Sculpting Prose Workshop Syllabus Lecturettes and Writing Prompts Each week, I will post a new lecturette about a specific element of craft. Topics can include Scene vs. Exposition, Specificity and Detail, Dialogue, Character Development, and Setting. These lecturettes will be accompanied by a writing prompt with which you can practice the element of craft we are focussing on that week. Contracts You will give me, at the start of the workshop, a contract stating how often you want to write each week, for how long, and what you want to get out of the workshop by the end. I’ll hold you accountable to this contract. If you tell me you want to write three times a week for 30 minutes, then I will check-in three times a week to read your writing. We will work together to help you practice and hone the element of craft we are studying that week. Posting The posting schedule is determined by your contract. You will post your writing every time you complete a writing session. So if you commit to write once a week for an hour, then you will post once a week. If you commit to write five times a week for 15 minutes, then you will post five times. Feedback While writing may be a solitary act, I don’t believe it’s possible to be successful as writers without community. We need each other’s support to push on through the highs and lows of this incredibly personal practice. For that reason, I have built into the workshop a feedback component. You are expected to check into the workshop at least 2-3 times a week to read what your group-mates have written and offer initial feedback. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to read everything your group mates post. Some of you will be writing once a week, some seven times a week. I simply as that you read ONE piece per member by the end of the week. I will ask that you not post the writing for your next week, until you have read and given feedback for the previous week. The Nature of Feedback Writing is a practice and takes many drafts to finally produce something we may feel is ready to show the world. For that reason, the feedback we give in the Sculpting Prose workshop will be centered in the early stages of writing. We’re not interested in looking at the micro-level edits of a piece or the technical edits. That type of feedback comes later in the process, around draft 3 or 4. For this workshop our feedback is aimed at helping each writer see what is working in their draft and what to build on as they sit down to write the second draft. The questions I will ask you to answer are:
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