Thursdays, 7:30 to 9:30 pm
April 15, 2010 to June 10, 2010  (8 meetings; no class on May 27, 2010)

This 8-week class is designed both for short story writers and those just embarking on a novel.

For the first four weeks, we will do in-class writing exercises and discuss published short fiction and novel excerpts from a craft perspective.  We will cover such topics as characterization, pacing, point of view, structure, voice, and scene, and there will be short take-home writing assignments designed to help you progress with your manuscript.  For the final four weeks of the course, we will workshop student work in a serious environment meant to challenge and inspire every member of the class. Each student will have the opportunity to workshop either one short story manuscript or one novel excerpt (maximum 25 pages).

This course will take place in the instructor’s home in Beachwood Canyon (Hollywood), where wine and sparkling water—and the occasional gourmet cheese—will be served.

Enrollment limit: 8 students
$360 for new students; $320 for returning students.  Payment plans available.

If you’re interested, email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com

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Advanced Short Story Workshop (taught by Edan Lepucki in the Fairfax District)
Thursdays, April 22, 2010 to June 24, 2010 (10 meetings)

This 10-week course is designed for advanced students who are interested in deepening their understanding of short story craft and technique.

For the first few weeks we will discuss published short fiction and do in-class writing exercises. There will be optional out-of-class writing assignments, and we will hold short critiques of students’ work-in-progress and revisions. Each student will get to workshop at least one short story manuscript, if not two; the class will encourage everyone to turn in two short stories for feedback from the instructor.

Enrollment limit: 6 students
$385 for returning students; $400 for new students.  Payment plans available.

This course is by application only.  All students who sign up must have the minimum page requirement of a first draft to be eligible for the course. Please email writingworkshopsla@gmail to inquire about submission guidelines.

If you’re interested, email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com

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Intermediate Novel Writing Workshop (taught by Edan Lepucki in the Fairfax District)

Wednesdays, 7:30 to 9:30 pm
May 5, 2010 to July 21, 2010  (10 meetings; no class on 6/16 and 6/23)

This 10-week course is open to more advanced writers who have written between 50-100 pages of a novel. For the first few weeks of this class we will do in-class writing exercises, discuss craft and technique from a novelist’s perspective, and conduct critiques of 1- and 2-page excerpts of students’ works-in-progress.  There will be a weekly page-count requirement to keep you on task, and we will even set aside time for “lab” sessions, where students work seriously in-class, writing their manuscripts.  There will be two weeks off before we begin workshops so that students may commit their time to preparing their manuscripts for workshop.  The final weeks of the course will be devoted to critiquing student novel excerpts in an intense yet compassionate environment designed to challenge and inspire all members of the class.

Course will take place in instructor’s home in the Fairfax District where wine and sparkling water—and the occasional gourmet cheese—will be served.

This course is by application only.  All students who sign up must have the minimum page requirement of a first draft to be eligible for the course. Please email writingworkshopsla@gmail to inquire about submission guidelines.

Enrollment limit:  7 students
$410 for new students; $385 for returning students.  Payment plans available

If you’re interested, email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com

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There are a few spots left in Leslie’s 3-hour writing session on 3/20. It’s only $25!
Email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com to sign up!

Keep Writing in 2010: One-Day Fiction Writing Exercise Sessions

$25 per student

There are 4 session sections to choose from:

Saturday, March 13, 2010  (taught by Edan Lepucki in the Fairfax District) **FULL**
1:00 to 4:00 pm

or

Saturday, March 20, 2010  (taught by Edan Lepucki in the Fairfax District) **FULL**
1:00 to 4:00 pm

or

Saturday, March 20, 2010 (taught by Leslie Parry in Pasadena) **Only 3 spots left!**
10:00 am to 1:00 pm

or

Saturday, March 27. 2010 (taught by Leslie Parry in Pasadena) **FULL**
10:00 am to 1:00 pm

In this 3-hour class, we will do a series of short in-class writing exercises that will give you new ideas and/or help you further develop projects you’ve already begun.  Some of the exercises will be favorites from previous courses, and some will be new.  We’ll go from one exercise to the next fairly quickly, and by the end of the session you’ll have pages upon pages of new material.  Those who are interested may stay for 15-20 minutes after the session to share one exercise with your fellow writers.

Enrollment is limited to 8 students per session.  Coffee, juice and sparkling water will be served!

If you’re interested, please email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com

In a week or two I will be announcing our spring courses, so please check back for more details.  And, as always, you can email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com to get added to the mailing list.

]]> http://www.writingworkshopsla.com/2010/01/update/feed/ http://www.writingworkshopsla.com/2010/01/2010-is-the-year-of-the-short-story/ http://www.writingworkshopsla.com/2010/01/2010-is-the-year-of-the-short-story/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:53:18 +0000 admin http://www.writingworkshopsla.com/?p=157 There are still a couple of spots left in the Winter 2010 Short Fiction Workshop, taught by Leslie Parry.   See below for the course description.  Email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com to sign up!

Leslie Parry

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Short Fiction Workshop (taught by Leslie Parry)

Thursdays, 7:30 to 9:30 pm
January 28, 2010 to March 18, 2010 (8 weeks)

For the first four weeks of this eight-week course, we will do in-class writing exercises and discuss published short fiction from a craft perspective.  We will cover such topics as characterization, point of view, structure, voice, and scene, and there will be short take-home writing assignments.  For the final four weeks of the course, we will workshop student work in a serious environment meant to challenge and inspire every member of the class. Each student will have the opportunity to workshop one short story manuscript.

This course will take place in the instructor’s home in Beachwood Canyon (Hollywood), where wine and sparkling water—and the occasional gourmet cheese—will be served.

Enrollment limit: 8 students
$360 for new students; $320 for returning students.  Payment plans available.

If you’re interested, email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com

To sign up, email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com

Maya Sloan sold her first novel, High Before Homeroom, to Simon & Schuster.  Maya worked on a short story with WWLA–so we can’t and won’t take any of the credit for her book, but the novel manuscript went out to publishers in the last week of class, and it was so exciting to reunite a few weeks later to celebrate her success. High Before Homeroom will be published in June of 2010.  Learn more about Maya here.

This summer, J.P. Bumstead starred in “Proof” at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, and he was really spectacular.  The entire Advanced Novel Workshop went to see him perform.  When J.P. isn’t acting, he’s working on a beautiful novel about…actors in Los Angeles.

Paria Kooklan recently had a short story accepted for publication in Edge Magazine.  She workshopped “Burial” in class, and this will be her first fiction publication.  In the meantime, you can follow Paria’s exploits on her hilarious blog, Stuck in the Safety Net, and read her guest post at the Vroman’s Bookstore blog about writing her novel.

Mindy Farabee began her first year in the graduate creative writing program at the University of Edinburgh, where she is the recipient of the Saltire Scholarship.   Other WWLA students are currently applying to MFA programs and writing fellowships, so we hope to have news next year of their admittance.

Sarah Tomlinson co-wrote Todd Bridges’ memoir, Killing Willis:  From Diff’rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted, which comes out next March.  When she’s not helping celebrities find le mot juste, Sarah is writing her own fabulous novel and workshopping it in the Advanced Novel Workshop.

In September, Stephanie Eve Halpern gave birth to a beautiful baby boy: Jonah Eli Shultz!  A warm congratulations to her and proud new dad, Elan Shultz.

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If you’d like to announce writing-related news, or any other news that might interest your fellow students, please email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com.  I’d love to write a follow-up post, as I know I haven’t covered everything…

Happy New Year, and happy writing!

Ms. Parry holds a BFA from New York University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction.  She has taught writing at the University of Iowa, the Iowa Arts Summer Program, Vroman’s Bookstore’s Education Program, and was a featured speaker at the Midwest Literary Festival.  Her fiction has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review.  She is currently at work on a novel.

Leslie Parry

Here’s what Leslie has to say about the short fiction workshop, and her role as instructor:

In class, we will aim to both liberate and discipline our creative minds.  We’ll work to discover and have faith in our unique visions of the world while concurrently addressing the fundamentals of form and technique.  The myth of the fickle muse will be abandoned, and in her place we’ll foster curiosity, bravery, and diligence.  No style or school of thought is favored above the other; the goal is to cultivate and inspire every writer’s individual voice.  Through weekly exercises and rigorous workshops, students will be challenged to be the best writers they can be, no matter where they are on their path.

Stay tuned for course schedule and enrollment details. Email writingworkshopsla@gmail.com to join the mailing list.

Check out the announcement here.  And look at this(!):

The official award citation for Edan Lepucki’s 2009 James Duval Phelan Award winning fiction manuscript “Days of Insignificance and Evil” states: “But wait. I want to tell you another story, one that happened a few years before this. It must be related.” So says Rosalyn, the fourteen year old narrator in Edan Lepucki’s Days of Insignificance and Evil. In this remarkable and revelatory new novel we find Rosalyn carried along by events beyond her control—parents who abandon her to an older sister’s care, a new home life full of fracture, secret liaisons, and mysterious clues to a violent historical event; the all-female 1904 Los Angeles Iron Foundry Rebellion. As readers we’re carried along by a narrative voice in total control. Lepucki gives us a character that comes across as true and familiar as someone we know very well. Someone willing to share their secrets with us. Like the narrator we are quickly on the hunt to find out more about that past event.  Members of the rebellion surprise us by interrupting Rosalyn’s narrative and bringing their flesh and blood voices to the mix. Via that weave of past and present Lepucki makes disparate worlds and time periods cohere in ways the reader never anticipates. Here’s a writer who has the extraordinary ability to make both worlds—and all worlds—true simultaneously. And as we turn each page we know there’s always another story waiting, another twist and turn, a dog leg into the past, a time bomb in the present. Go ahead, we want to say. Tell us another one. Serendipity or coincidence, chance or fate. It must all be related. - 2009 Panel of Judges: Persis M. Karim, Toni Mirosevich, & giovanni singleton.

In the meantime, happy writing!  Here is a picture of my muse (and dog), Omar Little: