The Invented World: An Advanced Fiction Workshop

Great fiction isn’t written in isolation—it’s revised with care, insight, and honest feedback. This advanced workshop is designed for fiction writers who want to take their craft to the next level through thoughtful critique and close attention to what’s working—and what’s not—on the page. Whether you’re working on short stories, a novel, or autofiction, you’ll receive detailed line edits and instructor feedback to help you shape and sharpen your work.

The heart of the course is the weekly workshop. Over eight live sessions, each writer will have three opportunities to submit up to 2,000 words for detailed critique, for a total of 6,000 words by the end of the course. In addition to my comments during workshop, you’ll receive line edits and critique summaries on each submission—these are extremely detailed, comprehensive edits equivalent to what I offer my developmental editing clients.

You’ll also give and receive peer critiques each week, strengthening both your work and your editorial eye. You should expect to read between 10–30 pages of peer work weekly. You will not need to submit written peer critiques, but it’s important that you at least read their work and ideally, have notes ready so that you can fully participate in our discussions.

We’ll also explore key craft elements—voice, theme, character, structure, setting, stakes—tailored to your specific writing goals. Craft lectures and discussions will be shaped by the challenges that surface in your submissions, making each session directly relevant to your creative needs.

By the end of the course, you’ll walk away with new tools for revision, a clearer understanding of how your work lands with readers, and the momentum you need to push your stories forward.

Who This course is For

This course is open to all genres, with an emphasis on craft and character-driven prose. Best suited for intermediate to advanced students, those who have some workshop or writing experience, ideally with pages ready to submit by the second week. Your engaged participation during workshop is also essential!

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Gain a deeper understanding of all the elements of craft in fiction; what works in a story and what doesn’t, through analyzing your peers’ writing and more importantly, your own.
• Develop the skills and confidence to edit your own writing, recognizing your ticks as well as your strengths; letting go of what doesn’t serve the story, regardless how beautifully written.
• Learn how to receive and give critiques that are honest but encouraging, a key skill in fostering beta readers within your literary community.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Submit newly generated writing or existing work throughout the course.
• Receive concrete, actionable feedback on your submissions from your instructor and peers to be used toward revision.
• Discover solutions to plot and character challenges, improving your writing both on the macro level (honing your voice and the story’s arc) and micro (finessing your sentences to be deft and succinct).

Zoom Schedule

Each week, we will meet on Zoom on Wednesdays from 7-9PM Eastern. 

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: Setting the Foundation

We’ll begin with introductions, then review protocols and assign workshop slots for Weeks 2 through 8. The second half of this session will focus on a craft discussion addressing the key elements of fiction described above.

Assignment: Read student story submissions up for workshop in Session 2, and the short story, “UFO In Kushiro” by Haruki Murakami, for our craft discussion.

Week 2: Craft Discussion (“The Principles of Dialogue”) & Workshop

We’ll begin with a craft discussion on the essential principles of dialogue, citing Murakami’s story, and also addressing these topics: dialogue vs. exposition; naturalistic dialogue; dialogue conveying mood; dialogue tags and formatting. Then we’ll workshop three stories or novel excerpts, allotting 20-25 minutes for each.

Assignment: Read student story submissions up for workshop in Session 3.

Week 3: Craft Discussion (“Dialogue: Breaking the Rules”) & Workshop

In Week 2, we discussed the key principles of effective dialogue; this week, we’ll review some examples that break those rules to create an unexpected but intentional effect. We’ll also workshop four stories or novel excerpts, allotting 20-25 minutes for each.

Assignment:Read student story submissions up for workshop in Session 4.

Week 4: Craft Discussion (“Your Prose Is the Camera”) & Workshop

We’ll begin this session by studying examples of imagistic prose and the ways language can convey vivid visual experiences for the reader. We’ll also workshop four stories or novel excerpts, allotting 20-25 minutes for each. I’ll end this session by taking a quick survey of other craft-related topics the class would like me to address in the remaining sessions.

Assignment: Read student story submissions up for workshop in Session 5.

Week 5: Short Craft Discussion & Workshop

We’ll start with a brief discussion addressing one of the craft elements proposed by the class. Then we’ll workshop five stories or novel excerpts, allotting 20-25 minutes for each.

Assignment: Read student story submissions up for workshop in Session 6.

Week 6: Short Craft Discussion & Workshop

We’ll start with a brief discussion addressing one of the craft elements proposed by the class. Then we’ll workshop  five stories or novel excerpts, allotting 20-25 minutes for each.

Assignment: Read student story submissions up for workshop in Session 7.

Week 7: Short Craft Discussion & Workshop

We’ll start with a brief discussion addressing one of the craft elements proposed by the class. Then we’ll workshop five stories or novel excerpts, allotting 20-25 minutes for each.

Assignment: Read student story submissions up for workshop in Session 8.

Week 8: Workshop Conclusion & AMA Session

We’ll workshop four stories or novel excerpts, allotting 20-25 minutes for each. Then we’ll conclude with an “Ask Me Anything” session and final thoughts for the remainder of the class.

Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

$545.00 Original price was: $545.00.$465.00Current price is: $465.00.Enroll Now