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Hey friends,
Welcome to our latest Forever Workshop round-up, featuring all our best bits from April and a sneak peek at what’s coming up this month.
What’s inside:
5 pieces of golden writing advice from our April workshops
A calendar of upcoming workshops and live events in May
Free workshop of the month: How to Write an Author Bio
20 lit mag recommendations from our latest instructors
AND if you’re fast enough, grab 50% off a Forever Workshop subscription
Okay, hold onto your em-dashes — here’s what we got:
5 Writing Techniques from Our April Workshops
1. While writing and revising your non-fiction, ask yourself these questions:
Am I representing everyone as accurately as possible?
Have I portrayed everyone in this story as a multidimensional human being rather than a stock character or villain?
Have I implicated myself in conflicts rather than putting all the blame on others?
Have I represented the people in this story in a way that feels fair and complete and true from my perspective?
These are all difficult questions to answer and difficult things to achieve in writing, but they’re much easier—or at least, they’re possible—when you think of them as craft questions, completely separate from how the people you’re writing about will react to the finished work.
— Lilly Dancyger
2. Try this nifty self-editing trick, whether or not you're a poet:
Treat each individual sentence as a line break.
Take a paragraph and copy it into its own document. Then separate each sentence onto its own line. Double space between them so you can see each phrase in true isolation from its paragraph mates.
Editing one sentence (and only one sentence) at a time, divorced from all other content, forces you to look at each word, clause, noun, verb, piece of punctuation, etc. closely to make the whole the best possible sum of its parts. When writing works on the sentence level, writing works well.
— Helene Kiser
3. Make sure your main character has a terrible time:
Pile on. Don’t let up. Increase the obstacles in your protagonist’s way throughout the story. You won’t be sorry.
Too often, new writers want to give their characters breathers from the hard stuff. It’s true that a book should usually not be all gloom and doom. But it would be a mistake to let the story level out.
In fact, it’s probably a good idea to allow your lead to solve some of their big problems earlier in the book. Why? Because this reveals who they are, shows how competent they are, and lulls the reader into a false sense of security. But just when all feels well, bring in a bigger, harder problem.
— Maurice Carlos Ruffin
4. Balance the stories in your collection with one another:
When it comes to ordering stories within a collection, I place two to three of what I consider my strongest stories in the beginning. And at the end, I choose one to two stories that will leave the reader with a solid chance of emotional resonance.
I also consider pacing and balance when it comes to shaping the pacing of the collection as a whole, eg: light versus heavy tones, or even the style — are some stories more poetic than others? If so, spread them throughout the collection. Ask yourself, if you were reading the collection, from its beginning to its end, what would serve you best for the reading experience?
— Shome Dasgupta
5. Connect your creative cycles with celebrations and holidays:
Look at it seasonally — when do you feel most creative and when do you feel more dormant? I personally find that I get a big kick of inspiration and drive in the summer and fall. In winter and spring, I tend to flounder a lot and spend more time brainstorming than actually writing. Notice your own patterns and see if you can connect your creative cycles with certain celebrations and holidays. Some holidays may call for action while others call for slowing down.
— Erin Karbuczky
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Our Workshop Curriculum for May
What Agents Are Really Looking For in Your Sample Pages — May 6
More manuscripts die on page one than anywhere else in the slush. We asked three of publishing’s most honest readers — Jane Friedman, Karin Gillespie, and agent Erin Niumata — what separates a sample that gets requested from one that gets archived. Next in our “Tell us something we don’t know…“ series »
How to Crush Your Artist Statement & Snag That Writing Opportunity — May 13
After a year reading applications at Tin House, Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya knows exactly what makes a reader stop and take notice — and exactly what makes them scroll. She’ll walk you through writing the artist statement that earns the residency, the grant, the fellowship. More career workshops here »
How to Nail the Poetic Turn and Transform Your Poetry — May 20
Learn how to use the ‘poetic turn’ to add structure to your poetry and create meaningful shifts that take your reader on a journey of discovery, surprise, and subversion — a masterclass in poem-craft from Kelly Grace Thomas. More poetry workshops here »
It’s Time For Your Close-up: Write a Memoir in Micro — May 27
Sometimes all you need is 300 words... Join bestselling author and memoirist Darien Gee to explore how to use the micro form to create concise, unique, and deeply personal creative non-fiction — one tiny story at a time. More short fiction workshops here »
Psst. Our full spring-summer curriculum is up at The Forever Calendar if you want to look ahead at June/July, too…
PLUS: Live Events with Chill Subs
Did you know, if you upgrade your Forever Workshop subscription, you also get access to all of Big Daddy Chill Subs’ live events and webinars?
Well, ya do. And there are a bunch of great ones this month, including:
Live “sub-together” sessions to help you get your writing into your favorite lit mags
AMAs with editors and publishing experts
Support and guidance on submitting your work
✨ Free Workshop of the Month ✨
Speaking of submissions, here’s a free mini guide to crafting an author bio that doesn’t make you want to claw your own face off:
20 Lit Mag Recs From Our April Instructors
And in case you need a nudge to send your writing somewhere this month, here are our latest instructors’ favorite places to read (and submit):
“Barrelhouse and DIAGRAM for the weirdness; The Yale Review because they've been on quite a roll; The Paris Review because the classics are classics for a reason; and also Split Lip, The Rumpus, The Sun... idk don't make me choose!”
(Recommended by Lilly Dancyger, memoirist & essayist)
“I love Brevity, Hippocampus, and The Kenyon Review. Each one surprises me — makes me suck in my breath — with every issue.”
(Recommended by Helene Kiser, author, editor, and educator)
“Electric Lit publishes fantastic, easy-to-access fiction. Poets & Writers is always informative.”
(Recommended by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, bestselling author and Guggenheim fellow)
“Wigleaf (content, aesthetics, editing, submissions); matchbook (aesthetics, content, editing); X-R-A-Y (variety, content, submissions); New Orleans Review (history, content, location); Arkansas Review (content)”
(Recommended by Shome Dasgupta, author and former Wigleaf editor)
“Write or Die, ONLY POEMS, and Deep Overstock!”
(Recommended by Erin Karbuczky, poet, writer, and educator)
See you in the next workshop!
The Forever Workshop
