AUTOFICTION WORKSHOP: Exploring Hybrid Writing
START DATE: Sunday, August 9, 2020
END DATE: Sunday, September 13, 2020
DURATION: 6 weeks
LOCATION: Zoom and email for assignments OR Private FB Group
FEEDBACK: Instructor feedback and critique
WEEKS AT A GLANCE:
WEEK 1: Getting to the Emotional Truth of the Story
Forget the facts and focus on your core message. Reading by Alexander Chee. Complete at least one writing exercise of 1,000 words. Post for peer feedback.
WEEK 2: Set Your Protagonist Free
Complete at least one writing exercise of no more than 1,000 words. Post for feedback. Readings from Chris Kraus.
WEEK 3: Draw from Your Own Experience
Complete at least one writing exercise of no more than 1,000 words. Post for feedback. Readings from Juliet Escoria.
WEEK 4: Shut up so others can speak.
Complete at least one writing exercise of no more than 1,000 words. Post for feedback. Reading from Scott McClanahan.
WEEK 5: Pictures, Objects, Sensory Prompts
Complete at least one writing exercise of no more than 1,000 words. Post for feedback. Reading from Bruno Schulz.
WEEK 6: Sights, Smells, and Other Sensory Memories.
Complete at least one writing exercise of no more than 1,000 words. Post for feedback. Reading from Maggie Nelson.
Materials needed: All written materials in the form of lectures, ebooks, story links, etc. are provided by the instructor.
Sundays don't work for you?
Email me about opening a second class and full details.
What is autofiction? I wrote an answer to this question in a post titled "Writing Lies & Other Truths." Here's an excerpt:
There's something delightfully freeing about this unshackled category. No longer bound to the hunt-for-facts-to-a-fault memoir label or the "world that must encompass the objective and the subjective" of the novel, as literary critique Jonathan Gibbs points out, the auto fiction writer discharges herself of both duties.
She can borrow from the novel structure as she pleases. She can retain bunches of realistic descriptions; keep her grip on a main conflict; hang on to a plot. Then she can spill her story in an indulgently subjective way, without sparing even a paragraph for anyone else's point of view. There isn't a single person in her rearview writing mirror.
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