Class Description
Setting always gets a (brief) mention when we talk about the fundamental principles of storytelling, but we rarely pause to consider just how we create place and time on the page. A well-rendered setting not only situates characters in their cultural, class, and political contexts, it amplifies emotional and thematic resonances. This six-hour class will offer students an opportunity to learn how to use interior and exterior places more fully and vividly.
We’ll examine how the use of different locations can drive both narrative and character progression and also pay particular attention to the way the evocation of place creates the larger emotional context and tone of a piece. We’ll analyze excerpts from Ben Fountain, Deborah Eisenberg, Ivan Turgenev, and Thomas Hardy. We'll also tackle a two-part, intensive exercise that will help you imagine (or re-imagine) a place in an old (or new) story or novel chapter. Students will be asked to read a short (20-page) packet before class. Through this intensive focus on setting, we'll seek to gain both ideas for revising existing work and generating new material that's strongly rooted in and informed by the physical world.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.