Description
Eight Wednesdays, Oct 8-Dec 3, 8-10pm (No session on October 29)
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants
Hybrid Workshop* (All virtual spots taken. Only in-person registration accepted.)
This eight-week workshop will explore how deepening a character’s inner life can generate new possibilities for a short story’s plot. One premise of this workshop is that fiction’s power lies in its capacity to depict with a high degree of detail an individual’s consciousness: the realm of perceptions, feelings, desires, memories, and thoughts. How one consciousness bumps up against another—and against the external world of norms, things, economic and cultural forces, etc.—is what makes a story possible. We will investigate story as, in George Saunders’s words, “a system for the transfer of energy.”
Plot and interiority are broad categories that encompass other topics such as point of view, dialogue, backstory, and deepening the role of setting and/or of the body, all of which can be studied and discussed, depending on the group’s interest and the story drafts that are submitted for workshopping. Note that the workshop leader’s focus is realist literary fiction, but all genres are welcome. The larger goal of the workshop is to support writers in uncovering the best possible versions of their stories.
Most of the workshop will be devoted to reading and discussing participants’ stories (two per week over seven weeks, up to 5000 words each). However, for the first meeting, participants will discuss Yiyun Li’s story, “Prison,” a jarring tale about surrogate birth. Please read the first 23 pages before the first session, but do not read farther than that. We will read the final 5 pages together, tracking how the plot ultimately unfolds.
*This workshop will take place at the QWF Office (Room 3, 4023 Tupper Street, Westmount, Quebec) with up to 2 virtual spots for participants who are unable to attend in-person because of distance or disability. By default, all workshop registrations are for in-person spots. If you would like to request a virtual slot, contact Riley at riley@qwf.org stating the reason for which you would need the virtual spot, then wait for a response before registering. Please do not register until you receive confirmation of a virtual spot for you. UPDATE: Please note that all virtual spots for this workshop have been claimed. All future registration will be for in-person attendance. To be put on the waiting list specifically for a virtual spot, please email Riley@qwf.org.
