This class is not being offered next session.
Five Saturdays, NO DATE AT THIS TIME, San Francisco
$185 members/$215 others
How many times have we heard the aged expression, “We’ll see what she says about that!” There’s anticipation in hearing someone express themselves, and the same is true of fiction and creative nonfiction writing: our characters need to speak, voice their opinions, woes, aspirations, biases, phobias, regrets. “We can write lovely exposition,” says instructor Joshua Mohr, “but readers need to hear what our characters sound like, what their preoccupations are. That way they can sculpt their own conclusions about them.”
In this course, students will work on many in-class and take-home exercises to hone their ear for dialogue. “We’ll work on giving each character a nuanced voice,” says Josh. “We’ll select the right words to push the plot forward, generate subtext, strip our dialogue down to its meaty essentials; when each line of dialogue bolsters the story, we’ll have established a connection between character and reader.” Throughout the course, students will be exposed to a great array of dialogue, from traditional novel and short story examples, to memoir, to playwriting and screenwriting. “The larger net we cast,” Josh says, “the better chance we’ll land an example that resonates for each student.”
Josh Mohr is the author of the novel Some Things that Meant the World to Me. His second novel, Termite Parade, is due out in June 2010. He has an MFA from the University of San Francisco, and also teaches through UC Berkeley’s ASUC studios and a local halfway house, and has also published numerous short stories, including one, “Dressing the Dead” that was featured in the New Short Fiction Series’ emerging American writers show in Los Angeles.