I have just finished my last session of a Writerhouse fiction writing
workshop. Our teacher taught us to try
to write well, as well as to write fiction.
I was awed by the other students’ strong writing. We were a diverse group in age and
experience. A talented high school girl,
a talented college girl, and other talented people wrote our hearts out weekly. I will not be surprised to find any of my fellow
students in print.
The teacher, Jay Kauffmann, a fine professional writer and
teacher, made us write as honestly and as well as we could. He went to the heart of our prose problems with
kindness and acuity. He made us read short
stories by very good modern short-story writers, all of whom were new to me.
I went into class worried that I hadn’t the imagination to craft
fiction. I had started and aborted a mystery
novel for lack of any idea where to take it.
For the first assignment, I strung together incidents from my sixth year
at the end of WW II – creative non-fiction at best. My second story, only three pages long, convinced
me that I could at least invent a very short story. The discovery that I could commit fiction was
worth the price of admission.
I highly recommend Writerhouse classes and classes taught by
Jay Kauffmann. This class enhanced my
life.
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