Writing Camp: Flash Fiction Through the Senses

In this class, I will teach the building blocks of how to write a captivating short story. We will cover topics such as how to write intentional and purpose-driven dialogue, how to create exciting action scenes, and how to end stories in ways that are powerful to the readers. This class will be structured through the utilization of presentations for visual aid and instrumental music for a perspective of auditory writing. I will teach this class through example by illustrating some tips and tricks used by writers in different genres. We will spend the majority of the time in a workshop-like zone where students will write parts of stories and submit them for advice and general comments. My teaching style is to teach through example and to give lots of opportunities for students to ask questions. Since this is a workshop-type class, I plan to lecture about the different aspects of stories at the beginning of the session and leave the rest of the time for writing exercises and questions. Learners will run the class through interactions. I will ask questions about different aspects of writing and allow students who are willing to share their stories with the rest of the students. There is no required experience or knowledge from the learners needed before taking this class. My hope is that, through this course, learners will be able to be confident in their short-story writing skills. Each class will focus on using the 5 senses to create different aspects of writing. In the first class, we will focus on creating a setting for the story. This will include our visual sense through the use of images of common settings. The utilization of other senses such as smell and touch will be utilized through the learners' imagination throughout all of the classes. The second class will focus on building scenes using our auditory sense by listening to instrumental music. This will allow learners to imagine scenes in their head that can be utilized to create the action scenes of our short stories. The third class will focus on how to build meaningful dialogue. This will slightly go off of the sensory topics, but it will help the learners how to create dialogue that lends meaning to the story, rather than being used for filler material. The fourth class will focus on how to integrate our three learned topics into a cohesive story. Through this class, we will learn how to add in the senses such as touch, taste, and smell to give texture to our stories. The last class will be a workshop-type class where I will allow students to read their stories to the class if they are willing. I will also give feedback to the students on their stories. By the end of this class, I hope to give learners the confidence and ability to write short stories that are powerful and exciting.