The Muse & The Marketplace 2020

In an increasingly science-suspicious world, many writers are wanting to incorporate scientific material into their fiction. But doing so presents some unique challenges.

In this session, we'll discuss approaches to writing fiction about science. How-- in a fictional world-- might we adhere to scientific fact? How can we make science central to our novels' conditions and conflict? How can we make the science work in the plot, without seeming like dull exposition? How might the progress of our characters' research-- or its dead-ends and failures-- drive change? We'll examine excerpts from writers such as Ursula K. LeGuin, Delia Owens, Gregory Benford, Mary Doria Russell, Margaret Atwood, and Barbara Kingsolver, to discover the choices they've made in diction, exposition, and science-as-plot-point. This session will be especially useful for anyone writing about characters who are scientists or researchers.

Often writers of fiction and narrative nonfiction, long or short, get bogged down in the revision process. Sometimes the problem is polishing too soon or, exasperated and wanting to be done, making desperate "fixes," when what’s needed are ways to re-see what's there in order to develop and structure the material. This workshop will offer strategies for finding opportunities in a messy draft, understanding habits that can limit you, tackling what you’re afraid of, and using your writing time well. We’ll discuss ways to evaluate drafts, looking at scenic development, presentation of characters, timeline, pace, and measurable change to help you find your way on the path to constructing complete and satisfying stories.

What does it mean to write the extremely personal? How do you navigate the inclusion and publication of deeply personal details in your fictional or nonfictional work? In this lecture, two writers for The Atlantic and The New York Times' "Modern Love" discuss how to navigate the writing process when your work includes deeply personal details about yourself or others -- sex, family, health, romance, etc., How do we approach the writing process, and what public and private considerations should we keep in mind during and after the publication process? What are the advantages and disadvantages of plumbing your own life for artistic truth? How does the personal differ in fiction and nonfiction, if at all?

In this query letter and pitch-focused workshop, we’ll explore all the ways, good and bad, authors can get noticed by agents. From pitching an agent in the restroom at a conference (don’t!) to having a great elevator pitch (do!) we’ll give you all the secrets to a stellar submission that will have agents talking…in a good way!

Whether you want to enhance your craft or win more writerly time and support, chances are that someday you'll face a competitive application process. At such times, a well-written artist statement can go a long way to make you stand out from the pack. In this session, we'll discuss the key components that every artist statement should include, as well as other ways to make your application as strong as can be.

Many a short story, novel, and memoir have gone unpublished because the author fails to create a strong narrator, one who can act as a wise and entertaining guide to the reader. In this class, we'll examine the work of Didion, Salinger, Austen and others -- and try an in-class exercise -- in an effort to make sure your next narrator isn't just strong, but irresistible.

Whether you’re just starting a novel and unsure where to go with the initial idea, or in the middle somewhere and feel stalled out, this session will get the wheels turning again. We’ll discuss familiar elements of the novel, but we’ll also use tricks from the Novel Generator to shake up your plot: we’ll consider your characters’ secrets and lies, and their general power dynamics. We’ll discuss the Rule of Neat Stuff, and Magic Objects, two tricks to help the novel gel together. We’ll look at some scenes from published books to inspire us, and we’ll discuss what it takes to finish a novel without going mad-hatter crazy.

This craft class will start with a very brief overview of minimalist and maximalist approaches, with a focus on how writers have used them to achieve emotional impact in their work. We will then look at a few texts by Susan Sontag, Wayne Corbitt, and Rebecca Makkai -- writers who are dealing with similar material in very different ways to great effect. If we have time, we'll also look at two works by Octavia Butler and Timothy Donnelly. Throughout the class, you might be self-diagnosing yourself as a minimalist or a maximalist and clinging to that artistic identity, but -- spoiler alert! -- one main point here is that you don't have to choose.

Do you enjoy reading humorous writing but wonder how to make your own work funnier? Sadly, it's impossible, since being funny is a natural gift that only a few magical people are born with. Kidding—it's actually a simple craft issue. One that writers can work to improve just like any other. In this class we'll study the building blocks of humor and examples from masters in fiction and nonfiction, identifying their techniques and learning to incorporate them into our own writing without making it too "jokey." We'll also examine works of pure "humor writing" like The New Yorker's "Shouts & Murmurs" or McSweeney's Internet Tendency.

We'll also discuss humor as a craft issue with real-world stakes. While few writers get called out online when their plot or setting doesn’t work, failed humor can elicit unintended backlash. So we'll consider humor not as a whimsical, throw-stuff-at-the-wall-and-hope-it-sticks element of story, but as a powerful craft tool that writers must utilize with both skill and consideration.

Join a lively and vital discussion among prominent authors, literary agents, and editors of color as we share experiences of issues we've uniquely encountered in our projects and our careers. Get advice on what you might expect in your own career and how to navigate it. The talk will build on ideas discussed in previous Writers of Color Roundtable, but all attendees are welcome!

The GrubStreet Essay and Memoir Incubator programs have helped dozens of students turn their drafts into excellent nonfiction pieces. Join Ethan Gilsdorf and Alysia Abbott-- instructors of these rigorous programs-- for the most important craft lessons and revision tactics for taking a nonfiction piece from its earliest exploratory draft to its final form. From creating an effective narrative persona to the art of establishing your central question or investigation, crafting scene, narrative summary and reflection, to understanding the kinds and forms of essays and book-length memoirs, this seminar offers a practical overview of what your nonfiction project needs in order to reach its full potential.

Description coming!

Courtney Maum has worked on 4 book projects with her agent: two with “Big 5” publishers and two with indie presses, and a current collaboration on a film adaptation of one of Courtney’s books. Throughout her career, Courtney's agent has stepped in to act as her editor, her publicist, her film agent and her producer, effectively becoming a brand manager who has encouraged Courtney to diversify her income stream through screenwriting, newsletters, original audio content, webinars, and other creative ideas. Courtney has had to learn what to say yes to, and when to push back so that she can protect the time and quiet she needs to write her fiction. In this extremely candid discussion, Courtney will discuss what it takes to make a living as a modern writer in the current publishing arena, without the writer feeling like you are “selling out.”