Typically published in trade paperback with candy-colored covers, chick lit novels are about the challenges of being a woman today. They are intimate and informal. They can be easy to relate to, comforting, entertaining, and funny. They can also be intelligent, sad, touching and thought provoking.

The world depicted in chick lit often resonates because it reflects the female experience. But it can also operate more as a fantasy, depicting a career, city, or way of life that we imagine we'd like to have. Chick lit is often a form of masked memoir -- veiled fictionalizations of the author's own experiences.

If you're a woman with a story to tell, this class will help you get it out there -- and in the process maybe bend the rules (that don't exist) and push the borders (that aren't really there).

In this class, you can expect to learn:

• How to create an intriguing heroine who may or may not be nice
• Ways to structure your story (that may be partially based on your own experiences) so that it really becomes fiction
• Whether to include sex scenes, and how to deal with your mother or children reading them
• Tips on dealing with exposition and writing natural sounding dialogue
• Points of view on point of view
• How to give your manuscript an extreme makeover without using plastic surgery
• Everything you need to know about the mysterious business of publishing but were too shy to ask.

Admission Requirements:
Please submit a letter of interest (including a brief work history), and a writing sample (less than 2,000 words).