Yearlong Workshop with Laura Pritchett
The Whole Shebang: Writing that Book Inside You
(a.k.a. thinking through a full-length manuscript and thus saving supremely important things such as time, energy, and backaches from typing)
Tuition: $7,250
$500 discount if paid in full by July 8, 2019
Are you ready to commit a year to your writing?
Fishtrap’s Yearlong Writing Program will be among the most intimate and creative experiences of your writing life. Working within a small, nurturing community of other committed writers, you’ll gain an unprecedented opportunity not only to hone your craft, but more fundamentally, to build powerful new techniques for tapping into the essential qualities of your own life experiences. The work will be exhilarating, and at times, challenging. Even frustrating. That’s the nature of what we do as writers. But the result will be to both expand and strengthen your voice – that ineffable quality that makes you a unique storyteller, like no other in the world.
Whether you’re just starting your book or working on revisions, this year will focus on important considerations for a longer narrative. We’ll talk about some nuts-and-bolts, such as establishing themes, conflict, action, point of view, launching spots, and plot. But we’ll also focus on the psychology of it all – as I like to say, “You date a short story or essay, but you marry a book.” Which means, of course, it’s a long-term relationship, with all the pros and cons of such. We consider what might be preventing us from starting or finishing a book, or managing our own bouts of resistance or bad days—so that the commitment lasts and a draft gets completed. And finally, we’ll focus in on language – motifs and metaphors and flat-out beautiful sentences. We’ll be looking at some contemporary writers (of all genres) to guide us into creating more artful work. This class pertains to long-form fiction and nonfiction.
— Laura Pritchett
Yearlong participants meet together for a week of writing and conversation at both the 2019 and 2020 Summer Fishtrap Gatherings in the inspiring setting of Wallowa Lake and one additional winter weekend during the year. Apply below.