Revising Your Short Stories

Class Description

You’ve written a draft of a few stories and now you wonder what’s next. In this course, you’ll learn techniques for revising and polishing stories by locating their intention, discovering strengths and weaknesses, and devising a plan for going from draft to finished story. You’ll learn how to take apart a draft to find its core, sharpen its characters, improve the narrative pace, and distinguish between necessary and unnecessary detail.

During the course, each writer will present a story to workshop two times. Your first submission will be a first draft and your second will be a revision of that story, after you've received feedback from the workshop. We’ll use weekly in-class writing exercises related to revision and craft to sharpen your work in the areas of character development, plot structure, point-of-view, setting, and pace. Reading the work of established authors will also help us to explore a variety of approaches. Authors whose work we may read include Haruki Murakami, Tayari Jones, Zadie Smith, Tommy Orange, Lydia Davis, and others. Some workshop experience is helpful but not required for this class. We will aim to work on stories between 10-12 pages in length.

Scholarship Information

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 more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.