Plot: It’s Not a Four-Letter Word [Michael Shilling]

As fiction writers, we love plot. Really, we do. It’s just that it’s so hard to come up with a plot that doesn’t feel dictated, contrived, stock. In this course, we’ll examine how to build and revise plots that grow out of a character’s choices and desires. This class is based around workshop, and everyone will get a chance to have their prose reviewed. We will also read and discuss several stories by plot masters who are also literary geniuses, such as Tobias Wolff, Flannery O’Connor, and Kate Braverman.