NYWW @ NYPL

Christina Chu

It’s hard to trust others to do the work—especially when "she" is a character who lives only in your imagination. But strong narrative is built on strong character: someone fully realized, emotionally complex, and—while not necessarily “likeable” to all—deeply human. Their story, however specific, resonates because it taps into something universal. In this generative workshop, we’ll explore the nuances of building character from the inside out: their desires, contradictions, histories, and voices. Through discussion, examples, and writing exercises, participants will develop the confidence to trust their instincts and allow character to guide the arc of the story.

Laura Geringer Bass

In this workshop, we will explore the art of writing your own stories. Each week, the group will be offered several timed prompts as jumping off points to writing brief pieces in class. Volunteers will read their work aloud to share with their fellow writers. In addition, we will read and discuss short excerpts from a diverse selection of story collections. These will be examples of triumphs of craft and technique: point of view, setting, use of the five senses, dialogue, etc. We will not critique one another’s work. The goal is to inspire and encourage participants, with the help of open-ended prompts, to search memory, dream and their own pool of ideas and to discover, in that process, the freedom and focus to write their own original stories.

Tim Tomlinson

There are no rules for storytelling, only guidelines. The guidelines define the conventions that writers often follow. These include plot development, character motivation, and causality. But many stories, contemporary and past, work outside, around, or under the guidelines—they do things differently. Each session of Stories Times Two considers both kinds: a story that embodies the conventions, and one that presents alternatives. Participants will do exercises based on those stories, and we’ll discuss the results. Writers under consideration include some of the following: Nicole Krauss, Joy Castro, Raymond Carver, Carmen Maria Machado, Kate Zambreno, Gary Lutz, Deborah Levy, Alice Walker, Lydia Davis, Ottessa Moshfegh.

Laura Zinn Fromm

Laura Zinn Fromm is a journalist, editor, writing coach and the author of Sweet Survival: Tales of Cooking & Coping, published by Greenpoint Press.  She holds an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. She is a member of New York Writers Workshop and teaches fiction and creative nonfiction workshops in New York City. She has also taught at Columbia and Montclair State. A former reporter and editor at Business Week magazine, she is a winner of the Clarion Award and the Newspaper Guild’s Page One Award for Labor Reporting. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Bloomberg Business Week and elsewhere. She edited Millburn Short Hills magazine from 2016-2017. She has appeared on CBS, CNBC, and various cable channels, and lives in New York City with her husband and sons.

Charles Salzberg

How many times have you said to yourself, “You know, I could write a novel?” And how many times have you actually sat down and at least started to put words on paper? If you’re most people, the answer is, well, “no comment.” This workshop will give you all the tools you need to at least begin that Great American Novel you’ve been thinking about so long. We’ll talk about characters, plot, dialogue, structure, plotting, and how to write scenes. By the end of the class, you’ll at least know how to write a novel even if you’re still an A student in procrastination.

​At NYPL Tremont Library