Writing Workshops

Write 100 Pages in 10 Weeks: Using Fairy Tales, Magical Realism, and Childhood Tales to Break Through Writer's Block with Soraya Palmer

$595

10 Sessions

Out of stock

Once a week Thursdays, 7:00 pm EDT - 9:00 pm EDT January 25 to March 28, 2024

Online via Zoom

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This workshop has reached its capacity. To join the waitlist, please email Randy Winston at [email protected].

Have you ever had a really exciting idea for a story or novel, but then felt stuck or defeated once you actually sat down to write it? This course will help you to tap into the childhood parts of your imagination that make writing fun in order to push through feelings of self-doubt and “stuckness.” Each week you will write a ten page story or chapter based on a prompt you will receive. The in-class writing activities and weekly assigned readings will help you to develop better characters, build tension, and create vivid settings through adding unexpected elements into your fiction such as animating an ordinary object (e.g.: a haunted house, a talking mirror) to help you pay more attention to setting or having a character go through an unexplainable bodily change in order to build suspense and conflict. We will read classic and contemporary authors who have mastered the elements of magical realism and the surreal such as Angela Carter, Carmen Maria Machado, and George Saunders. Each student will have the opportunity to be workshopped twice. Students should have some interest in magical realism and surrealism. No prior experience is necessary.

Course Outline

Session I: Intro, in-class reading, generative writing session, brief overview of writing techniques, and scope of work for the course
Session II: Generative writing exercises, discussion of assigned reading
Sessions III–X: Workshop first round of student submissions, generative writing exercises, discussion of assigned reading
Sessions VII–X: Workshop second round of student submissions, generative writing exercises, discussion of assigned reading

Led by

Soraya Palmer

Soraya Palmer

Soraya Palmer is the author of The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts. She is a Flatbush-born-and-raised writer and licensed social worker. Her novel was named one of Today’s “38 Best New Books to Read in 2023,” one of the “Buzziest Debut Novels of the New Year” by Goodreads, one of the “Best and Most Anticipated Books of 2023” by Elle magazine, and one of “The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2023” by Ms. magazine. Her writing has appeared in Electric Literature, Hazlitt, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She has been awarded a residency at Blue Mountain Center and graduated from the Virginia Tech MFA program. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Nicholas.

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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