One on One Creative Writing Workshop

One on One Workshops | Fiction, Essay, Prose Poetry, Rae Bryant

Welcome to the One on One Creative Writing Workshop. Thank you for trusting us with your words. We look forward to reading your creative writing: fiction, short story, short short story, flash fiction, creative nonfiction or prose poetry. In this workshop, you will work individually with a published author, editor and creative writing professor in your work’s discipline. You will receive developmental edits, line edits, end comments and a Zoom workshop that will focus on your authentic voice, your original intentions and the work’s strengths and needs.

Submit Your Fiction, Essay, Prose Poetry or Excerpt

This may be a shorter creative writing work–short story, flash fiction, prose poetry, excerpt–or it could be a longer work–collection, novel or memoir. We look forward to reading your words.

One on One Creative Writing Workshop Timeline

Each one on one creative writing workshop will focus individually on you and your work. Developmental edits, line edits and end notes will focus on your authentic voice and intentions. We will return your manuscript with developmental edits and line edits as well as a final narrative comment on overall strengths, needs and impressions within an agreed upon time frame, usually two weeks to a month, depending upon the length of the work. After you have a few days to review the editorial suggestions and comments, we will schedule a short phone chat to discuss.

Creative Writing Workshop Methods

Each work has its own strengths and needs, successes and focus areas. We approach each new work with an eye toward individual voice so that the work can take on a life of its own that focuses on your intentions. Below, you’ll find a link for submission guidelines and submitting your manuscript. As we move through your work, we’ll look at the following:

    • What is the intention for the work, as communicated on the page and as is essential to the main characters?
    • What is the authentic voice of the narrator, and how can this be brought out thoroughly and to the work’s best interest?
    • What is your authentic voice and how can this be coupled with the needs of the narrative voice?
    • Developmentally, how can the character arcs and the overall narrative be brought to fuller realization?
    • Linguistically, how does the cadence, syntax and repetition in language support the overall artistry of the piece? 
    • Mechanically, are the choices being made in the overall best interest of the authentic narrative voice?
    • What can be strengthened from word choice and comma usage?

Thank you for joining us at The Eckleburg Workshops. We promise to honor your hard work and talents.

About Rae Bryant

Rae Bryant - Creative Writing WorkshopRae Bryant is the author of the short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals. Her stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in print and online at The Paris ReviewThe Missouri  ReviewMcSweeneysDIAGRAMNorth American Review, Gargoyle and more. Her work has won prizes, scholarships and fellowships from Johns Hopkins, American University, Aspen Writers Foundation, VCCA and Whidbey Writers and has been nominated for the Pen/Hemingway, Pen Emerging Writers, &NOW Award, Lorian Hemingway, and Pushcart. She is the founding editor of Eckleburg. She earned an M. A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins and an M. F. A. from American University, where she received the Starr and Sartwell scholarships. She is represented by Jennifer Carlson with Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.

“Rae was so thoughtful, insightful, and helpful—her feedback was invaluable to me. Thank you!” — Lia V.
 
“Rae did a great job working through my manuscript. She paid close attention to detail and was very helpful in providing both structural and narrative perspective. She was prompt and observant and allowed me to talk through the course of the book, pushing back with substantial knowledge of the characters and the readability of the novel as a whole. Highly recommend her services.” — Jim C.
 
“Rae will give you thorough notes and valuable insight to help you improve your piece and your writing skills. Highly recommended.” — Nick V.
 

“Rae has improved my writing immensely. She understands the craft on a very deep level. She’s always encouraging (even through the doubtful, dreadful moments that anyone that is serious about this craft will feel). I can’t thank her enough. If you want to grow beyond what you thought was possible for yourself — Rae will help get you there.” — Luis C.

“Rae was wonderfully helpful. I do feel that my story is stronger now thanks to her comments. I like when editors actually speak with you either over the phone or face to face, and she did. I think I got more out of it that way.” — Ryan O.

 

Ghostwriting—Articles & Essays

Rae Bryant

Rae Bryant is the author of the short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals. Her fiction, prose-poetry and essays have appeared in print and online at The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, Diagram, StoryQuarterly, McSweeney’s, New World Writing, Gargoyle Magazine, and Redivider, among other publications and have been nominated for the Pen/Hemingway, Pen Emerging Writers, &NOW Award and Pushcart Prize. She has won awards in fiction from Whidbey Writers and The Johns Hopkins University. She earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins where she continues to teach creative writing and is editor in chief of The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. She has also taught in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa. She is represented by Jennifer Carlson of Dunow, Carlson and Lerner.

Breaking Rules: When & How to Leave Linguistic Conventions Behind

We will explore linguistic techniques and devices in both written and visual works such as The Road and Inglorious Bastards. Our focus will be to study and practice contemporary, surgical, linguistic rule-breaking so to discover our own “rebel linguists” and individual forms of creative voice. 
 

Goals

  • To identify and read exemplary works of contemporary prose and linguistic techniques as a foundational study to creating your own;
  • To generate new drafts of work with a focus on organic voice and linguistic creativity;
  • To provide critical feedback on work so you can revise and make it as strong as it can be;
  • To help you further strengthen your knowledge of form and to provide you with the environment to better understand your individual voice so you can apply this to future works;
  • To help you learn and improve on the techniques of writing and self-editing so that you are aware of your preferred forms and boundaries and be able to consider how you might push your preferred forms into your best craft.