9 Sundays, Oct. 10th-Dec. 12th (9 weeks, skip 10/31), 7-9:30 p.m.
$335 members/$365 non-members San Francisco
“I hadn’t discovered yet what I would later find was an iron law of composition for me: the exasperatingly slow search among the words I had already written for the words which were to come, and the necessity for continuous revision…” —William Gass
Aspiring writers usually wend their ways to this workshop because “life isn’t slowing down,” isn’t offering them the space or the time to work on their fiction. They want to write, or they tinker with two-pages and never get around to completing the piece, or they have ideas rollicking through their brains that haven’t, as of yet, made it to the page. But they all come to class with one common goal: they want to write a compelling story.
In this workshop-intensive course, every student will bring in stories (at least two) for their peers to discuss, critique, and deconstruct, in positive, nurturing ways. Everyone is here to learn, to improve, and the workshop environment is key for a writer to understand all aspects of story-telling. “Writers need readers,” says instructor Joshua Mohr. “We need other eyes to help us identify our story’s strengths. But just as important as praise is hearing what readers are not responding to. This is how we grow, hone a style and voice, and in the end, publish.”
The class will also emphasize revision tactics: how to take a flawed draft and renovate it. “Each student will complete an entire revision,” says Josh, “and will finish the course with a broader understanding of the hard work necessary to take a sloppy, first draft and turn it into literature.”
NOTE: Many students who have taken Junse Kim’s 5-week “Intro to Fiction” class will take this class next, and some people enroll in this class more than once because it’s a great way to keep the momentum going. Another “keep going” option is Josh’s “Fiction Continuation” workshop, which meets once a month for six months, instead of once a week for 9 weeks.
Josh Mohr is the author of the novels Some Things that Meant the World to Me, which was one of O magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009, and the newly released, Termite Parade. He has an MFA from the University of San Francisco and has published numerous short stories and essays in publications such as 7×7, the Bay Guardian, Zyzzyva, The Rumpus, Other Voices, the Cimarron Review, Gulf Coast and Pleiades, among many others.
“…a fabulous teacher…”