Writer's Workshop - Composition Shop

Writer’s Workshop led by author Nini Berndt

This program’s topic: Make it Count – Precision and Distillation

Many of our great contemporary fiction masters are masters of economy. The Raymond Carver or Amy Hempel short story, the Jenny Offill or Katie Kitamura novel, the Joan Didion essay. These writers ensure each word counts, each phrase and image razor sharp, each detail specific and necessary. Nothing is extraneous, nothing is wasted. While we might try to emulate these writers—I certainly do at times—we don’t necessarily need to mimic their voice and style to learn something valuable from the way they cut and shape their prose.

Over this hour, we’ll look at passages from some of these masters of economy, thinking about how they are using specificity, white space, transition, syntax, and structure to maximize the effectiveness of what is and is not said. Then we’ll see how we might use that control and precision in our own work. Please bring a paragraph or two, a bit of dialogue, a character sketch, even just an image, that you think could benefit from this whittling down and punching up.

Includes book signing!

RSVP here.