CW 80 — Beyond Scene: The Secrets to Writing Page-Turning Summary
Quarter: Fall
Instructor(s): Ammi Keller
Date(s): Oct 5
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Saturday
Grade Restriction: NGR only; no credit/letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 10:00 am—4:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $305
Refund Deadline: Sep 28
Unit(s): 0
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Closed
Quarter: Fall
Day: Saturday
Duration: 1 day
Time: 10:00 am—4:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Oct 5
Unit(s): 0
Tuition: $305
Refund Deadline: Sep 28
Instructor(s): Ammi Keller
Grade Restriction: NGR only; no credit/letter grade
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: No
Status: Closed
Writers often learn to "show don't tell" only to realize they lack the tools to deliver vital aspects of their story. Intriguing exposition is essential, sweeping storytelling compresses time, and access to key information keeps readers immersed during moments of high action. So how do master writers get all this in there without using the dreaded info dump?
This course is for writers interested in adding pages to a novel or memoir in progress while building their summary writing toolbox. After a day of lectures, freewriting exercises, small group shares, and discussion, students will come away with new writing in six modes of narration: exposition, backstory, scene fragment, scene sequence, scene summary, and reported speech. They will read short excerpts by James Baldwin and Joan Didion to learn how and where to insert information, including about a character’s past. They’ll consider paragraphs by Celeste Ng and Britt Bennett before practicing approaches that make summary more vivid. And finally, they’ll look at pages by Tara Westover and Haruki Murakami to employ storytelling tools that compress scenes, which may be especially helpful for writers who have amassed more pages for a project than they can use. Prepare for an immersive day of learning and community, and expect to emerge with new skills to enrich your narrative craft.
This course is for writers interested in adding pages to a novel or memoir in progress while building their summary writing toolbox. After a day of lectures, freewriting exercises, small group shares, and discussion, students will come away with new writing in six modes of narration: exposition, backstory, scene fragment, scene sequence, scene summary, and reported speech. They will read short excerpts by James Baldwin and Joan Didion to learn how and where to insert information, including about a character’s past. They’ll consider paragraphs by Celeste Ng and Britt Bennett before practicing approaches that make summary more vivid. And finally, they’ll look at pages by Tara Westover and Haruki Murakami to employ storytelling tools that compress scenes, which may be especially helpful for writers who have amassed more pages for a project than they can use. Prepare for an immersive day of learning and community, and expect to emerge with new skills to enrich your narrative craft.
AMMI KELLER
Novel Writing Certificate Instructor, Stanford Continuing Studies
Ammi Keller’s teaching focuses on the intersection of mindfulness and creative writing. Her short stories appear in American Short Fiction, The Common, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and elsewhere. She has edited fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for Soft Skull Press and has received residencies from the Lambda Literary Writer's Retreat and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Keller was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.