Starting Points: Generating Fiction with Ease with Danielle Lazarin

This four-week generative fiction class is intended for those new to fiction or anyone who has been feeling stuck in their practice. You’ll gain experience in accessing the generative impulse as well as concrete strategies for spotting opportunities in your earliest drafts. I’ll guide you through thoughtfully designed (and fun!) exercises developed to get the ideas you’ve been holding onto out of your head and onto the page—as well as chip away at the blocks that often prevent us from sitting down to write.

A good portion of the live class time is devoted to writing, so you don’t need to worry about finding writing time outside of these hours; these weeks provide a regular, accountable writing practice during which you’ll build up a writing muscle. We’ll also devote time to working through any fears or reticence you may have about generating new work so that you can access the magic of writing without the unnecessary and paralyzing preoccupation of where it’s going, if it’s any good, or what it means (yet!).

Although we will talk through our process, there’s no workshop or formal work-sharing component in this class. The primary goal here is to strengthen your relationship with starting new work, as well as generating actual pages that can grow into viable projects. This class is best for fiction writers of all levels and forms (short story, novels, flash fiction), and particularly for those who fear a blank page. Offered online.

Course Outline

• Session I: Identifying Blocks
• Session II: Listening
• Session III: Connective Tissue
• Session IV: Strategies for Scenes

Every week will include writing exercises for at least 50% of class time.