Courses

A dramatic scene takes hold of a reader and insists: Pay attention. Live here. Engage fully. Great scenes make the reader lean into the story, refuse to put down the book, dream the tale we put on the page. We know this; yet developing the images and ideas of our stories into wonderful, fleshed-out, vivid scenes challenges all of us. This course will explore what “show, don’t tell” really means in the books we love—and in our own writing. We will aim to create unforgettable scenes that pull our readers into the story and don’t let go. We will examine all of the elements that go into great scenes: gripping narrative, revealing inner thoughts, sensory detail, pitch-perfect dialogue, great backstory, and flawless prose. Does the setting serve the story? Have we chosen the right point of view? Is there dramatic action that moves the story forward? We will use in-class exercises to explore the many ways in which we can make a scene come alive on the page. Each student will write a scene with no exposition and no interiority and then build on that foundation by layering in interiority, flashback, sensory imagery, and much more. Students will come away with a new set of skills for writing cinematic scenes in fiction.