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Create Extraordinary Stories from Ordinary Events
We’ll read from authors who write extraordinary stories about ordinary people and ordinary events. We’ll explore the methods authors use to pull us into these ordinary lives and how they turn mundane events into engaging stories.
Playwright and novelist Mehmet Murat Ildan said, “The more you spend your time in the ordinary streets, the more extraordinary things you will learn!”
In this class, we’ll look at authors who write extraordinary stories about ordinary people and ordinary events. We’ll explore the methods the authors use to pull us into these ordinary lives, and we’ll look at how they turn mundane events into engaging stories.
We’ll look around the room and around our lives, choose an item, a snippet of conversation, or an event, and we’ll mine it for the rich story it holds. Each week, using questions and prompts, we’ll discover something extraordinary about our chosen topics. We’ll build characters, a sense of place, and a plot unique to our topic.
By the end of the course, you will have written a draft of a story and surprised yourself with how much fun you had finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Anyone who is having trouble starting a story, developing a story, or finding a story is welcome to join us.
What You Will Learn
In this class, we’ll look at seemingly ordinary objects and events and learn to discover their mystery and meaning, so we can create extraordinary stories around them.
Through readings, exercises, and encouragement, we’ll learn to distinguish the difference between an incident and a story; sharpen our observation skills; and find stories all around us.
Who Should Take This Class?
This course is for writers who are starting out or who are struggling to make their stories unique and compelling. If you think you don't have anything interesting to write about, join this class and find out just how exciting your stories can be.
Instructor
Joann Smith
Writing Institute Instructor
Joann Smith’s collection of short stories A Heaven of Their Choosing was published by 7.13 Books in September 2021. Her stories have been anthologized and published in many literary journals. Best American Short Stories 2000 named one of her stories as one of the 100 Notable Stories of the year. Her novel of historical fiction, When I Was Boudicca, is available online. She is currently at work on a novel which began as a short story. She holds an MFA in Fine Arts: Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College, and an MA in English from Lehman College, CUNY. She has taught creative writing for many years and mentors writers through the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), of which she is a longtime member.