Writing the Unknown

Instructor: Sarah Gerkensmeyer
Date: 3 Mondays: August 7, 14, 21
Time: 7-9 p.m.
Location: IWC
Cost: $150 nonmembers, $96 members, $84 student members/teacher members/senior members/military members/librarian members

We are all familiar with the advice to “write about what you know.”  What about Eudora Welty’s advice: “Write about what you don’t know about what you know”?  How does a sense of the unknown and the uncharted ultimately fuel strong fiction?  In this class, we will discuss and try out various approaches that might help us tap into the unknown in our own writing—from creative research to magical realism and Flannery O’Connor’s “mystery of personality.”  As Donald Barthelme says, “…the writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do.”  How might we embrace this sense of uncertainty in order to gain more direct access to our characters and their stories?  Participants will leave this course with lots of new material and ideas to explore and will also have plenty of opportunities to give and receive feedback during each class meeting.