DURATION/TIME 8 weeks Thursdays September 7 - October 26 7-10 pm LEVEL Advanced LOCATION New York (Soho) PRICE $599 ($575 for ) more info

Course Details

You've taken your manuscript as far as you can, but you know there's another level. This workshop is for writers who are seeking to do the serious kind of revision that can bring a good idea to its fullest realization. In this workshop, novelist and former Paris Review managing editor Fiona Maazel will work with you on story arc, character, setting, voice, point of view, level of diction and, above all, the text that you have written. 

This class will workshop your fiction -- likely two stories or sections from a novel, or one and a revision. Workshopping has its drawbacks, but it's not a jury. You'll talk about what works and what doesn't, and, most importantly: why. Why doesn't it work?

• To have your work discussed seriously and with compassion
• To learn how to vet your own work 
• To discuss craft -- what techniques does this story deploy and why are they successful?
• To demand of your work as much as you can, and then to demand more
• To learn how to discuss each other's work; how well you read will always be a measure of how well you write
• To learn how to write a good cover letter
• To learn a few secrets of the business, some more uplifting than others

By the end of class, students can expect to have:
A complete draft of a piece of advanced fiction.

Instructor Bio

Fiona Maazel's Courses

Fiona Maazel is the former managing editor of The Paris Review, where she routinely edited fiction by a stunning list of contemporary writers, including Rick Moody, A.S. Byatt, and Jim Shepard. Fiona is currently a freelance writer and editor. Her work has appeared in Bomb, The Boston Book Review, Feed.com, GQ, Icon, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Mississippi Review, The National Post, Nerve.com, Pierogi Press, Publishers Weekly, Reader's Digest, Salon.com, Tin House, The Village Voice, and The Yale Review. She has just sold her first novel to FSG.

Testimonials

"Fiona is an excellent editor. She pointed out, to a word, where each of my stories went off course (or where it stayed on). She dedicated a generous amount of time to reading and critiquing the work of all the students. I would recommend this class to anyone who is serious about writing fiction." -- Jeanne Dickey, freelancer

Fiona Maazel has edited fiction by some of the best writers alive, and she knows what she's doing. While her class may be short on right-brain exercises and platitudes about the writer's life, it's long on stringent, practical, intelligent advice on fixing your fiction. Her insistence on linguistic precision, draconian fluff-cutting, hatred of adverbs and innumerable other insights amount to a fine set of rules to apply when writing, and especially revising, fiction. Highly recommended. -- Andy Hunter


"Fiona is an absolutely terrific instructor. Her criticism blends practical advice with a theoretical discussion to help writers gain a complete understanding of craft and how it relates to their specific work. I came away from her class not only with ideas for immediately improving my work, but also with a lot of things to think about over the course of my career." -- Travis Adkins

"Fioinna is the ideal fiction writing instructor. Her feedback works for both beginning writers and those more experienced with the workshop experience. She offers practical advice on how to improve your stories and doesn't mess around with wishy washy, relative feedback. Although she honors the creative process, it is not at the expense of following the indispensible rules of writing fiction. She also has a great sense of humor and makes everyone feel comfortable and included in her class. Her background as an editor is an invaluable asset." -- Gabrielle Mitchell-Marell