http://www.sandiegowriters.org/third-sun...
Third Sunday Craft is a monthly gathering of creative writers that fosters support, inspiration, and community. More than craft classes, Third Sunday Craft will help you construct and sustain a writing practice.
New focus topics for each session will challenge writers to explore and expand their craft. Generative writing prompts will encourage you to grow and learn in exciting new ways.
Sharing your work within a safe, supportive community will help you discover and strengthen your voice.
Finally, with the goal of fostering supportive accountability, each session will conclude with a writer’s intentions for the month.
Come check out Third Sunday Craft!
Please note that signing up for two months at a time will allow you to take advantage of the following discount: $62 for two months for members, $74 for two months for nonmembers
Drop-in with registration at the door are welcome.
Focus:
January, New Beginnings: We will set our intentions for our writing in the new year, and then look at story openings to see examples of how and where successful stories begin. We will then attempt to write (or rewrite) an opening using these styles.
February, Recognitions & Reversals: Most of us, and therefore most of our characters, lived trapped in the never-ending flow of subjective experience. “So one of the things I’m interested in a writer of fiction is the nanosecond when those convictions are called into question…when the character stumbles into a moment of clarity.” From, Megan Staffel, “In the Garden.” We will explore this concept in detail!
March, Scene Design: Scenes are the basic building blocks of fiction. We will explore how scenes function, what they need to be effective, and how to use them in our writing. We will also look at different types of scenes.
April, Dialog: We will look at dialog techniques, explore the function of dialog in stories. We will also look at when bet to employ dialog and when to leave it out.
May, Place: This class will look at how writers employ techniques to create vivid, memorable settings. We will explore how repetition and imagery work to sustain setting throughout a story.
June, Villains: Borrowing for Susan Neville’s essay, “Where’s Iago,” we will look at the importance of using villains (or the like) in fiction can open up new energy for a story or book.
July, Image Patterns: Image patterning is an often overlooked but vital part to good writing. Writers don’t just select images randomly; the create patterns of images through repetition and layering. We will look at examples and attempt to use the technique through exercises.
August, Desire & Resistance: Robert Olen Butler says we must find our character’s ‘white hot center,’ and write from that space. Fiction writers in particular must find out what their characters want, and they should be wanting things all the time, and then put up roadblocks (physical, psychological, spiritual) to create a sense of conflict and tension in stories. We will look at examples and practice this core concept.
Sept, Clarity as a Virtue: Steven Almond writers that the “Hippocratic Oath of Writing” is to “never confuse the reader.” Too often, writers lean on vague, abstract, or scattershot imagery. But more often, the harder work is being clear and focused, and taking the reader deeper into the story by precise, clear, specific writing.
October, Building Suspense: This class will look at the difference between suspense, tension, and mystery, and explore ways the writer can create and sustain suspense in scene writing. Note: this is not a genre-specific problem for writers. We have to remember what the reader is curious about when we craft any piece of writing.
November, Time: We will look at the concept of time as it relates to narrative, and look at how writers make time compress, expand, shift, and even freeze. We will practice some techniques and try some exercises designed to help writers be attentive to the importance of time in stories!
December, Reflections and Resolutions: We will look on the year that was our writing work, and make plans for the year ahead!