Class

Fascination and Fiction

Mystery is at the heart of all narrative, its pulse is the fine tension between question and perception, wonder and suspense. For the purposes of this workshop our prose need not hinge on a crime, a culprit, or a private eye. We’ll build inquiry into fictional ecosystems and discuss how the mechanics of mystery (the structural and craft-oriented choices) can haunt, provoke, or fuse our prose. This class will benefit participants who have a vision for a project, but don’t know where to begin, as well as those who have a work or works in progress.

The goal is to find the heart of the mystery in your project and deepen, develop, or pursue it—or to begin from a question or an inquiry and allow a world to blossom around it. Together, we’ll investigate different strategies for enhancing mystery, such as frontloading, incongruous details, and repetition. We’ll analyze excerpts from mysterious works that demonstrate these techniques. We’ll generate new work modeled on these examples.

Instructions for Accessing This Online Class

In order to access live class meetings, you must have the Zoom application downloaded to your computer. You will also need a WiFi/Internet connection throughout the duration of your scheduled meeting and a computer with audio and video capability. The information to join your Zoom classroom will be provided in your confirmation email upon registration. Please check spam folders if you do not see this email upon registration. For more information on how to use Zoom, please see our training manual here.