Instructor: Robert Kent

For five Sundays, you’re invited to become part of an elite fiction writing community. This workshop is limited to no greater than ten participants, so every writer will get individual attention. We’re going to encourage each other and hold one another accountable to meet a firm writing and reading goal each week through daily emails. You can write any genre, any age group, (Robert Kent writes both middle grade books and adult horror stories) and any fiction narrative, be it short story, novel or other.

Every writer will be expected to produce a minimum of 2,500 words for each week’s session.  Submissions will be capped at a maximum of 5,000 words.  That’s only 358 words you’ll need to write per day or 500 words per day if you take two days off each week.

Please have your first 2,500 words ready by the first session (must be the opening of a longer work, or a contained story). You won’t need to submit it ahead of time, but you will need to have it prepared to be work-shopped during the second weekly session. Submissions should preferably be Microsoft Word documents as we’ll be using track changes for critiquing. If a Word document is unavailable, the student will be responsible for printing enough copies (no more than ten) for the entire workshop.

Manuscripts must be double-paced and in 12-point font, preferably Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier. The author’s name must appear on the first page. Each page must be numbered. Maintain a 1 -inch margin on all sides. Use actual paragraphs, typical punctuation, etc. In other words, manuscripts must be formatted as though they were about to be submitted for publication. Don’t make your fellow writers suffer through abnormalities in formatting.

This is a workshop for those who are serious about their writing. Every participant needs to be prepared to produce new writing of their own every week in addition to providing written notes and in-person feedback about others’ writing during workshop sessions. This is a workshop for writers strong enough to take criticism like a professional. Personal criticism will not be tolerated, but your fiction will be broken down and rewritten until it is killed or cured. Weak writers need not apply.