If I teach nothing in my writing classes, I teach this: do not outline your novel or novella or short story or essay. Do not think out the plot, the narrative arc, the protagonist’s journey, whatever you want to call it. Instead, try to find the story through an honest excavation of the characters’ total experience of the situation in which they find themselves. Do that, and I promise the story will begin to write itself,with little need for the controlling hand of the godly, intelligent, well-read,and ambitious author. But how, precisely, does one go about this “excavation”? And how, technically speaking, can we ignite a story into “writing itself”? Come to this workshop, and I will seek to demystify those writerly tools andskills that time and time again, if they are sharp enough, and if the writercan summon enough daily faith and nerve, can penetrate the mystery of storyitself. This is both a workshop-based and generative class.

Please submit 10-25 pages of work(double-spaced, 12pt font) by July 17.