Writing Outside the Box: A Workshop on Edgy Fiction

Open to writers of all experience levels.

Due to the content in some of the exercises, this workshop is restricted to participants aged 18+.

Limited to 12 participants

We plan to hold this workshop in person at the QWF office, with up to two virtual slots available for people who are unable to come to our office. If public health conditions necessitate it, this workshop may transition to a purely online model.

Looking to shake up your process? Interested in breaking the rules a little? Designed to inspire unique approaches to creative writing, this workshop will help squash your inner editor and provoke your inner rebel, giving you the confidence you need to write more openly and honestly.

Over the course of eight weeks, participants will delve into the work of unconventional writers like Italo Calvino, Kelly Link, John Elizabeth Stintzi, and George Saunders. You’ll learn tips and techniques for producing work quickly and fearlessly. You’ll dabble with ekphrasis, magic realism, and second-person perspective, and you’ll hone your ability to give and receive constructive feedback in a wildly creative working environment.

This is a fun, provocative, and productive workshop that’s generated award-winning fiction and long-term friendships. It is suitable for writers of any experience level, from the shy beginner to the established professional, working in any medium or genre. And while filled with lesson-based exercises and guided assignments, this workshop is happily (and willfully) anti-academic. Participants are not taught writing theory but are encouraged to develop their skills through the acts of reading and writing alone. Here, you learn by doing.

There is no submission required prior to the first session. Participants will be expected to share fiction with the group as the workshop progresses.

This is the perfect way to kickstart a project, rejuvenate your existing process, or to simply step outside of your comfort zone by experimenting with new approaches to creativity.

Come play with the weird kids of creative writing. (One of us. One of us.)

Trepassey-born writer Tracey Waddleton splits her time between the island of Newfoundland and the island of Montreal. Her first book, Send More Tourists… the Last Ones Were Delicious, was published by Breakwater Books in July of 2019 and won the 2020 ReLit Award for Short Fiction. She is the inaugural recipient of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Max Margles Writing Residency and is spending/spent the month of August writing in Dublin, Ireland  in 2022.

www.traceywaddleton.com

Instagram: @bartlebomb

Twitter: @traceywaddleton

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tracey.waddleton