Writing Classes
We offer both a sliding scale for each course and a reduced rate for those who can’t make a course
but would like to have access to the video recordings.
For more info, please email info@consequenceforum.org
Upcoming Classes
From First to Final Draft
What: Whether we have personally experienced the outcome of war, been deeply affected by the experiences of others, or been affected by what we see and read, we all have stories to tell. Many find their stories in the experiences of parents and grandparents. Others recall their time in active service. These are the stories we tell to friends and family, to our colleagues and our community, but how can we put these stories on the page so that others can share them? What makes a great story? Whether fiction or non-fiction, comedy or drama, great stories have strong characters, a carefully constructed narrative, a clear point of view, and a narrator with a compelling voice.
In our workshop, participants will review and use the art and craft of storytelling to write their own stories, from first to final draft in five weeks. They will share and gently critique each other’s work and, if they choose, learn more about opportunities for publication at our final, optional session.
Each two-hour class will consist of 1) a review of reading assignments (short pieces), 2) an overview of one or more elements of storytelling including narrative arc, character development, dialogue, description, voice, and point of view, and 3) one or more students will read their draft and others will critique the work.
Students will leave with 1) a portfolio of material associated with the elements of storytelling, 2) copies of essays and stories representing some of our best writers, 3) a draft of a story they can work on after the term ends, and 4) instructions for finding publication opportunities
All levels of writers are welcome.
Who: Lou-Ellen Barkan is a native New Yorker who relocated to the Berkshires, where she teaches creative writing and runs a writers’ group. She retired after careers on Wall Street, in New York City government, and as a not-for-profit CEO. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA from Hunter College and an MA from Columbia University/Teacher’s College. A sample of her published stories can be found here.
Where & When: Online: Saturdays, Feb. 21 – March 21 from 1p – 3p ET
Class Limit: 10
Cost: $105
Slowing Down and Speeding Up: Playing With Time and Detail
What: Even when we write about less difficult subjects, choosing what speed we use to recount them can change our own, and our readers’, understanding. If we’re reflecting on how conflict affects our world or the people we come from, experimenting with time and detail can make a big difference.
When might zooming out or zooming in, speeding up or slowing down, help us convey the profound effect something has had on us, our family, our community? What happens when we play with the pace of events in unexpected ways?
We’ll read a few short examples together, talk about how they expand or compress time—and use them as prompts to try some new writing of our own.
By the end of class, participants will have new ways of thinking about pacing and detail—the big picture and the small—as well as examples and drafts to keep experimenting with.
All levels of writers are welcome.
Who: Michele Lent Hirsch is a genderqueer writer, editor, and educator. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Third Coast, Bellevue Literary Review, and The Guardian, among other outlets. Her first book—a blend of memoir and journalism on disability and gender—came out from Beacon Press, and has been translated into Korean. It’s been featured in Literary Hub, The New York Times, and Longreads. An editor at a range of publications, Michele works with writers to deepen their craft, and has taught workshops at the 92nd Street Y and elsewhere.
Where & When: Online: Saturday, March 28 from 3:30 – 5p ET
Class Limit: 20
Cost: $25
Following O’Brien: Stories Save Lives
What: “Stories save lives,” the author Tim O’Brien known for his fiction about the Vietnam War wrote in his most well-known work, The Things They Carried. That novel is as much about how and why war stories—and stories in general—are written as it is about conveying the reality of the Vietnam War as it was experienced by American combatants—or, to put it another way, how and why the lie that is fiction can sometimes be the most powerful way of communicating the emotional reality of war or any other traumatic situation.
In the seminar workshop we will apprentice ourselves to O’Brien’s ideas about writing by using a close reading of selected story-chapters in The Things They Carried (and possibly other examples of war fiction) to inspire writing prompts and exercises for participants to create, workshop, and share their own short stories.
Students will leave the class with a drafted short story, an understanding of some of the techniques of effective story-telling, and of the way fiction can help us explore our own experiences or emotions by shining light on them from a different perspective.
All levels of writers are welcome.
Who: Wayne Karlin served in the United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War. He is the author of nine novels and three works of non-fiction. He has received six State of Maryland Individual Artist Awards in Fiction, two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1994 and 2004), the Paterson Prize in Fiction for 1999, the Vietnam Veterans of American Excellence in the Arts Award in 2005, and the 2019 Juniper Prize for Fiction for A Wolf by the Ears.
Where & When: Online: Saturdays, March 28 – Apr. 18 from 12 – 1:30p ET
Class Limit: 12
Cost: $100
Previous Workshops
How to Write the Where: The Role of Place in Your Writing
What: Place. Whether you are writing memoir or fiction, it is easy to forget that place can, and should, be an essential character in your story. The taste of the dust, the drip of the rain, the smell of the diesel—by weaving multi-sensory descriptions of where your story takes place you make the story more visceral, accessible, and impactful.
This two-session class (four hours total) will combine short readings (PDFs provided in advance), lecture, generative exercises, and discussion to give each student an understanding of the many ways in which they can bring place alive, as well as hands-on practice in integrating this into their writing practice.
At the end, each student will have a better understanding of the role place can play in their writing, and concrete ideas on how to apply these concepts.
All levels of writers are welcome, especially Vets and those affected by conflict.
Family Research Workshop
What: Quite often, we look back on the conversations that we never had with people in our lives who have now passed on, or we put off interviews with living relatives or acquaintances because the topics feel too sensitive or we are not certain where to begin (for example, if they have experiences with loss related to conflict). This course will explore how to access the stories of friends, family, or strangers who may not have left recorded testimony in their lifetime, or it will help writers discover entry points into another person’s history.
We’ll create this narrative through discussing and developing skills related to a variety of research strategies including
~Conducting interviews (especially when discussing sensitive topics)
~Digging through archival materials efficiently
~Researching contemporaneous news articles
~Locating people and groups online
~Creating a system to file and record research
We’ll also discuss and develop skills related to the craft of writing these narratives through
~Analyzing how other authors have told family narratives
~Doing writing exercises to develop early ideas and hone your story.
~Workshopping stories students bring to class
By the end of this class, registrants will have a strong sense of how to research and tell the story of a person of interest.
Writers of all levels are welcome.
Bringing the Receipts: Using Personal Documents as Prompts to Write about the Past
What: Writing can be a powerful tool for processing the past, especially when it’s painful. The mind has tricks for coping with difficult events, hazing the details or even obliterating them. Maybe the trauma happened to you as a child, or before you were born. In this workshop, we will use personal documents as prompts to explore writing about the past. Each meeting in this generative three-week workshop will incorporate a different artifact: a photo, an official document, and a letter. The documents will be used as prompts for free writing exercises. After a short craft discussion, there will be side-by-side writing that expands upon the free writing exercises, followed by group sharing, and supportive feedback.
This workshop is for anyone interested in writing about complicated life events in memoir, creative nonfiction, personal essays, autofiction, or even just to explore the past. All writing levels are welcome.