When a Memoir is for the Writer and Not the Reader I wrote the book quickly and without—oh dear, I hate to admit this—too much thought. I barely revised. I knew everything about the story before I even started. Novels are agony. Life is agony, but for me writing the memoir was not. ~ E. McCracken Elizabeth McCracken who studied in Iowa, is a fellow of this and a nominee of that, and yes, a remarkably talented wordsmith. See for yourself. She’s also witty and wry in the classic tradition...
Writing Workshop: The Attack Sentence, Plot, and the Underlying Message of an Epic A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly...
Studio Writers Share Process “For dramatic impact we must be grounded in place and experience the illusion of real-time passing, which only occurs in scenes. We must live the moment along with the characters, especially in moments of change…While summaries supply the connective tissue, scenes are the blood and breath of fiction, narrative essays, and memoir.” From Showing vs. Telling by Laurie Alberts It went on for sixteen weeks. This teaching on scene. I was studying with Tom Spanbauer in...
How can a student of creative writing search for and find plot in a book? This excellent novel, one of the best I have enjoyed since Shipping News by Annie Proulx and Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, was recommended for study this year by Jean in SIII. Jean is a historical novelist in the thick of research and writing her novel from the time of the revolutionary war, and she has an innate sense of good writing! At first, I was hesitant to read a book titled “A novel of the...
Mastering Authentic Writing: Best Online Courses Essay? Commentary? Creative Non-fiction? Short Story? What is this piece of writing by James Baldwin, and how do we, as creative writers, approach it intelligently and thus learn from it? To get the most from this discussion, I suggest you read first (click here) and give some thought to how Notes of a Native Son hits you. This initial reaction is crucial and deeply personal. Making a few notes about that reaction also allows you to be fully...
Learning from Without a Map by Meredith Hall – Writing Skills Course (From Flight School: 11/27/22) This week, we’re going to look at Without a Map by Meredith Hall, a book thirty-six writers and I studied at the Studio for three weeks this fall. The goal of this post is to share our process and conclusions. To be clear, I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t read this book. I’m not endorsing it, nor am I shooing you away from it. Instead, this is a journey of exploration…a way to think...
Creative Writing Workshops: Online Novel Writing Course ” Art cannot be made by committee. Any such use of a workshop will be counterproductive. Thus the student who is “up” should not be looking for solutions from the other students or from the teacher. The student should be looking for problems in the text that he or she had not been aware of.” ~ Frank Conroy, The Writers Workshop By Jennifer Lauck with commentary from staff When I was new to creative writing and...
Discover Your Voice With Our Creative Writing Short Courses Online “To be a whole writer, a truly creative writer, we access the life we understand through lived experience and use it to feed what we write, from fiction to memoir to lyric to poetry to screenplays. If you understand your own life, you can better understand the lives of the characters you hope to write about.” – Jennifer Lauck I’ll Never Write About My Life And why I’m writing now what I swore I never would By Carolyn...
Looking For Help With Writing a Novel? Our Foundations Program is a Great Choice! FAQ Bones The Foundations program at the Studio enables new writers to learn the culture, the shared language, and the overall philosophy of Blackbird. We are here to help good writers become great and the Foundations sets you up for success with ten weeks of study in Bones and five in Scene vs. Exposition. A few common questions: How much work will be expected of me in this class? If I’m a beginner, will...
Ten Reasons Why Blackbird Is One of the Best Online Writing Schools https://blackbirdstudiopdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Why-BB-Long-Form.mp4 1. Community 2. Craft 3. Structure 4. Support 5. Kindness 6. Professionalism 7. Developing a plan 8. Clarity 9. Affordability 10. Inspiration Join us in a class by clicking here...
