Adult Creative Writing Workshop

This workshop will be a venue for DPL patrons to share their writing, improve their craft, and discuss literature and the artistic practice. Participants may submit fiction, poetry, non-fiction or memoir and as a class we will discuss the idiosyncrasies of each genre. Submitted writing will be discussed and critiqued by the class as a group, as well as in individual written comments given both by the instructor and the members of the class. Particular attention will be given in class to the sentence-to-sentence and word-to-word choices made by participants, and the ways these choices relate to the reading experience and the meaning of the work. Short readings may be used to help inform the discussions of style and genre. Writing exercises may also be given, and surprise guests may give short lectures and take Q&A, depending on how well the instructor has estimated his friendships with other artists.

Here are some questions we may explore in class:

What is genre?

What role does form play in the different genres?

What are the limits of style?

When does style cease to be ornament and become crucial to a piece of writing?

When does style become self-indulgent?

What right do we have to judge style?

What is the difference between style and affectation?

How can style reflect the inner and outer worlds of the author?

How can style communicate? How can it fail to communicate?