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Have you ever picked up a novel or short story and found yourself immediately, irresistibly drawn in by the imagined world the author has created? Conversely, have you ever put down a novel or story because the first few paragraphs, no matter how well-written, confused you or bored you or left you cold? In this workshop, we'll be exploring the tools fiction writers can use to engage and hook their readers from the very first paragraph. We'll be talking about how to seduce your reader: not with gimmicks or shock tactics, but by evoking a fictional world and an authentic point of view that immediately immerses them in its power.
Seducing your reader isn't about manipulating them; it's about making your fictional world so compelling and so resonant that it never occurs to them to suspend disbelief. We'll be looking at some illustrative examples of great beginnings from published authors, and then we'll try our hand at creating our own and optionally sharing them for group discussion. Suzanne will end the class with a reading of her work.
About the Instructor:
Suzanne Rivecca is a fiction and nonfiction writer with over a decades experience working for Bay Area social services organizations that serve the homeless. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing at Stanford University, she published a short story collection, Death is Not an Option, in 2010 with W.W. Norton. Death is Not an Option received the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Creative Arts fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and was a finalist for national and international awards including the PEN/Hemingway Award, The Story Prize, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and the Frank OConnor International Short Story Award, alongside fellow finalists/awardees including Colm Toibin, Yiyun Li, Anthony Doerr, and Edna OBrien. Riveccas work has received two Pushcart Prizes and a fellowship in Creative Prose from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her short story Philanthropy, originally published in Granta,was chosen by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout for inclusion in Best American Short Stories. In addition to working for human services organizations, Rivecca also teaches creative writing at various places, including Stanford Universitys Continuing Studies Department and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetowns 24 Pearl Street curriculum.
Saturday, April 20 (1:00pm-3:00pm).
This class is presented by AARP-Tampa Bay
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LocationLitSpace Literary Arts Institute at Morean Arts Center (View)
719 Central Avenue
Saint Petersburg, FL 33701
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 18 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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