Advanced Fiction Workshop: Hearts and Minds on the Page

Are you hungry for honest, constructive feedback on your fiction? Do you long to be part of a community of writers dedicated to helping one another render (shape, enrich, and enliven) a story the best it can be? To perhaps submit your work to literary magazines or MFA programs? If so, welcome to the advanced fiction workshop.

“This course offers a supportive and productive space in which to further deepen our ability to make fictional narrative compelling,” says instructor Andy Touhy. “Throughout our five weeks together, you’ll have two opportunities to show pieces for workshopping. These may be a packet of flash fictions or short stories or novel chapters or excerpts in the later stages of development. Maximum word count per submission is 4,500. You’ll receive feedback from the group, and I’ll offer my observations and insights into your work—where it resonates, opportunities for stronger choice-making, suggested line and developmental edits. Lastly, I will assign an optional weekly writing exercise designed to help you sharpen technique in elements of craft (characterization, conflict and escalation, point of view, and setting).

“So we’ll grow,” says Andy, “as writers and readers by approaching one another’s work as if it were our own, probing choices and material, and identifying untapped potential, so that the best of our hearts and minds make the page.”

*To ensure both an intimate classroom environment and that each student receives ample workshopping time, enrollment for this course is capped at nine participants.

About The Writing Salon's Remote Classes

Due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19, The Writing Salon is running all classes in a remote learning format. You will be able to participate in live class meetings via Zoom videoconference. To attend classes, you'll need a phone, tablet or computer and access to the internet. You can participate in the class from wherever you'd like, whether on your living room couch or in your office. Before your class meets, you'll receive an email from The Writing Salon with more information about Zoom and your remote class. If you have any questions about remote learning, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at hello@writingsalons.com.