Workshop Descriptions & Instructors

Sandra Scofield

The First Novel Primer
One-Week Workshop June 10-15

The First Novel Primer
One-Week Workshop June 10-15

It’s a big undertaking, a novel, but you’re in the throes of passion for a story. How do you start? How do you plan? How do you evaluate what you’re doing? How do you deal with that messy first draft? (Does it have to be messy?) Just what are the building blocks of a novel, and how do you balance and sequence them? What’s the difference between plot-driven and character-driven stories, and does it matter? What keeps a story moving? What makes a reader care?

In this week, we’ll talk about essential concepts and skills, and you’ll have opportunities to write or rewrite (if you’ve already started), exploring scenes, developing characters, and pinning down chronology. We’ll share these exercises, and we’ll get and give generous feedback. You’ll develop a strategy for proceeding, and perhaps you’ll find a friend or two to share the journey online. The class can accommodate you, wherever you find yourself between start (idea!) and finish (good to go!). You can even try your hand at writing a synopsis and query. And you can workshop up to 2,500 words, as well as discuss your novel with the instructor.

Fashioning a Self: A Process of Life-Writing
One-Week Workshop June 17-22

This class in life-writing offers routes to self-discovery and self-definition through writing about life as a fluid journey. You are engaged in shaping the story of your becoming. We will talk about readings and about ourselves and about writing; we will do many exercises, inventory topics from our lives, and re-see our own experiences. You will produce many short passages, sharing and discussing them, or you may choose a theme or direction early on and focus on it. Although there will be some discussion of craft (e.g., balancing narrative and essay), the emphasis is on exploring story and one’s own particular way of defining it. Life narrative is not just retrospection; it is also the construction of oneself.

You may choose to write in any genre. Although you may think of this work as memoir, you will find it has a broader perspective. It is even possible to work with a fictional character you wish to develop for a novel. If you were in a previous workshop, you are welcome to attend again; sessions always vary because writers and groups do.

Biography

Sandra Scofield, a long-time Festival instructor, is the author of seven novels, a memoir, and a book for writers, The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer. Her novels have been New York Times Notable Books, and she has been a National Book Award finalist and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. She is on the faculty of the Pine Manor Solstice M.F.A. Program. Sandra is an avid landscape painter and the ardent grandmother of a toddler.

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Sponsored by the Division of Continuing Education
Iowa Summer Writing Festival
C215 Seashore Hall
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242

Phone 319-335-4160
FAX 319-335-4743
iswfestival@uiowa.edu

Last updated on February 24, 2012