RBWG Classes, Winter 2014

We will have a full schedule of classes again this spring, but are running a limited selection of courses (mostly online) based on our past years’ experience with many guild members migrating to warmer climates or vacationing during these months. As always, we are open to suggestions about classes you’d like to see offered. We are also seeking places to hold classes (in central Rehoboth or Lewes locations). This will be a real issue for us in the summer, so if you have suggestions about this, please email maribeth at fischer.maribeth@gmail.com

Scroll down or click on the link below to read more about classes being offered.

Nonfiction
Fiction
Online(Poetry, Micro-Fiction, Novel)

Because we are committed to keeping our classes small and because we can only continue to do this if participants commit to and pay for all classes, we ask that you pay for the full class amount up front. To make payment easier, we’ve added a paypal option that uses credit cards. If paying up front is difficult for you, please just email us and we’ll do our best to work out a payment plan. Click here for more information about RBWG class policies.

Registration and Payment

To register for any class, email contactus@rehobothbeachwritersguild.com to specify which class you are interested in. Maribeth will respond to you by email within 2 days.

Click on this link to pay using Pay Pal: http://rehobothwriters.com/rbwg-classes

Note: Before signing up for a class on Pay Pal, please register first with Maribeth at fisher.maribeth@gmail.com to make sure that the class is running (at times we do not have enough participants to make the class work) or is not already filled. Maribeth will respond to you within a day.

NONFICTION

A Story Worth Telling: Writing Memoir ~ Lisa Graff
Tuesdays 10:15-12:15 Jan 21 and 28 and Feb 4, 11, 18, 25
Rehoboth Location (TBA)
Cost: RBWG Members $240; Non-RBWG members $270

Everyone has a story worth telling, but sometimes we need some guidance in choosing a memory that is important to us but also of interest to our families and the public. How do we narrow the scope and focus of our project? In this 6 week workshop you can choose to share one, two or possibly three of your life stories. Maybe you want to keep working on one story or perhaps you want to experiment by writing something new. You will be encouraged to brainstorm a list of possible topics and delve deeply into the question: What is it I really want to write about? We will also practice editing an essay that is not our own. Through constructive, personal feedback from the teacher and the class, you will find ways to tighten your prose and to shape your story into a more compelling one. Writers are asked to email one first draft 600-1200 words (NO LONGER) to the instructor one week prior to class and to bring copies of their work for all participants. Then let the self-discovery begin!

More about Lisa

FICTION

Fear of Fiction Workshop ~ Sarah Barnett
Starting mid-February (we are still working on the day, time--let us know if you have a preference)
Rehoboth location TBA
Cost: RBWG Members $240; Non-RBWG members $270

This class is for those who want to write fiction, but think they can’t, those who have written bits and pieces of stories but stopped short of finishing because they “don’t know what happens next.” For the first three weeks, we will focus on exercises that will help us move from writing “true” stories to writing short fiction. We will read and study several short stories by well-regarded authors to discover and try to emulate some of the techniques of fiction including point-of-view, setting, dialogue. During the last three weeks of the class we will each focus on writing one short story using the techniques we’ve studied.

More about Sarah

ONLINE POETRY, FLASH FICTION, POETRY AND NOVEL

POETRY

IMITATION AND INNOVATION IN POETRY I ~ Gail Comorat & Ethan Joella
January 20-February 24 (six weeks)
Cost: RBWG Members $240; Non-RBWG members $270

"Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery—it's the sincerest form of learning," George Bernard Shaw said. In this class, we will use The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (second edition, edited by Michael Simms) to study some of the greatest poets writing today such as Kim Addonizio, Jan Beatty, Lucille Clifton, George Bilgere, Billy Collins, Marie Howe, Linda Pastan, and Stephen Dunn. We'll look at techniques they use and attempt to write poems in similar styles. We'll talk about voice and abstract vs. concrete language; use simile, imagery, humor and brevity to write about place and grief. We'll take on personas to find new ways to write our stories. Participants will receive weekly assignments with feedback from the instructors.

More about Gail
More About Ethan

IMITATION AND INNOVATION IN POETRY II ~
Gail Comorat & Ethan Joella
March 3 - April 7
Cost: RBWG Members $240; Non-RBWG members $270

We continue with this course, using again The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (second edition, edited by Michael Simms), to study more of the greatest poets writing today. As Salvador Dali once said: Only after you’ve perfected the technique of the Masters, can you develop your own style. Every artist learns through imitation, and in Imitation and Innovation II, we will be focusing on all new writers but only 2-3 each week in order to dive into their work more in-depth. We will discuss how each uses subject matter, style, form, line length and breaks, and theme. Then, using this knowledge, participants will choose a poet each week to imitate. Participants will receive weekly assignments with feedback from the instructors.
(You do not have to have taken Imitation I to take this class)

More about Gail
More About Ethan

FICTION

Micro Fiction Writing Online Tutorial ~ Ethan Joella
January 20-February 24
Cost: RBWG Members $240; Non-RBWG members $270

Works of flash fiction are in high demand from literary journals. Micro Fiction Writing is a chance to write your own highly-charged, compressed short stories that stay under four pages. During this six-week personal tutorial, you will receive five specific assignments that result in your writing five pieces of micro fiction to be submitted for feedback. We will work on a traditional short-short story, an experimental micro piece, a prose poem, a short monologue, and an epistolary piece. During the final week, we'll be putting the previous works through a
substantial revision process.

More about Ethan

NOVEL

Novel Explorations I: Character ~ Maribeth Fischer
January 20-March 10 (eight weeks)
Cost: RBWG Members $320;
Non-RBWG members $360

E.L. Doctorow said once said that 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.”

This is a class for writers of all skill levels who are embarking on the journey of beginning a novel. Even if you’ve written one before, in this class, you’re starting anew. We’ll be doing exercises--lots of them--to figure out who the main characters are and to develop them so fully that they seem real. We’ll be writing scenes that help us imagine our characters in their day-to-day lives, we’ll explore their homes, figure out their best and worst qualities, unearth their secrets, flashback to their childhoods, and, in the process, discover what our novels are really about.

More about Maribeth

Novel Explorations II: More Character ~ Maribeth Fischer
January 20- March 10
Cost: RBWG Members $320;
Non-RBWG members $360

This is a class for those at least fifty pages into a novel or a linked story collection and who therefore have a strong sense of their main characters. (It’s also for those who have taken Novel Explorations I--although this is NOT a prerequisite). The plot of the novel/ stories might still be nebulous, the characters might still need to be developed, you might not even be sure where you’ll begin the novel or story collection--but you have a solid character in mind and have written a number of pages--however random and out of order and plotless they may be--about this character. You know basic things like the character’s age and occupation; you know where the story will take place and in roughly what years...and now you are ready to start opening up the possibilities for the characters and plot. Through exercises that focus on crucial elements of fiction writing--dialogue, dramatic scenes, pacing, point of view, and setting--you’ll explore your character’s doubts and uncertainties, see what happens to her when you place him in unfamiliar circumstances, discover what she wants most in life and why she can’t get it and more--all of which will result in your writing character-based compelling fiction.

More about Maribeth

Novel Explorations II: Writing Scenes ~ Maribeth Fischer
January 20- March
Cost: RBWG Members $320;
Non-RBWG members $360

In this class, six of the eight assignments will involve the writing of a full scene, each of which will emphasize a different writing technique (taking Novel Explorations I or II a prerequisite). In one scene, you might be asked to have one character speaking a great deal--explaining something complicated, telling a story--hence, you’ll learn how to write dialogue that is very different than the dialogue used when two characters are having a conversation, volleying words back and forth. In another scene, you might be asked to have very little dialogue--relying heavily on action. Another scene might ask you to include four or five characters--how do you orchestrate this so that the reader isn’t confused about who is speaking? Each scene will advance the plot of your story while simultaneously teaching essential techniques crucial to the writing of your novel.

More about Maribeth