Workshop: Fiction
CASTING A SPELL: THE URGENCY OF IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING
Regardless of a story’s premise and plot, it must create what John Gardner called a “vivid and continuous fictional dream,” uninterrupted in the reader’s mind. How do we, as writers, invite our readers into this experience, and keep them there? We want to orient our readers with concrete sensory details, and also find ways to create anticipation about the unknown. We want our characters to feel substantial and credible, while also acknowledging their blind spots and contradictions. We want our dialogue to be compelling and tense, without explaining or speechifying. What does “voice” mean, and how might it help our readers keep dreaming?
In this workshop, we will read each other’s fiction—stories and novel excerpts—with an eye on the ways the writing invites us “in” and keeps us in. In addition to discussing and workshopping our own work, we’ll read published story beginnings that compel and immerse. We’ll strive to be compassionate in our attempt to understand each piece of writing from the inside and to provide constructive and honest advice for each project’s development.
SUBMIT
After registering, participants are asked to submit a manuscript of up to 2500-words by no later than 9 AM on Wed, April 23. Please email the manuscripts as attachments to director@mainewriters.org with the subject line: “ROBINSON WORKSHOP MSS.” *Word files are preferred, but you may also send a PDF.
Credit: Molly Haley
Lewis Robinson is the author of the novel The Islanders (Islandport, 2024), Water Dogs (Random House, 2009), a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and Officer Friendly and Other Stories (HarperCollins, 2003), winner of a Whiting Award and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Sports Illustrated, Tin House, The Baffler, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Book Review and on NPR’s program Selected Shorts. He has taught fiction writing at the University of Iowa, Colby College, the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program, Phillips Academy, Stanford University’s Continuing Studies program, and is currently an associate professor at the University of Maine Farmington. He lives in Portland, Maine.