Narrative Writing Class: Tell Your Story: The Art of Narrative Writing (Fall 2025)

Description

Tell Your Story: The Art of Narrative Writing

You have a story you’re dying to tell, but how do you tell it? This Seattle writing class will help you get it down on paper, whether it’s a memoir, novel, short story, personal essay, travel story or nonfiction narrative.

This eight-session class in narrative writing will give you the tools to craft your story, whether fiction or nonfiction. You’ll learn these essential techniques:

1. Research and interviewing to add texture and credibility to your tale.
2. The five best ways of opening a story, making readers and editors take notice.
3. First, third person points of view, adding a crucial psychological dimension to story.
4. How to write a great first draft.
5. Structuring, revising, polishing like a pro.
6. Getting the finished story in the hands of the right editor.

The course will run October 8 to November 26 on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. PST via Zoom with an in-person option in room 35 of the Phinney Ridge Center in Seattle.

There will be six assignments, including a 150-word story idea, a 500-word profile, a 150-word lead, a 1500- to 2500-word story, a revised story, and a 250-word cover letter. In addition to the classroom work, I will schedule individual conferences with each student. This will give me a chance to go over your work with you one-on-one and suggest ways to improve it.

Texts: William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, available at the Elliott Bay Book Company or other bookstore.

To enroll, please send me check for $725 to 201 Newell St., Seattle, WA 98109 or you can pay with a credit card via Venmo or through the PayPal link on my website. Enrollment is limited to 15. For more information, contact me at nick@Thewritersworkshop.net or 206-284-7121.