Especially geared toward commercial fiction, this workshop will dig into what makes a book feel fast-paced and why it’s only tenuously connected to the actual action in the scene. Find out why starting your book off with an explosion is often a mistake, how kicking the cat is as effective as saving the cat, and how you can plot out your book without losing the fun of exploration.

We’ll be analyzing some text in this class, but we’ll mostly be discussing full storylines, and pre-writing. This is the story preparation you need to feel confident you’re on the right track before you dive into the actual world (wilderness!) of words.