Anthologies

Do you have something you care way too much about? Or an unforgettable story you love telling people? A moment that went a little (or very) wrong? Maybe it’s how you got that scar on your shoulder, or a weird adventure that began when you got lost at a concert, or how you first fell in love with anime. This workshop is about turning those moments into personal essays that readers can’t put down.

Personal essays are rooted in real life — your obsessions, your accidents, your “why did I do that?” stories. In this workshop, we’ll learn how to take a real experience or passion and shape it into a compelling narrative with a clear voice, strong structure, and a clear sense of meaning. Essays can be funny, uncomfortable, emotional, or all three, but the goal is always the same: tell a true story that takes the reader somewhere and leaves them thinking.

When you daydream, does your pen run free? In The Shape of a Story, those in-the-moment doodles and random drawings can be the start of something epic. Here, your abstract blobs, kitty-unicorn-whale hybrids, and silly faces, go into a visual storytelling laboratory that we build together. We’ll transform accidental shapes into creatures, creatures into characters, characters into worlds, and worlds into absolutely original stories.

Writing and illustration don’t have to live in separate worlds! When we put them together, our creativity goes off the charts. Join us in The Shape of a Story and totally transform. So storytelling scientists, what will come out of your creative lab?

There’s always more to learn, fiction writers! Come build on the skills you’ve already got, and dig deeper into the qualities that give all the best stories that extra POP.

Whichever genre of fiction you prefer (historical, fantasy, realistic, etc.) is welcome! We’ll focus on the fine details that will take your writing from good to great: natural, character-driven dialogue; proper pacing; inciting incidents; raising the stakes; plot-twists; and, of course, the art of the satisfying ending. We’ll look to our favorite fiction writers for inspiration, and discover new works worthy of your attention.

This workshop is for students who are familiar with the basics of fiction writing, and who would like to grow as writers.