mermaid Exercise (Exploring innovative language)
Oct. 31: Group A First Workshop.
Nov. 14: Group B First Workshop. Optional Mermaid Exercise Due.
Nov. 28: Group A Second Workshop. Scene Breakdown due.
Dec. 12: Group B Second Workshop. Story Breakdown due.
Class Readings (Excerpts):
Baldwin, James, Go Tell It on the Mountain
Calvino, Italo, Invisible Cities
Carter, Angela, The Bloody Chamber
García Márquez, Gabriel, 100 Years of Solitude
Gilbert, Elizabeth, Eat Pray Love
Kafka, Franz, An Imperial Message
Kuang, R.F., Yellowface
La Plante, Alice, The Making of a Story
Machado, Carmen Maria, Help Me Follow My Sister to the Land of the Dead
McKee, Robert, Story
Packer, ZZ, Brownies
Patterson, James, Maximum Ride
Plath, Sylvia, The Bell Jar
Salesses, Matthew, Craft in the Real World
Salinger, JD, Catcher in the Rye
Samatar, Sofia, How to Get Back to the Forest
Smith, Dodie, I Capture the Castle
Tower, Wells, Leopard
Towles, Amor, A Gentleman in Moscow
Truby, John, Anatomy of Story
Vuong, Ocean, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Winterson, Jeanette, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
*All materials will be distributed electronically beforehand. Reading list subject to change.
About Theresa Hottel
Theresa is the author of Dust, a literary fantasy novel forthcoming in 2027 from Algonquin/Little, Brown in the US and Abacus/Little, Brown in the UK. Born in Taipei and raised in Oklahoma, she's passionate about the intricacies of storytelling. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, where she taught writing over 6 years to 200+ students in undergraduate and high school creative writing programs. She's published stories and essays with publishers like Catapult Books, SmokeLong Quarterly and Bright Wall/Dark Room, and received support for her writing from arts organizations and institutions including Art Omi: Writers, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, and the US National Park Service. Theresa also edited the documentary film Truth Be Told, a collaboration with Emmy award-winning director Nneka Onuorah, which premiered at Outfest LA and won the 2023 Social Impact Award.