Fiction Intensive: Make it Memorable
Expand your awareness of your craft as a storyteller. “To make it memorable” is both the goal of each narrator in a story and the yearning of the writer who chooses the words. Savor the creative use of language and explore your insatiable desire to learn more about how to make your stories convincing. In this class, you will generate new stories or chapters, honing your skills as you develop a greater understanding of the elements of craft, and you will receive feedback from the instructor and your peers as you revise. Students should be able to maintain focus and write at least 500 words a day.
These art camp classes meet at least five hours per day, Monday through Friday, with a shorter meeting on Saturday. That said, the day is broken up by discussion time, reading time, and writing time, and groups tend to work in a few different places (the classroom, the library, outside). Group discussions of work will be based on respect for the effort required to produce well-written, imaginative stories.
Students will explore classical and contemporary texts and a variety of storytelling approaches. Instructors will share their personal experiences of growing from an aspiring writer into a working artist.
Creative writing workshops are open admission. Instructors will work with each child at their level. Students will improve and learn new skills, whether they are a beginner or have been writing for years.
- Notebook
- Pen
- Laptop (optional)
A day in the summer writing program consists of writing, reading, discussion time, and critiquing. Students develop close-reading skills as they examine a variety of stories in terms of craft, and continue to explore the elements of craft (such as characterization, plot, dialogue, and setting) through writing exercises. Students develop their most promising pieces into complete stories or chapters and workshop them with their classmates, receiving thorough feedback from peers and the teacher. Students then revise and polish these pieces and present their best work at the public reading at the end of the program.
Kim Henderson (M.F.A. University of Montana) is the author of The Kind of Girl, which won the Seventh Annual Rose Metal Press Short-Short Chapbook Contest and was published in 2013. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Story, Tin House Online, The Southeast Review, The Texas Observer, Catapult, Atticus Review, River Styx, Cutbank, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. She has won The Southeast Review’s World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest and has received two Honorable Mentions in the Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Contest. Before coming to Idyllwild, Kim taught Creative writing and Composition at the University of Montana, and is originally from New Mexico. She has also taught youth writing classes at the Chautauqua Institution. She is currently at work on a short story collection and a novella-in-flash. kimnhenderson.com
Age
14 – 17
Date
July 2 – July 15, 2023
Two week session
Student Reading
Saturday July, 15, 2023
Time and location TBD
Tuition, Room and Board
$3,550
Day Student Tuition
$2,080
Lab Fee
$50
Health & Safety Fee
$150
Enrollment Capacity
12 students
Total capacity includes Residential and Day Students
Faculty
Kim Henderson