The Shape of Stories

The shape of a story is more than just the way it is told — changing the shape can change the story. Using a series of in-class writing exercises, homework assignments and examples from both creative nonfiction and fiction, we’ll look at popular shapes for stories including braids, collage, the traditional narrative arc, the circle and the frame, as well as the techniques writers use to create them including transitions, flashbacks and tangents. A writer could end this class with five different versions of the same initial story or five different stories. Appropriate for nonfiction and fiction writers.