Lesley University Writers' Conference

Conference Workshops

FICTION

Living Fiction -- Rachel Kadish

This workshop will combine a focus on the fundamentals of the writer’s craft with an ongoing discussion of the writer’s larger purposes. Among our guideposts will be Mark Twain’s assertion that “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—‘tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning”; Eudora Welty’s statement that the art of character development is “the act of a writer’s imagination that I set most high”; Toni Morrison’s emphasis on the importance of privileging human truth over numbing facts; Ernest Hemingway’s dictums about writerly restraint; E.L. Doctorow’s fortifying images of the writer’s tolerance for risk; a recognition that good writing can be unruly, unexpected, and challenging; and a simple appreciation that despite all the technicalities involved, a good story has to have what editor Kate Medina simply calls It.

Class meetings will focus on critiques of participants’ fiction manuscripts and development of participants’ skills as critical readers. Additional readings, discussions of specific points of technique, and brief in-class writing exercises will be incorporated as needed. Participants will bring to the conference eleven copies of a story or novel excerpt, not to exceed 4,000 words, double-spaced, in 12-point type.

This workshop will address the essentials of successful fiction writing—character, plot, diction, dialogue, point of view—along with the prerequisite skill of reading as a writer. Class meetings may include brief exercises and discussions of technique, but will focus on critiques of participants’ manuscripts: a structured opportunity to test your work before a supportively critical audience. Using these manuscripts as a common basis, we will ask questions such as: Where should a story begin—with the protagonist’s birth? Her conception? Perhaps her death? How does the fiction writer handle backstory, the layering in of background information. What is the role of the scene and/or chapter? How can scenes be constructed so as to be self-contained but, at the same time, suggestive parts of a larger whole? How (and how consciously) should the writer work at the accretion of motif and theme over a narrative arc?

Participants will bring to the conference eleven copies of a story or novel excerpt, not to exceed 4,000 words, double-spaced, in 12-point type. Additionally, it’s suggested that participants review Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose.

NONFICTION

Construction/Reflection: Memoir Workshop -- Marcie Hershman

As odd as it may be, the process of writing memoir is anything but straightforward. Although the bottom line is honesty, a memoir asks more of us than an accurate account of remarks and chronologies. A memoir demands focus, shape, voice, and events that build toward force and meaning. This workshop is designed to break through the neatly factual surface of our day-to-day stories. Instead of reading and editing each other’s completed manuscripts as traditional workshops do, we will focus on fresh ways to confront our own material. We’ll do exercises to explore what lies at the heart of our individual searches, and discuss how to draw the pieces together, devising strategies for an overall structure.

Participants will bring to the conference eleven copies of two to three pages from a published memoir that strikes them as distinctive, a small pocket mirror of their choosing, and paper and pens because we are going to write.

POETRY

Toward Completion: A Poetry Workshop -- Steven Cramer

Poetry and Timing/How Things Come to Us -- Afaa Michael Weaver

CHILDREN'S BOOK WRITING

The Language Is the Story -- David Elliott