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SUMMARY:Risk Management: Writing the Scene That Will Make or Break Your Story
DESCRIPTION:The late great author Dorothy Allison famously advised us all to “write to our fear.” Often\, though\, that brave act results in scenes and lines that reveal ourselves in ways that may make us cringe. We are tempted to cut or sanitize those moments\, but I’m here to ask if our stories and poems can be great – or even very good – if they don’t take some sort of calculated risk\, whether that risk be such a revealing scene or a disruptive image\, turn\, or shift in style. Furthermore\, once the text does take that risk\, can it ultimately be about anything else? How do we identify the “points of no return” in our work\, and how do we maximize their impact? We will begin by defining different types of risks fiction writers and poets take in their work and then discuss how the authors of various texts have managed and mitigated them. The goal is help us assess not only whether to take big chances in our work\, but when and how. Over the course of the hour\, we will discuss work by authors up and down the “risk” spectrum: Hanya Yanagihara\, Andre Aciman\, Sharon Olds\, Albert Goldbarth\, and Lucia Berlin\, among others. \n\n\n\nThere is no advance reading for this workshop\, but please come prepared to talk about a scene or “move” in one of your works of fiction or poetry that you consider “risky” or at least about which you have some anxiety or uncertainty. If nothing comes to mind\, please come prepared to discuss a work-in-progress that might benefit from a shake-up as a way of raising the stakes. \n\n\n\nChristopher Castellani is the author of four novels\, most recently Leading Men\, for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation\, MacDowell\, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council\, among others. His book of essays on narration\, The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story\, is taught in many writing workshops. Christopher is a longtime member of the faculty of the Warren Wilson MFA program and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and a recent Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University. For his forthcoming novel\, Last Seen\, he was awarded a 2024 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Boston and Provincetown\, MA.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/risk-management-writing-the-scene-that-will-make-or-break-your-story/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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