Back to Home > Courses and Seminars > How to Use Plot to Structure Your Fiction

How to Use Plot to Structure Your Fiction

The secrets of building and creating powerful storylines

Course is closed.

WHEN
Wednesday, May 24
7-10 pm

WHERE
Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church
1555 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA
617-492-1819

WHO
Ideal for anyone interested in fiction writing

PRICE
$65 ($50 for )
more info

Course Details

Yes, you can write brilliantly, seamlessly, effortlessly. Beautiful language, original characters, and startling scenes flow from the page; but when all is said and done, what's the plot? Where's the story?

Many writers struggle over how to structure their fiction, and often the most wonderful prose can be overlooked without a sense of pacing, timing, structure, and dramatic arc. Whether you're working on a short story, a novella, or a full-length novel, this seminar will show you the secrets to building and creating powerful storylines and how to keep the action moving and your readers enthralled.

In this seminar, you can expect to learn:

  • The classic Aristotelian Arc
  • How to use the power of myth to structure your story
  • How to create plot points that push story into unexpected directions
  • Tricks on turning stories that fizzle into stories that spark
  • What's a midpoint crisis
  • Where to place your climactic moment and end your stories with a bang

By the end of this seminar, you can expect to have:
New ideas on how to structure your work, new ways of thinking about plot, and techniques to infuse your new and old stories with a strong dramatic arc.

Instructor Bio

Jamie Cat Callan's Courses

No courses available at this time.

Jamie Cat Callan
Jamie Cat Callan's work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love column, Best American Erotica, The Missouri Review, and American Letters & Commentary. She is the creator of The Writers Toolbox: Exercises for the "Write" Side of Your Brain and she is the author of Hooking Up or Holding Out and the forthcoming French Women don't Sleep Alone: Pleasurable Secrets to Finding Love.

Jamie's literary awards include the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, the New York State Arts Council on the Arts Grant, First Prize in the Writers Digest Literary Competition (twice) and fellowships to Breadloaf, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Vermont Studio Center.

Testimonials


Jamie was very smart, supportive, engaging, experienced, and entertaining. Her seminar was exactly what I needed. I would eagerly attend another seminar if she's leading it. -- Tara Swords, freelancer

"Jamie's a very warm instructor and makes me feel at ease. The material covered was exactly what I expected, and what I needed. She covered each topic thoroughly and without provoking me to look at my watch constantly. It was excellent, really." -- Glendaliz Camacho, freelancer

"Jamie gave me the courage to really start writing. She provided direction, inspiration, and great tips on how to be a writer and get your stuff published. Well worth the time and money spent." -- Becky Schneck Allen, Marketing Communications Officer, MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics

"Writers often talk about epiphanies, and this class was one! I couldn't wait to re-tool my own fiction." -- Trenton Straube

AvantGuild* Discounts on mediabistro.com courses are just one of the wonderful benefits of being in AvantGuild, our premium membership program. For just $59 a year, you'll receive instant access to our How to Pitch articles and other premium articles, transcripts from selected seminars and panels, and discounts on virtually everything we do (including eClasses and the Freelance Marketplace)! Click here to join now.