Instructor: Molly Dwyer
Maximum Enrollment: 7
Class Term: 09/21/2024 - 10/26/2024
Tuition/Fees
SCN Member: $205
Non-Member: $245
Class synopsis
How do you become our own best editor? We will explore how a single word or phrase can transform the rhythm of a sentence, a paragraph or a complete piece. This is a class about vision, and how to see your work without crippling judgement as you herd your words toward perfection.Class description
We will use Zoom to meet and workshop weekly writing for 2 hours. Each class will open with a PowerPoint presentation. Talks will be about 20-30 minutes with group discussion. Content will explore revision and editing tips and tricks that lead to good storytelling. Fiction and memoir/nonfiction welcome. Beginners to published veterans. We'll look at develop character development and dialogue. We will share and discuss each student’s writing each week. Students will be provided with a weekly prompt for those who would like one.
Class goals
Learn tips and tools for becoming a smarter, more skilled self-editor., Discover the power of your own authentic voice. Explore how successful authors use a strong, well-crafted voice to create.
Class communication method
We will meet for six weeks on Saturdays at 10 am - 12 pm PDT (11, Mountain; 12, Central; 1 Eastern) from Sept 21-Oct 26. We will meet on Zoom and use email to communicate between classes. Each week I’ll send a Zoom invitation to our meeting about 15 minutes before class.Class outline
Week One: Introduction
In-Class Presentation: Understanding Re-Vision
Introductions and Discussion
In-class, prompted writing
Week Two: The Power of Patter
In-Class Presentation: On Words, Power & Pattern
Student Writing: 1-3 pages of original writing for group critique
Week Three: The Courageous Self-Editor
In-Class Presentation: Show & Tell
Student Writing: 1-3 pages of original writing
Week Four: The Architecture of a Paragraph
In-Class Presentation: Beginnings & Endings
Student Writing: 1-3 pages of original writing for group critique
Week Five: Gesture and Dialogue
In-Class Presentation: Talking & Listening
Student Writing: 1-3 pages of original writing for group critique
Week Six: Evoking Emotion
In-Class Presentation: Creating Passion on the Page
Student Writing: 1-3 pages of original writing
Class time commitment
Two hours per weekly meeting plus the time you spend writing for the class each week, (Recommended 2-6 hours.) You will be expected to email writing to each other by each week’s end. We will read and workshop pieces in class.Instructor bio
Molly’s debut novel, Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein, won an Independent Publishers Book of the Year Award in Fiction, an Indie Book Award for Historical Fiction, and was short-listed for the Northern California Book Award. Molly teaches creative writing at Mendocino College, and was the founding President of the Writers of the Mendocino Coast. She has been honored by the local branch of the National Women’s Political Caucus for “Writing Women Back into History.” Her historical monograph, From Maidens to Mavericks: Mendocino Women, was published by the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino, California. She’s currently polishing completed manuscripts.
