Readers crave authenticity. In this intensive two-week bootcamp, you’ll learn how to turn your real-life relationships and experiences into fiction that readers can’t put down.
Whether you write short stories or novels, genre fiction, or literary fiction, you can use your lived experience to help ground scenes, connect to audiences, edit out clichés, and create unforgettable characters and locations. Taking something from your life–be it someone you know, a situation, a location, a feeling, a job, a break-up (etc.)–you’ll deep dive into what made it special to you in order to translate it to the page. You’ll increase your eye for physical, emotional and psychological detail: details that make fiction ring true.
Towards the end of the class, students are invited to submit either a short story, creative essay, or an opening chapter from a novel (up to 1,500 words) that will receive feedback from both the instructor and the rest of the class. There won’t be a specific prompt for this piece. Rather, look to be inspired by something in your past.
The course is for all levels of writers. I’ll work one-on-one with you to understand what’s unique about your life experiences and we’ll use tried and true craft techniques to transform it into stand-out fiction. You already have all the components: this class will help you sort what’s story-worthy.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
WHAT: Sorting out what’s interesting and what’s not
WHY: Understanding what makes something worth turning into a story
HOW: How to embellish real life to make it better than the real thing
Georgia Clark is an author, performer and screenwriter based in Brooklyn. She wrote the critically acclaimed novel The Regulars, and the "witty, sexy" (L.A. Times) The Bucket List, both with Simon & Schuster. Her first books were the Young Adult novels She’s With The Band and Parched. Georgia is the host/founder of the storytelling night, Generation Women, which invites six generations of women to tell a story on a theme. She is currently developing The Regulars as a TV show for E!. A native Australian, she lives in Brooklyn with her girlfriend and a fridge full of cheese.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the Storytelling workshop. Georgia provided wonderful guidance through her teaching framework and the facilitated writing session was very productive. I found the group energy and constructive feedback to be extremely helpful. It was a worthwhile and inspiring experience that helped motivate me to take my writing to the next level."
"I was both excited and anxious before class as I had minimal storytelling experience. Georgia was very welcoming and started with her theory after which we jumped into an exercise. The feedback from fellow students and Georgia was so helpful as well as Georgia’s extra support. Since this class I look at everything I write with the storytelling lens even at the day job and my communications have most definitely improved."
“Georgia Clark is one of the funniest and most compassionate arbiters in the land of women writers. In THE BUCKET LIST, Georgia covers conversations about sexuality and mortality – all while Lacey, our comical and genuine heroine, commemorates her breasts in all their complicated glory. In both THE REGULARS and now THE BUCKET LIST, Georgia is able to show how women’s bodies, faces, and sexuality can define us without limiting us - and still, she makes you laugh out loud.”
“[THE REGULARS is a] lively and engrossing parable for women of all generations.”
“[THE BUCKET LIST is a] compelling, thoughtful take on a very real women’s health issue; both confidently sexy and lighthearted at the same time.”
