Fiction Accelerator with Katie Runde

Service Description

If you could bottle that elusive magic that gives our fiction energy, that puts us in a flow state, that sparks a new way of looking at a chapter, draft, or story, all writers would buy it in bulk at Costco. Whether we are beginning new work or revising drafts of our fiction, this class will explore all the ways we can keep a sense of curiosity, the energy of discovery, and the spirit of experimentation alive in our work at every stage. The first two sessions of class will focus on building a toolbox of strategies to apply to our own drafts when we feel stuck in a scene, lost, or overwhelmed. We will take our new strategies for a test drive with generative writing and close-read excerpts that remind us of the infinite options we really have when it comes to making up what happens next and subverting the rules we may have been unknowingly imposing on ourselves. Our last two sessions will apply what we’ve practiced to your own fiction. Students will submit up to 10 pages of a story or novel chapter for a brief class discussion and instructor feedback. Pages may be brand new for this class or from works in progress before this class began. Students will leave class with a new go-to array of ways to infuse energy and curiosity into their fiction, with a toolbox of questions and experiments to use in any draft, and with a renewed sense of confidence and curiosity that will make new work and long-revised drafts alike come alive. Week 1: Questions and side quests to to level up early drafts Week 2: Rants, hot takes, and broken records: strategies for experimenting with voice Week 3: Manipulating time + sharing work Week 4: What ifs and breadcrumbs + sharing work Katie Runde is the author of The Shore (Scribner 2022), a NYTimes Editors' Pick, Indie Next Pick, Amazon Editors' Choice, and Barnes & Noble Discover Pick. She earned her MFA from Warren Wilson College, and lives in Iowa City.