Writing Violence in Literary Fiction and Creative Nonfiction: Are Your Violent Scenes Essential or Gratuitous?

How do we transcend the cliched and gratuitous fight scene when writing violence? How do we create a scene that will engage smart readers in critical, aware and rigorous ways? Writing violence in literary narratives is no different than any other scene, really. It is all about focusing on the character as unique. In this Writing Violence Workshop, we will explore scenes from Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Alice Munro’s “Runaway” and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as character focused violence in literary fiction and creative nonfiction.

Writing Violence Goals

    • Identify the difference between writing gratuitous violence and writing essential violence within literature;
    • Identify language that elicits smart context within violent scenarios;
    • Explore the characters as human, flawed and unique;
    • Develop character-rich tensions within scenarios.

Writing Violence Course Format

Each week, you will have access to a new lesson. Work at your own pace. When you are ready for individualized feedback—developmental, line and end notes—from one of our faculty members, submit your work. Instructors have graduate degrees and professional publication experience in their workshop focuses. Participants may complete assignments anytime. We are open to English-speaking and writing participants both locally and globally and encourage gender and ethnic diversity in our workshops. 

Writing Violence Course Materials

Additional & Suggested Materials

Contributing Faculty

Rae Bryant, writing violence workshopRae 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.

Why Online Writing Workshops?

Online writing workshops present the best of both worlds for creative writers: creative isolation and craft interaction. The New Yorker article by Louis Menand, “Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing be Taught?” proposes the perennial question of whether or not writers can be taught or must be born. Our stance at The Eckleburg Workshops is that writers can be shown many craft writing skills and be encouraged to explore voice through the practice of these skills as well as the observation of these skills in both master and developing narratives. It is our stance that creative writing can be sculpted and nurtured and is best taught by published authors and experienced writing teachers. This is what we give you in each and every writing course and in our One on One individualized manuscript sessions.

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 Review, The Missouri  Review, McSweeneys, DIAGRAM, North 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.

 

The Novel: From Start to Finish

novel workshop

Welcome to “The Novel: From Start to Finish” at The Eckleburg Workshops. In this novel workshop, we will explore drafting your novel and revising voice, detail, characters, place and texture. We will also explore resources for submitting your novel project to an agent. You will have the option to sign up for individualized feedback from a member of the Eckleburg faculty, a published author.

It is important that you understand we are a character-based novel workshop. We are interested in character development and place over plot gratuity, though, we will spend ample time studying and fine-tuning structure. 

  • Character Study: Protagonist, Antagonist and Supporting Characters
  • Scene Study: Mapping and Coding the Narrative
  • Place Study: Mapping and Coding the Setting
  • Compression Study: Rewrite Your Novel as a Flash Fiction
  • Expansion Study: Refill the Novel (Now That You Know Its Essence)

Contributing Faculty

Rae BryantRae Bryant’s short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals, released from Patasola Press, NY, in June 2011. Her stories and essays have appeared or will soon be appearing 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 as well as fellowships from the VCCA and Hopkins to write, study and teach in Florence, Italy. 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. Rae is the director of The Eckleburg Workshops. She has a Bachelors in Humanities from Penn State with a concentration in Eduction and English Literature and minors in Art, History and Philosophy. In addition to her Masters in Writing from Johns Hopkins, she completed graduate coursework in Curriculum and Administration at Penn State. She has been teaching and lecturing for over twenty years in campus classrooms and at writing conferences. Rae is a member of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, AWP, NBCC, CLMP and Johns Hopkins Alumni Association and is represented by Jennifer Carlson of Dunow, Carlson and Lerner.

Submit your manuscript to Rae for individualized editorial feedback.

Why Online Writing Workshops?

Online writing workshops present the best of both worlds for creative writers: creative isolation and craft interaction. The New Yorker article by Louis Menand, “Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing be Taught?” proposes the perennial question of whether or not writers can be taught or must be born. Our stance at The Eckleburg Workshops is that writers can be shown many craft writing skills and be encouraged to explore voice through the practice of these skills as well as the observation of these skills in both master and developing narratives. It is our stance that creative writing can be sculpted and nurtured and is best taught by published authors and experienced writing teachers. This is what we give you in each and every writing course and in our One on One individualized manuscript sessions. Submit your manuscript for individualized editorial feedback

[Em]Powering the Self Workshop: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction and Hybrid Narratives

Welcome to the “[Em]Powering the Self Workshop.” This gender and diversity narrative project takes its title from Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman but it does not stop at gender. This workshop is open to all forms: fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and hybrid. It is open to all genders, identities and backgrounds. In this course we will explore how progressive experiences with cultures, both our own and others, inform our voice in both the artistic expression of voice and the voice we give to self. It is our intention to give power over self, not others. Following Wollstonecraft’s example:

I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves. —Mary Wollstonecraft

We will excavate self, explore self and then express self through narratological study: how our understanding of themes, conventions and symbols can siphon as well as invigorate voice. Focal criticisms will be feminism, postmodernism, Marxism, Jungian theory, gender studies/queer theory and a bit of neoformalism. Affiliate study as part of American University LIT-643 Feminism and Fiction (Professor Rubenstein) and LIT-700 Advanced Fiction Workshop (Professor Perkins-Valdez). 

[Em]Powering the Self Workshop Description

In this workshop, we’ll add additional “writing the other” resources to our writers’ toolboxes. We’ll consider our authentic voices and how these voices affect not only narrative perspective, but also our characters’/subjects’ arcs and origins. Finally, we will consider how your own origins and social evolutions can serve our voices in extraordinary and honest ways, while also, and let us not forget, considering and respecting the issues of cultural appropriation within art forms. In this writing workshop, our intention is to support self and others more deeply so to create stronger voices and narrative conversations with our readers and our communities.

[Em]Powering the Self Writing Goals

This workshop is a collaborative work between several Eckleburg faculty and authors with the intention of helping you explore your literary strengths and needs with an eye on organic voice. The specific goals of this workshop are:

  • To identify and read exemplary works as a foundational study so to define both your organic voice and writing beyond self;
  • To foster regular writing habits so to exercise and strengthen your organic voice;
  • To generate new drafts of work that encompass your artistic and human foundations;
  • To read and revise your work with a critical eye 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, self-editing and writing beyond self 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.

[Em]Powering the Self Materials

  • Aciman, Andre. “Shadow Cities.”
  • Adam Zagajewski. “Self-Portrait.”
  • Apollinaire, Guillaume. (trans. by Donald Revell) “Zone.”
  • Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, Vintage  Books, 2009. 
  • Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Translated by H. M. Parshley, Vintage Books, 1989.
  • Blake Shelton. “Boys ‘Round Here.” Based on a True Story…, Ten Point Productions, Inc., 2013, YouTube, youtube.com/embed/JXAgv665J14.
  • Cairns, Scott. “Homeland of the Foreign Tongue.”
  • Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art and Society: Fifth Edition. Thames & Hudson. 2012.
  • Cruz, Victor Hernández (for Joe Bataan). “Latin & Soul.”
  • Darwish, Mahmoud. “Who Am I, Without Exile?“
  • De Pizan, Christine. The Book of the City of Ladies. 1405.
  • Didion, Joan. “On Self-Respect: Its Source, Its Power.”
  • Dixie Chicks. “Goodbye Earl.” Fly, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., 1999. YouTube, youtube.com/embed/Gw7gNf_9njs.
  • Gilman, Richard. “The Man Behind the Feminist Bible.” The New York Times, 22 May 1988, nytimes.com/1988/05/22/books/the-man-behind-the-feminist-bible.html. Accessed 4 Sept. 2017.
  • Greenberg, Arielle and Rachel Zucker. “On My Poetry Mentors.”
  • Hikmet, Nazim. “On Living.”
  • Ibsen, Henrik. A Dolls’ House. 1879.
  • Kafka, Franz. “Metamorphosis.”
  • Kearney, Meg. “Creed.”
  • Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl.”
  • Koppelman, Susan. Women in the Trees. Beacon Press. 1996.
  • Koppelman, Susan and Alix Kates Shulman. Women in the Trees: U. S. Women’s Short Stories About Battering and Resistance, 1839-2000 (American Women’s Stories Project). 2004.
  • Levine, Phillip. “What Work Is.”
  • Márquez, Gabriel García. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.”
  • Masson, André. Le génie de l’espèce (The Genius of the Species). 1942, drypoint and engraving, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
  • Menand, Louis. “Stand by Your Man: The Strange Liaison Between Sartre and Beauvoir.” The New Yorker, 26 Sept. 2005, newyorker.com/magazine/2005/09/26/stand-by-your-man. Accessed 2 Sept. 2017.
  • Morrison, Toni. Beloved.
  • Neruda, Pablo. (trans. by Robert Bly) “Walking Around.”
  • Nye, Naomi Shihab. “Blood.“
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson. “On Self-Reliance.”
  • Šalamun, Tomaž. (trans. by Brian Henry) “Ships.”
  • Shawl, Nisi and Cynthia Ward. Writing the Other.
  • Shelly, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus. 1818. Norton Critical Addition. 2012.
  • Shelton, Blake. Boys ‘Round Here.” 
  • Simic, Charles (for Octavio Paz). “In the Library.”
  • Simic, Charles. “Cameo Apparence.”
  • “Simone de Beauvoir: Journalist, Women’s Rights Activist, Academic, Activist, Philosopher (1908–1986).” Biography, 28 Apr. 2017, biography.com/people/simone-de-beauvoir-9269063. Accessed 2 Sept. 2017.
  • Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW). 2000.
  • Toyen. Dívčí sen II (A Girl Dream II). 1932. zincography and aquarelle, The ART Gallery, Chrudim.
  • Trethewey, Natasha. “Elegy.”
  • Williams, Diane. “The Dog.”
  • Williams, Diane. “The Man.”
  • Wollstonecraft, Mary.  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1792.
  • Wollstonecraft, Mary. Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman. 1798.
  • Woolf, Virginia. Orlando.
  • Young, Kevin. “After Loss, Turning To Poetry For Grief And Healing.”

[Em]Powering the Self Contributors

Born to a Mexican mother and Jewish father, Rosebud Ben-Oni is a recipient of the 2014 NYFA Fellowship in Poetry and a CantoMundo Fellow. She was a Rackham Merit Fellow at the University of Michigan, a Horace Goldsmith Scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a graduate of the Women’s Work Lab at New Perspectives Theater in NYC. She is the author of SOLECISM (Virtual Artists Collective, 2013) and an Editorial Advisor for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. Her work appears in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Arts & Letters, Bayou, Puerto del Sol, among others. She writes weekly for The Kenyon Review. 

Rae Bryant is the author of the short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals. Her stories, essays and prose poetry 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 as well as fellowships from the VCCA and Hopkins to write, study and teach in Florence, Italy. 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. Rae is the director of The Eckleburg Workshops. She has a Bachelors in Humanities from Penn State with a concentration in Eduction and English Literature, minors in Art, History and Philosophy. Rae is a member of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, AWP, NBCC, NOW, NAACP and CLMP She is represented by Jennifer Carlson of Dunow, Carlson and Lerner.

Kalisha Buckhanon’s novels are Conception and Upstate. Her writing awards include an American Library Association Alex Award, Friends of American Writers Award and Illinois Arts Council Fellowship. She and her work have been featured in Essence, People, Guardian, London Independent on Sunday, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Colorlines, BlogHer, xoJane, Michigan Quarterly Review, Hermeneutic Chaos, Winter Tangerine Review, Atticus Review and more. She has taught creative writing, humanities and English through PEN American Center’s Prison Writing Program, Kankakee Community College and many inner-city schools programs, summer arts camps and library initiatives. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sisters in Crime, with appearances for the group as an on-air commentator on Investigation Discovery Channel’s “Deadly Affairs.” Kalisha has an M.F.A in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City, and a B.A. and M.A. in English Language and Literature both from University of Chicago.

Adam Klein — author, musician (The Size Queens) and professor — recently completed his second Fulbright Senior Scholarship at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. During his previous Fulbright fellowship he taught at the University of Mumbai and North Bengal University. Klein’s first book, The Medicine Burns, is a collection of short stories that was nominated for a Lambda Book Award; selections from which appear in Best American Gay Fiction and Men on Men 5 which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for Fiction Anthologies. He is also the author of the novel Tiny Ladies. In a review The London Observerwrote that Tiny Ladies is “an engrossing and beautifully written book,” and Kirkus Reviewsdescribed it as “a bizarre combination of Dostoevsky, Jim Thompson, and Robert Altman.” An early excerpt of Tiny Ladies appeared in the anthology Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache: Adventures in the First Person, edited by Michelle Tea and Clint Catalyst. Both The Medicine Burns and Tiny Ladies are now part of Dzanc Books’ rEprint series. His short form work has also appeared in such literary journals as Your Impossible Voice, Pank, Educe, and Fiction International,among others. More recently, his short story “A Hardship Post,” published in Fourteen Hills, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Rania MoudaressARTIST | Born in Damascus, Rania Moudaress graduated from the École Supérieure des Arts et Mode in Paris as well as from the Paris American Academy of Fashion and Art. She also holds a degree from the Higher Institute of Drama and Music in Damascus . Her work explores the link between womanhood and nature, and the gap between dreams and reality. Her artworks are characterized by lines delicately constructed and the use of natural elements mixed with human faces or body parts.

The Undead Workshop: Coming Soon…

We will read and view excerpts of undead works such as Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z, Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, Day of the Dead, The Walking Dead and more. We will also use some of my favorite writing and craft techniques tailored to bringing out the best in your character-based fiction.

Writing Goals

  • To identify, read and view exemplary works of the undead as foundational studies to creating your own;
  • To generate new drafts of work with a focus on the undead and dystopia settings with a focus on character-based narrative and detailed setting;
  • 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.

 

30 Stories in 30 Days Creative Writing Workshop

30 Stories in 30 Days

In “30 Stories in 30 Days” you will write, write and write some more using favorite writing prompts by published authors and expert writing instructors. In this course, you will respond to timed daily writing prompts that will force you into a creativity focus where your “internal editor” will have to wait their turn, allowing story development to take over. Daily writing prompts will begin immediately when you click the “Take this course” button. Subsequently, you can begin during NaNoWriMo or at the beginning, middle, end of any month, whenever it suits you.  Each prompt is available to you on its scheduled day and you will write at your own pace. If you are so inclined, you can submit one or more stories for our One on One Creative Writing Workshop, where you will receive individualized developmental edits, line edits, end notes and a phone chat.

This course focuses on your creative and narrative talents. You are welcome to share your daily writing prompts with other course writers on each day. You can take this course in tandem with friends during NaNoWriMo or any month of the year. When you develop one or more prompts into a fuller narrative, consider our One on One Creative Writing Workshop.

Writing Methods

  • You will have access to one writing prompt per day.
  • Timed writing in ten minutes or less. The prompts suggest first person narratives; however, feel free to write in whatever PoV and tense works best for you. If at any point, the narrative derivates from the original prompt, let it. Go where your creativity leads you.
  • Stop writing when the timer stops. Take a break. Stand up. Grab a drink. Keep writing new words if you like or, if not, file the scene/narrative for a later time.
  • Give yourself at least two days before you revise these new narratives/scenes.
  • Finally, if you would like to share your narrative, post it to the discussion board below each lesson and share it with your course peers. If you end up expanding this narrative into a fuller work and would like written, individualized feedback on it, we invite you to join us for a One on One Creative Writing Workshop.

Goals for Writing Prompts

  • To further explore authentic voice
  • To write a new narrative every day for thirty days;
  • To leverage the creative right brain to generate ideas;
  • To strengthen daily writing regimens;
  • To exercise freewriting;
  • To mine personal experiences and observations for narrative details
  • To practice scaffold writing in an authentic and culminative process.

What is NaNoWriMo and Why is “30 Stories” Different?

NaNoWriMo mainly focuses on drafting a novel of 50,000 words or more in November each year. For some writers, writing a novel in a linear approach–point A to point B to point c….–works very well. For some writers, a less linear format will unearth creativities and connections otherwise missed. With our structure, you can write that novel you’ve been wanting to write OR you can write a series of short stories or essays that may turn into a novel or a collection. Another aspect that differentiates our workshop is that you will have the option to write culminatively, using early work to inform later work in a scaffolded structure. Finally, where NaNoWriMo focuses on the long form, our approach gives you the liberty to approach new work in your most authentic process. And when you’ve completed your thirty days of writing prompts, you will start the process of developmentally revising at your own pace, either independently with lesson guidance or with a published author and mentor.

Why Online Writing Workshops?

Online creative writing workshops present the best of both worlds for creative writers. Creative isolation and craft interaction. In “Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing be Taught?” (The New Yorker), Louis Menand not only asks should, but also if. Our stance at The Eckleburg Workshops is that writers can be shown craft writing skills. Writers can be encouraged to explore voice through the practice of these skills. Writers can observe and deduce authentic skills in both master and developing narratives. It is our job to sculpt and nurture creative writing and this is best done by published authors and experienced writing teachers. This is what we give you in each and every writing course and in our One on One individualized manuscript sessions.

The Short Story Workshop

Short Story Workshop

short story

In the Short Story Workshop, we will study what constructs the world of the short story: pain, happiness, fear, love, desire, anger, and menace. You will write your characters, settings and scenes with a focus on your organic voice and style. This workshop is for character-focused craft and storytellers. Our focus will be on narratives that grip and immerse readers at an unflinching level while understanding the differences between what is essential and what is gratuitous. With a focus on scene work and how to build a short story through the nucleus of the scene, writers will explore their organic voices and styles. Join us and improve your craft as the weeks progress by giving and receiving feedback, the cornerstone of exploring your own strengths, needs and preferences.

In many of the below lessons, we encourage you to use short stories and scenes you’ve already created. If you would like to create a new short stories and scenes first, please explore at our 30 Stories in 30 Days Workshop, where you can pick and choose writing prompts.

Short Story Writing Goals

    • To read a variety of scenes from contemporary short stories and examine the fiction techniques used by short story writers to engage readers;
    • To generate drafts of prose scenes with compelling characters and narrative tension, scenes that you may want to later develop into complete stories;
    • To explore tone, tension, catharsis, humor, poetic language and more within the short story form;
    • To excavate personal essays for organic scene material;
    • To receive feedback on your writing so that you can accomplish your objectives for scenes and be better prepared to revise your work to make it the best it can be;
    • To strengthen your writing craft by honing your analytical skills and providing constructive feedback on others’ work;
    • To help you further strengthen your knowledge of narrative forms and to provide you with the environment to better understand your individual voice so that you can apply this to future works;
    • To help you learn writing skills and improve your craft so that you are better equipped to edit your own work as you continue to write scenes, complete short stories and submit your work for publication.

Suggested Short Story Resources

The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present. Eric Kandel.

A Handbook to Literature. William Harmon.

“Cogito et Histoire de la Folie.” Jacques Derrida.

Cognitive Neuropsychology Section, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition.

Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Lynne Truss.

The Elements of Style. William Strunk. 

New Oxford American Dictionary. Edited by Angus Stevenson and Christine A. Lindberg.

The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Martin Puchner, et al.

The Norton Introduction to Philosophy. Gideon Rosen and Alex Byrne.

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. Patricia T. O’Conner

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French & Ned Stuckey-French.

Writing the Other. Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.

Contributing Faculty

Benjamin Schachtman’s short stories and other work have been most recently published in The Dig Boston, Confngo (UK) and The Bad Version. He received his MA in English and American Literature from NYU, and is completing his PhD in English Literature at SUNY Stony Brook. He has designed and taught writing courses – centered on sentence-level command of tone and style – for both Stony Brook and Manhattan College. He recently moved to North Carolina to continue work on his next novel; his debut manuscript is being represented by the Alice Speilberg Literary Agency. He is the fiction editor and Sergeant at Arms for Anobium Literary. Visit him at Anobiumlit.com and BenjaminSchachtman.com. 

Kristen Clanton was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, where she currently works as a professor of English and writing and welder’s apprentice. She graduated from the University of Nebraska with an MFA in poetry. Her poetry and short stories have been published in the Bicycle Review, Burlesque Press, MadHat Drive-By Book Reviews, MadHat Lit, Midnight Circus, Ragazine.cc, and Sugar House Review. She also has a story in the upcoming issue of The Outrider Review.

Jonathan Danielson is a frequent contributor to the Canadian National Magazine award-winning Feathertale Review. His short stories and other work have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Juked, Superstition Review, Southern California Review, Five Quarterly, Monday Night, Gravel, Santa Fe Writers Project, South85, Fiction on the Web, Paris Lit Up, Black Hill Press, and others. He is a graduate of University of San Francisco and Arizona State University, and worked as part of the editorial process for the East Valley Tribune, Flatmancrooked, Nouvella, and Kimberly Cameron and Associates Literary Agency. He currently teaches writing at Arizona State University and is an Assistant Fiction Editor for Able Muse.

Barbara Westwood Diehl is the founding and managing editor of The Baltimore Review. She has an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University (fiction and poetry) and works for the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her short stories and poems have been published or accepted for publication in a variety of publications, including Atticus Review MacGuffin, Confrontation, Rosebud, JMWW, Potomac Review, American Poetry Journal, Measure, Little Patuxent Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, Word Riot, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Rae BryantRae 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.

Short Short Story Workshop

This workshop explores the tricky art of writing and editing the short short story (flash fiction), or stories around 1,000 words. Writers of short short fiction face the unique challenge of creating something fragmentary, but complete; something brief, but satisfying; little moments that hint at a whole world. This short short fiction workshop will focus on various approaches writers can take to write complete and complex stories in 1,000 words or fewer.

Short Short Story Workshop Goals

  • To identify and read exemplary works of short short fiction as a foundational study to creating your own;
  • To generate new drafts of work with a focus on short short fiction;
  • 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.

Contributing Faculty

Rae BryantRae Bryant is the author of the short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals (Patasola Press). Her stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in print and online at The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, McSweeney’s, DIAGRAM, StoryQuarterly, Huffington Post, New World Writing, Gargoyle Magazine, and Redivider, among other publications. Her digital intermedia has exhibited in New York, DC, Baltimore and Florence, Italy. She has won prizes and fellowships from Johns Hopkins, Aspen Writers Foundation, VCCA and Whidbey Writers and has been nominated for the Pen/Hemingway, Pen Emerging Writers, The &NOW Award, Lorian Hemingway, and multiple times for the Pushcart award. Rae earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins where she continues to teach new media, technology for writers and creative writing and is founding editor and designer of Eckleburg. She also teaches and lectures in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa, The Eckleburg Workshops and American University where she is currently in the MFA program. She is represented by Jennifer Carlson with Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.

Meg PokrassMeg Pokrass is the author of five flash fiction collections, an award-winning collection of prose poetry, and a novella-in-flash from the Rose Metal Press. A new novella in flash “The Smell of Good Luck” will be published in 2019 by Flash: The International Short Short Story Press and a new collection of microfiction, “The Sadness of Night Bugs” forthcoming from Pelekinesis Press.

Sommer SchaferSommer Schafer is a writer and teacher living in Northern California. She is a senior editor of The Forge Literary Magazine. Visit her at sommerschafer.com.

Historical Fiction Writing Workshop

The course objective is to prepare writers, of all levels, with the skills necessary to complete a historical fiction — short story or novel chapter. We will explore a variety of topics geared to learning how to research your novel, and how to incorporate history into setting, characters, and plot. The class will consist of research and world building exercises, analysis of popular historical fiction. Students will develop either a short story or a work-in-progress novel throughout the weeks. Students will leave with a thorough understanding of the historic novel, and feel confident to create a work of their own, hopefully building on the piece developed in workshop.

Historical Fiction Goals

  • To identify and read exemplary works as a foundational study to creating your own;
  • To research people, events, artifacts and place as development for narrative;
  • To generate new drafts of work;
  • 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.

Historical Fiction Course Materials

  • British Institute for Research
  • The Clan of the Cave Bear
  • Crichton, Michael. Timeline.
  • Dickens, Charles. Hard Time.
  • Gateway to World History
  • Gone with the Wind
  • Gregory, Philippa. The Other Boleyn Girl.
  • Jstor
  • Library of Congress
  • Miller, Madeline. Song of Achilles.
  • Mosse, Kate. Labyrinth.
  • The Red Violin
  • Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace.
  • Ulrich, L. T. The Midwives Tale.
  • Weir, Allison. Innocent Traitor.

Historical Fiction Faculty Contributors

Colleen Morrissey is an author, scholar, and teacher from Omaha, Nebraska. She achieved her B.A. in English at the University of Iowa and her M.A. in English literature at the University of Kansas. She is currently working toward her Ph.D. in English Literature at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Her dissertation, which she will defend in spring 2018, explores 19th-century British literature and culture. She was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 2014 and has been a Best American Short Stories Notable. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Southeast Review, Cincinnati Review, Monkeybicycle (print and audio), and others; her creative nonfiction has appeared in Confrontation; her scholarly writing is forthcoming in the Iowa Journal for Cultural Studies and an edited volume on British women writers; her poetry has appeared in Parcel and Blue Island Review.

Hunter Liguore is an Assistant Professor of Writing at Western Connecticut State University and teaches social justice for writers and historic fiction in the MFA writing program at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. A long-time naturalist and activist, she has written on a variety of topics that promote compassionate awareness towards the environment, indigenous peoples, and endangered species. A three-time Pushcart-Prize nominee (including 2017), her work has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, among other periodicals. 

Breaking Books: How to Get Started as a Book Reviewer

Alessandro Sicioldr Bianchi

Welcome to “Breaking Books: How to Get Started as a Book Reviewer.” This course will walk you through the basics of writing, pitching, and publishing book reviews. We will discuss the many ways book reviews are valuable for literary citizenship, networking, and building relationships within the publishing community. Assignments will include submissions bombing (in which you will craft work for interested markets), drafting pitches, and mapping the ways that reviews can help accomplish one’s goals for one’s own creative work.

Book Reviews Methods

  • Begin with the first lesson at your convenience, each new lesson will be accessible daily;
  • Complete reading and writing assignments at your own pace;
  • Engage with other writers on your lesson page if you wish;
  • Submit chosen work to faculty for individualized, written feedback via our One on One option at the bottom of each lesson page.

Reviewing Goals

  • To help students strategize when writing reviews, publishing them in a way that furthers their professional development as both creative and critical writers;
  • To generate and revise publishable reviews;
  • To expose students to a wide range of approaches to the art of literary criticism;
  • To help students learn industry standards with respect to book reviews (such as the usual wordcount, deadlines, and formatting guidelines);
  • To help students craft convincing and persuasive pitches for book reviews.

Contributing Faculty

Kristina Marie DarlingKristina Marie Darling is the author of over twenty collections of poetry.  Her awards include two Yaddo residencies, a Hawthornden Castle Fellowship, and a Visiting Artist Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome, as well as grants from the Whiting Foundation and Harvard University’s Kittredge Fund. She is currently working toward both a Ph.D. in English Literature at S.U.N.Y.-Buffalo and an M.F.A. in Poetry at New York University.

Why Online Writing Workshops?

Online creative writing workshops present the best of both worlds for creative writers. Creative isolation and craft interaction. In “Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing be Taught?” (The New Yorker), Louis Menand not only asks should, but also if. Our stance at The Eckleburg Workshops is that writers can be shown craft writing skills. Writers can be encouraged to explore voice through the practice of these skills. Writers can observe and deduce authentic skills in both master and developing narratives. It is our job to sculpt and nurture creative writing and this is best done by published authors and experienced writing teachers. This is what we give you in each and every writing course and in our One on One individualized manuscript sessions.

The AWP Survival Guide: How to Have Fun without Making a Complete Idiot of Yourself

This AWP Workshop is a self-directed primer for enjoying, surviving and getting the most out of your AWP experience. In this survival guide you will find veteran “How to” tips, promotional advice and links for helpful apps and practical resources used and recommended by Eckleburg instructors. Whether you are new to AWP or an ol’ pro, this guide offers a knowledge base you will find both practical and geared toward your successful experience. 

Helpful Apps & Links

 

What others are saying about Eckleburg…
 
Being a good lit citizen means supporting lit pubs. Donate. Buy. I’m going to show some #AWP17 mags that you need to support… , , .” Meakin Armstrong (Guernica)
 
The most exciting and adventurous and gutsiest new magazine I’ve seen in years.” Stephen Dixon
 
Refreshing… edgy… classic… compelling.” Flavorwire
 
Progressive….” NewPages
 
Eye-grabbing… fun… bold… inviting… exemplary.” Sabotage
 
 
Eclectic selection of work from both emerging and established writers….” The Washington Post
 
Literary Burroughs D.C…. the journal cleverly takes its name from the The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald….” Ploughshares
 

Proud member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.

 

The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review was founded in 2010 as an online and print literary and arts journal. We take our title from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and include the full archives of our predecessor Moon Milk Review. Our aesthetic is eclectic, literary mainstream to experimental. We appreciate fusion forms including magical realist, surrealist, meta- realist and realist works with an offbeat spin. We value character-focused storytelling and language and welcome both edge and mainstream with punch aesthetics. We like humor that explores the gritty realities of world and human experiences. Our issues include original content from both emerging and established writers, poets, artists and comedians such as authors, Rick Moody, Cris Mazza, Steve Almond, Stephen Dixon, poets, Moira Egan and David Wagoner and actor/comedian, Zach Galifianakis.

Currently, Eckleburg runs online, daily content of original fiction, poetry, nonfiction, translations, and more with featured artwork–visual and intermedia–from our Gallery. We run annual print issues, the Eckleburg Reading Series (DC, Baltimore and New York), as well as, the annual Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction, first prize $1000 and print publication, guest-judged by award-winning authors such as Rick Moody and Cris Mazza.

We have collaborated with a number of talented and high profile literary, art and intermedia organizations in DC, Baltimore and New York including The Poetry Society of New York, KGB Bar, Brazenhead Books, New World Writing (formerly Mississippi Review Online), The Hopkins Review, Boulevard, Gargoyle Magazine, Entasis Press, Barrelhouse, Hobart, 826DC, DC Lit and Iowa’s Mission Creek Festival at AWP 2013, Boston, for a night of raw comedic lit and music. We like to promote smaller indie presses, galleries, musicians and filmmakers alongside globally recognized organizations, as well as, our local, national and international contributors.

Rarely will readers/viewers find a themed issue at Eckleburg, but rather a mix of eclectic works. It is Eckleburg’s intention to represent writers, artists, musicians, and comedians as a contemporary and noninvasive collective, each work evidence of its own artistry, not as a reflection of an editor’s vision of what an issue “should” be. Outside of kismet and special issues, Eckleburg will read and accept unsolicited submissions based upon individual merit, not theme cohesiveness. It is our intention to create an experience in which readers and viewers can think artistically, intellectually, socially, and independently. We welcome brave, honest voices. To submit, please read our guidelines.

Over the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept their vigil, but I perceived, after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity from less than twenty feet away. – The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Auteur Workshop: François Truffaut, Alfonso Cuarón, Julia Ducournau, Kathryn Bigelow & Quentin Tarantino: Coming Soon

 

The auteur, then …

No longer the hegemonic audiovisual spectacle it once was, cinema has had to face many changes and challenges in the twenty-first century (not least its entanglement with capitalist globalization and post-medium digitization) in order to retain its value as a commercial form of entertainment. Yet as an art form, a status it still partly retains, it has also had to respond to a world full of new phenomena, all the while undergoing a set of deep transitions and crises. With this as our background, we look back on a motif and concern perennial since the early days of cinema: the auteur. It has evolved through the decades, has been put to rest by some schools, only to staunchly re-emerge time and again. The goal of the present volume is to propose the latest reassessment of the film auteur as “global” auteur because, if auteurism has validity in this global age, it may express itself in the way film directors, old and new, capture the zeitgeist in a multi-layered and faceted world, overtly or covertly. The work of these cinematic auteurs, even unconsciously, signals various positions that film art takes regarding reality. We see here a twenty-first century version of la politique des auteurs— not a certain policy or politics of auteurs anymore so much as “the political” immanent to cinematic authorship. Our collection thus includes a variety of chapters by established and emerging scholars alike, which shed a timely light on the current situation, identifying some of the most important cinematic voices of the last fifteen years, recognizing recurrent trends and motifs, and defining what constitutes the newness of auteurism in this young twenty-first century…. (Jeong) 

Auteur Workshop Description

The Auteur Workshop is a project in process as part of my MFA studies at American University, fall semester 2017. In Professor Middents‘ “Lit-646: Auteur Study: Alfonso Cuarón,” students are to develop a research project on a second, student-selected director. I’m not sure who my selection will  be, and I’m sure it will change repeatedly through the semester as Professor Middents introduces us to new directors, but I’m so intrigued by the project (maybe I am a cinephile) that I’m driven to begin collecting artifacts and research. My focal criticisms will likely be feminism, postmodernism and neoformalism.

One consistency I seem to find in my cursory search of auteurs, is the limited pool of female accredited auteurs, as if, as it seems to be in most things, auteurism is the realm of men. Equally interesting is that Alfonso Cuarón, the main subject of our course is the director of Gravity and Children of Men, one of my favorite films. Children of men. Film of men. So, I will be choosing a female director as my main focus for this research project.

The director that most comes to mind at this point is Kathryn Bigelow. I simply fell in love with The Weight of Water. Hurt Locker, too, has the gritty realism and stylistic play that Bigelow does so well. Obviously. 

I’m also intrigued by the place of female directors within the “darker” aesthetics of filmmaking. I will admit to being a longtime fan of Quentin Tarantino, though, his treatments of violence and women can grow tedious. Ironically, my favorite of his films is Reservoir Dogs, pretty much devoid of women. Still, I would like nothing else than to find my female Tarantino, or rather, my female of dark film, and I think I might have done it. The French director, Julia Ducournau, is exciting. I will spend some time with her work, presently I’ve chosen Raw. So far, I like her willingness to delve into content unflinchingly. I also like her moments of restraint. Something I’ve often wanted a bit more in Tarantino’s scenes, though, I will admit to having a twisted sort adoration for Tarantino’s Death Proof. Perhaps, a study of Raw and Death Proof, and their directors, and how they juxtapose to Bigelow’s and Cuarón’s films would be an intriguing focus. I also love the Davids: Lynch and Cronenberg. Let’s not forget the extraordinary TV series afoot on cable networks. 

The more I read and view, the more I want to explore. There is so much to learn. Looking forward to it.

Auteur Workshop Terminology

As part of my research, I intend to build a digital glossary of film terms resourcing the below listed print texts as well as the Columbia, NYU and Penn State glossary databases. These terms will be added to this site’s cumulative literary terms and critical theories glossary, coded so that the terms will be linked within each course and lesson and accessible easily with a pop up definition as the reader progresses. Such terms will include “auteur,” “mis-en-scène” and so on. Click here for a full list of literary terms and critical theories to be updated daily.

Auteur Workshop Materials

Auteur Lessons

Focus studies, which we will call lessons, are coming soon. I will add them as I progress through my research. I find the best way for me to solidify my own learning is to imagine and then organize how I might then share the material with others. Perhaps there will be other cinephiles out there who will find the included resources helpful. I am opening comments for this workshop. If you have any suggestions or would like to discuss auteurism, please join me.

Auteur Contributors

Stymie Magazine | Why I Write

Rae Bryant is the author of the short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals (Patasola Press). Her stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in print and online at The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, McSweeney’s, DIAGRAM, StoryQuarterly, Huffington Post, New World Writing, Gargoyle Magazine, and Redivider, among other publications. Her digital intermedia has exhibited in New York, DC, Baltimore and Florence, Italy. She has won prizes and fellowships from Johns Hopkins, Aspen Writers Foundation, VCCA and Whidbey Writers and has been nominated for the Pen/Hemingway, Pen Emerging Writers, The &NOW Award, Lorian Hemingway, and multiple times for the Pushcart award. Rae earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins where she continues to teach new media, technology for writers and creative writing and is founding editor and designer of Eckleburg. She has also taught/will be teaching in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa, The Eckleburg Workshops and American University where she is currently in the MFA program. She is represented by Jennifer Carlson with Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.
 
 

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.

The Johns Hopkins University: Hybrid Forms: JHU Registered Students Only

 This course portal is only for current students and alumni who are enrolled in course work with Rae Bryant at The Johns Hopkins University. Students who have enrolled for coursework and have paid their semester tuition will be given a password. Writers interested in applying for graduate program study can find more information at The Johns Hopkins University.

 

university.logo.large.vertical.blueRae Bryant’s short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals, released from Patasola Press, NY, in June 2011. Her stories and essays have appeared in print and online at  The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, 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 as well as fellowships from the VCCA and Hopkins to write, study and teach in Florence, Italy. She earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins where she continues to teach creative writing and is founding editor in chief of The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. She has also taught in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa. Rae is the director of The Eckleburg Workshops. She has a Bachelors in Humanities from Penn State with a concentration in Eduction and English Literature and minors in Art, History and Philosophy. In addition to her Masters in Writing from Johns Hopkins, she completed graduate coursework in Curriculum and Administration at Penn State. She has been teaching and lecturing for over twenty years in campus classrooms. Rae is a member of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, AWP, NBCC, CLMP and Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. 

Writing Sex in Literary Fiction: Are Your Sex Scenes Essential or Gratuitous?

How do you transcend the cliched and gratuitous sex scene when writing sex? How do you create a scene that will engage smart fe/male readers in critical, gender aware and sexually rigorous ways? Writing sex in the literary scene is no different than any other scene, really. It is all about focusing on the character as gender and sexually unique. Whether you intend to write a more graphically specific scene, such as in American Psycho, or a more subtle scene, character focus is the key.

Writing Sex Goals

    • Identify the difference between gratuitous and essential sexuality within literature;
    • Identify language that elicits smart context within sexual scenarios;
    • Explore the characters as gender and sexually unique;
    • Develop sexual and gender tensions within scenarios.

Writing Sex Course Format

Each week, you will have access to a new lesson. Work at your own pace. When you are ready for individualized feedback—developmental, line and end notes—from one of our faculty members, submit your work. Instructors have graduate degrees and professional publication experience in their workshop focuses. Participants may complete assignments anytime. We are open to English-speaking and writing participants both locally and globally and encourage gender and ethnic diversity in our workshops. 

Course Materials

Suggested Materials

Contributing Faculty

Rae BryantRae 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.

Why Online Writing Workshops?

Online writing workshops present the best of both worlds for creative writers: creative isolation and craft interaction. The New Yorker article by Louis Menand, “Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing be Taught?” proposes the perrineal question of whether or not writers can be taught or must be born. Our stance at The Eckleburg Workshops is that writers can be shown many craft writing skills and be encouraged to explore voice through the practice of these skills as well as the observation of these skills in both master and developing narratives. It is our stance that creative writing can be sculpted and nurtured and is best taught by published authors and experienced writing teachers. This is what we give you in each and every writing course and in our One on One individualized manuscript sessions.

Ace the New SAT Essay

What sets this SAT Essay Workshop apart from all the SAT Prep courses available? Since we are not trying to be experts on every aspect of the SAT, we focus our extensive teaching and writing expertise on what we do best, writing. With a focus on individual strengths, multiple intelligences and learning modalities, you will develop organic writing strategies. Subsequently, we will not only help you ace the SAT Essay, we will also help you know yourself better as a writer and learner.

SAT Essay Course Methods

First of all, we will break each step of the process into small skill sets and practice these skill sets repeatedly. Consequently, we will add new skills at your own preferred pace. As a result, you will soon write essays with increased confidence, speed, agility and with the tools and resources to continue your training.

In the actual testing environment, you have 50 minutes to complete your essay response; therefore, you have no time to hesitate. For this reason, we will replicate the competitive atmosphere in a supportive environment. You will build confidence in timed, highly competitive testing environments.

On competition day, you will probably experience exhilaration and nervousness. Consequently, successful competitors not only build a regimen for competitive performance, but also explore their own organic approaches to competitive performance. Therefore, we will use the athletic training paradigm as we train your brain for your SAT Essay test.

Now, let’s get started. Below, you will find specific writing goals and modules that focus on each individual goal. Let yourself focus only on a single module lesson at a time, and don’t worry about the big testing picture yet. By breaking the big task of the SAT Essay test into smaller digestible steps, you’ll find that the SAT Essay is merely a process of simple tasks.

SAT Essay Writing Goals

Train Your Brain

  • First of all, read the Newspaper!
  • Next, prepare your body and mind for competitive, timed testing environments.
  • Explore and identify individual cognitive strengths and areas of continued need.
  • Identify and further develop individual acquisition and retention levels through brain games.
  • Leverage intellectual strengths and develop intellectual areas of improvement using Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.
  • The Mental Self-Government Model: Are You Primarily Legislative, Executive or Judicial?
  • Finally, mind Styles: Are You Primarily Concrete or Abstract?


Reading

  • First of all, identify which parts of the SAT will be new on test day and which parts are consistent for each test and easily learned prior to test day.
  • Identify the main idea in the essay prompt and source text.
  • Finally, identify the source text’s most important details supporting this main idea (textual evidence).


Analysis

  • First of all, evaluate the author’s use of textual evidence.
  • Evaluate the author’s use of reasoning.
  • Evaluate the author’s use of style.
  • Finally, evaluate the author’s use of persuasive (rhetorical) elements as they relate to the essay prompt.


Writing

  • First of all, identify a precise central claim.
  • Create a skillful introduction and conclusion.
  • Demonstrate a deliberate and effective progression of ideas within each paragraph.
  • Demonstrate a deliberate and effective progression of ideas within the essay as a whole, from start to finish.
  • Use a wide variety of sentence structures (syntax).
  • Demonstrates precise word choice (diction).
  • Maintain a formal style and objective tone.
  • Finally, demonstrate a effective command of the standard written English language. Make sure punctuation and grammar are free or virtually free of errors.

Course Contributors

Rae Bryant, FacultyRae Bryant is a published author. She is a senior faculty member in The Johns Hopkins University Masters in Writing Program, director of The Eckleburg Workshops and lectured in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa and American University as well as at AWP and other national writing conferences. She taught secondary eduction—Honors English, Advanced Placement Literature, Gifted & Talented—for 20+ years. She won writing awards and fellowships from Whidbey Writers, The Johns Hopkins University, VCCA and Aspen Writers. She earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins and is editor in chief of The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. Rae is a member of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, AWP, NBCC and CLMP. She is represented by Jennifer Carlson of Dunow, Carlson and Lerner.

Why Online Writing Workshops?

Online creative writing workshops present the best of both worlds for creative writers. Creative isolation and craft interaction. In “Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing be Taught?” (The New Yorker), Louis Menand not only asks should, but also if. Our stance at The Eckleburg Workshops is that writers can be shown craft writing skills. Writers can be encouraged to explore voice through the practice of these skills. Writers can observe and deduce authentic skills in both master and developing narratives. It is our job to sculpt and nurture creative writing and this is best done by published authors and experienced writing teachers. This is what we give you in each and every writing course and in our One on One individualized manuscript sessions.

Teaching & Editorial Internship: The Crafts & Artforms of Recognizing & Supporting Vision

 

…because fine writing rarely pays, fine writers usually end up teaching, and the [MFA] degree, however worthless to the spirit, can be expected to add something to the flesh.

—Flannery-O’Connor

 

Flannery O’Connor is infamous for her statements regarding writing programs. She held that writing—or rather, good writing—cannot be taught, which is ironic, as she was foundational to the Iowa Writing Program, arguably the most successful writing program in the U.S. O’Connor might have been partially correct in her assertion that creative and visionary writing cannot be taught. It is true that each writer must explore and develop her/his organic voice from within, which can take years of study, some of which will be quite isolating. The writer with her pen or laptop. Still, even in these isolating hours, the writer will return again and again to her favorite novels, short stories, essays, memoirs and poetry, and in this, the true education exists. What the writer reads is essential and foundational to the writer’s development. And for this reason, a writing teacher can be inspirational and guiding. Whether you are teaching a writing student or editing a developing writer, the master books, stories, essays and poems that you offer as insight and inspiration can lead a developing writer to her organic and brilliant voice. True. Real writing cannot be taught, it must be found within. But an excellent teacher or editor can be a vital key toward unlocking doors within that writer. Below, O’Connor considers one door she calls vision:

 

In the last twenty years the colleges have been emphasizing creative writing to such an extent that you almost feel that any idiot with a nickel’s worth of talent can emerge from a writing class able to write a competent story. In fact, so many people can now write competent stories that the short story as a medium is in danger of dying of competence. We want competence, but competence by itself is deadly. What is needed is the vision to go with it, and you do not get this from a writing class.

 

How does a teacher or editor help a developing writer find her “vision”? Books? Yes. Practice? Yes. Debilitating critique? No. One of the worst habits of horrid writing teachers and editors is to shut down the writer’s exploration. More often than not, the writer’s vision will be found in writing “through” an idea rather than shutting it down altogether. Whether or not a writer’s current words will make the final cut, writing them are essential to the process and journey. Be a ruthless editor, yes. But do it with kindness and always an eye toward the student/writer’s intention. And be wary of harshly shutting down ideas. Even the “bad” ones. Sometimes, these bad ideas can become brilliantly metamorphic. And on this note, let’s explore your own talents for teaching and editing writing.

 

Completely General, & Yet, Attainable Goals

  • To explore teaching and editing resources, organizations, tools, pedagogies and critical theories;
  • To explore and utilize effective digital marketing tools for print and online editing;
  • To create an effective course lesson in your chosen course focus;
  • To cull, select works and edit a chapbook for release at The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review;
  • To review and give notes on student submissions;
  • To understand the foundations and importances of copyrights and public domains.

 

An Insanely Long List of Course Materials & Resources

You will not be asked to purchase all of the below materials, just a few. Several of the works will appear as excerpts within the course lessons.

 

Course Methods by Which You Will Fail or Succeed 🙂

In this internship course, you will augment your creative writing program with practical experiences in teaching and editing outside the university bubble, and yet, with adherence to critical and pedagogical rigors expected from your university teaching and writing program. You will engage in current literary professional practices and expectations including digital and print standards, as well as, technological and marketing platforms essential to teachers and editors of writing today. The internship will last 3+ months, and the lessons are work at your own pace. You will be expected to complete them in a timely and autonomous manner. You are encouraged to ask for help, of course, when needed. Questions? Email Rae at rae@eckleburgworkshops.com. 911? Text Rae at 301-514-2380.

Your first lesson will begin as soon as you click the “Start Course” button. When you’ve completed each lesson, click the “Lesson Complete” button and your next lesson will be available to you.

 

The Paperwork: You Do Want to Get Paid, Right?

PROFILE: To input you into our system, and set up your Intern One on One Workshop page, you’ll need to fully complete your profile. Please do this now.

ONE ON ONE INTERN WORKSHOP: Payments will be commissioned-based and only on writing students who sign up for your One on One Workshop. All faculty and interns receive 60% of student registrations for their One on One Workshop. Regular faculty charge $.03 a word. It is recommended that you charge $.01 a word as an intern, but if you believe you can encourage student registrations at $.02 a word, great. Because you are an intern, your fee will be less than faculty members. This will encourage writers to “try you out.” This, however, doesn’t mean that writers will. As part of your internship, you will learn the marketing tools essential to not only building a student base, but also a reader/editorial base, including social networking and Metrilo, a marketing, newsletter and metrics software system for digital companies. To begin the process of setting up your One on One Workshop page, visit any of the Faculty pages for examples and ideas. Click here to set up your One on One Intern Workshop.

FRESHBOOKS: We use Freshbooks for our accounting and invoicing system. As paid interns, you will be W-9 contractors and will submit your invoices through our Freshbooks system. Freshbooks keeps everyone’s financials and banking information safe, secure and separate while keeping excellent records of all transactions. This is essential for year end accounting. Don’t worry about starting your Freshbooks account right now. We’ll get you set up at the start of your first student registration.

 

Rae Bryant, FacultyRae Bryant is the author of the short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals. Her stories 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 as well as fellowships from the VCCA and Hopkins to write, study and teach in Florence. She earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins where she continues to teach creative writing. She has also taught in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa and guest-lectured at American University. She is the founding editor in chief of The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. Rae is the director of The Eckleburg Workshops. She has been teaching writing for 25+ years and holds a Bachelor of Humanities in English and Teaching from PSU. Rae is a member of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, AWP, NBCC, CLMP and Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. She is represented by Jennifer Carlson of Dunow, Carlson and Lerner.

 

Teaching & Editorial Internship

The Eckleburg Workshops is offering a paid teaching and editorial internship. 

  • Applicants must currently be in a university graduate writing program; 
  • Internships run for 3+ months; 
  • Small stipend compensation; 
  • All responsibilities are online, including reading, developmental edits and line edits; 
  • Required: computer and internet access, MS Word, MS Word Track Changes; 
  • Recommended: WordPress experience. 

Please attach your resume and cover letter below.

The Johns Hopkins University: Fiction Workshop: JHU Registered Students Only

The Johns Hopkins University: Hybrid Forms: JHU Registered Students Only

 This course portal is only for current students and alumni who are enrolled in course work with Rae Bryant at The Johns Hopkins University. Students who have enrolled for coursework and have paid their semester tuition will be given a password. Writers interested in applying for graduate program study can find more information at The Johns Hopkins University.

 

university.logo.large.vertical.blueRae Bryant’s short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals, released from Patasola Press, NY, in June 2011. Her stories and essays have appeared in print and online at  The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, 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 as well as fellowships from the VCCA and Hopkins to write, study and teach in Florence, Italy. She earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins where she continues to teach creative writing and is founding editor in chief of The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. She has also taught in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa. Rae is the director of The Eckleburg Workshops. She has a Bachelors in Humanities from Penn State with a concentration in Eduction and English Literature and minors in Art, History and Philosophy. In addition to her Masters in Writing from Johns Hopkins, she completed graduate coursework in Curriculum and Administration at Penn State. She has been teaching and lecturing for over twenty years in campus classrooms. Rae is a member of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, AWP, NBCC, CLMP and Johns Hopkins Alumni Association.