Do you have a story to tell? Do you scribble ideas down on napkins and notecards? Have you always felt the urge to write, but are unsure how to get started? In this fun and dynamic class, students will learn the essentials of masterful storytelling. Each class will include a craft talk, a mentor text, free writing prompts and time for sharing written work.

By the end of four weeks, you will know:

• How to mine your memories for inspiration

• How to get past mental blocks

• How to build complex, believable characters

• How to tie characters to a setting

• How to enhance your plot through an understanding of place

• How to craft catchy dialogue that draws the reader in

Plus you’ll leave with four weeks’ worth of free writes, prompts, and story ideas to get your

writing projects going.

Excellent for beginners, intermediate students, or anyone who just needs a focused setting to kick start their creative work.

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Shelby Wardlaw is a writer, teacher, and translator. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from

Columbia University and currently teaches in the Writing Program at Rutgers University. Her fiction, non-fiction and Russian poetry translations have appeared in Drafthorse, Interim, Northwest Review, Hunger Mountain, iō Literary Journal, Philadelphia Stories, hex literary, Vassar Review, and the Neon Door Literary Exhibit. In the spring of 2020, she won Honorable mention in the Pigeon Pages Fiction Contest. She was a Finalist for the 2021 Salamander Fiction Prize and the 2021 McGlinn Prize for Fiction and was selected as one of the top five finalists in The Writer magazine’s 2020 Fall Short Story Contest. In 2022, her story “Papaya Erectus” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Praised by The Writer editorial staff as a “stunningly talented writer,” Shelby is now working on her first novel.