Writing the Big Themes

Love. Loss. Transformation. These themes are so integral to the human experience that writers have returned to them again and again for centuries. But how can we write anything new about growing up, falling in love, breaking up, or losing a parent/child/lover/friend?

“To me, making something new means making it personal,” says instructor Erin Rodoni. “Often the best way to give a piece of writing universal appeal is to make it as specific as possible. So we need to become great observers of our own experiences of love, our private journeys through loss, growth, and change. We need to bring our devastating details, our kinks and quirks, our breathtaking intimacies, to the page.”

In this workshop we’ll explore a different theme each week. Our reading and discussion of poems, short stories, and personal essays will serve as a prompt for us to create new work, both inside and outside of class, centered around each week’s theme. We will then come together to share and gently workshop these new pieces as a group.

“I want students to come away from this class with five new pieces of writing that make each big theme new and personal for them,” says Erin. “I also hope they come away with a better understanding of how writers use detail and specificity to make a big theme feel new and personal for their readers too.”