From Blank Page to the Last Page (online class) – This class is canceled.

March 8 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm EST

Instructor: Holly Day
$189 Members | $210 Nonmembers
Wednesdays, 3/8/23 – 5/10/23 | 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. EST

Have you ever had a great idea for a short story but had no idea how to get started? Do you know the basics of putting a short story together but have trouble creating strong enough characters to live in those stories? In this 10-week class, we’ll cover the following:

Discussing literary structure and conventions
Creating strong and unique characters
Setting the stage for your story through background description
Changing a story through character and setting
Creating outlines for your stories, and how outlining can banish writer’s block
Following outlines from beginning to end
Staying organized and motivated

We’ll also do approximately one full hour of writing (three to four 15-20-minute exercises) in each class session using basic short story structure and some of the outlining practices we’ll cover in class. We’ll share what we’ve written in class each session, and additional feedback on writing can be requested from the teacher after class. The instructor will also take up to five single-spaced emailed pages per week per student for in-depth feedback and critique.

Holly Day has worked as a freelance writer for over 35 years, with over 7,000 published articles, poems, and short stories and 40 books and chapbooks—most recently, the nonfiction books, Music Theory for Dummies, Music Composition for Dummies, Tattoo FAQ, and History Lover’s Guide to Minneapolis; and the poetry books, A Book of Beasts (Weasel Press), The Tooth is the Largest Organ in the Human Body (Anaphora Press), Bound in Ice (Shanti Arts Publishing), and Cross-Referencing a Book of Summer (Silver Bow Publishing). Her writing has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, a 49th Parallel Prize, an Isaac Asimov Award, multiple Pushcart awards, and a Rhysling Award, and she has received two Midwest Writer’s Grants, a Plainsongs Award, the Sam Ragan Prize for Poetry, and the Dwarf Star Award from the Science Fiction Poetry Association. She currently works as a freelance content writer for Hunter & Bard and as a writing instructor at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and the Richard Hugo House in Seattle.