Greetings Writers

Welcome to the Winter 2010 Intermediate Fiction Writing Workshop at the Thurber House. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you. Our classroom is on the second floor. When you arrive, I'll give you a placard with your name on it. Take a seat anywhere around the table and place your name in front of you so that I can get to know who you are. We'll begin promptly at 6PM. The doors will be open 15 minutes before then.

Here are some things you'll need to know for the first day:

• Bring paper and something to write with. We'll be doing an introductory exercise during the first hour and a short in-class warm-up during the second hour.
• You are not required to turn any work in before we meet.
• We will take a ten-minute break after the first hour. Bottled water will be available for those of you who are thirsty--and for those of you who aren't.

Here are a few housekeeping issues:

• All submissions will be done electronically. You can email assignments to me in Word file format only at terrispaul@aol.com.
• I'll also return your work to you with my comments (usually in red) embedded in the text. I will give you the details on Monday.
• Since this is an intermediate class, I'm assuming all of you have at least made a stab at writing a short story or stories before. Each week, you will have the option of writing something new or working on something you've already written.

Here are the topics we're going to cover:

• Week 1: Beginnings
• Week 2: Character Development
• Week 3: Dialogue
• Week 4: Description
• Week 5: Endings
• Week 6: The Whole Story

The division of topics is arbitrary. Discussions of character will bleed into to dialogue. Discussions of dialogue will bleed into description, etc. And what about plot? We'll be talking a lot about it, too, since it's usually the reason we're writing in the first place.

These are the written assignments (300-500 words each):

• Week 2: A Gripping Introduction
• Week 3: A Brief Character Study
• Week 4: A Telling Exchange (Dialogue Only)
• Week 5: A Vivid Description
• Week 6: An Ending To End All Endings

That's about it for now. See you all on Monday,