IN PERSON - Beyond the First Draft: Ruthless Creation
MONDAY TO FRIDAY | JULY 10-14, 2023 | 10-3PM
Instructor: Rosemary Nixon
MEMBER PRICE: $498.75 (with member coupon AWCSM25)
NON-MEMBER PRICE: $665
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, each book on the planet Tralfamadore is a dot zap, read by tacking it to one’s forehead. Through the long haul of finding and writing the story, John Casey suggests a writer consider a novel-to-be or collection-in-progress as a dot zap--a dot that exists without language, without plot or character, but contains a full human experience. Empty of words but full of feeling, the dot zap has always been there, hidden in the heart of the work, a star of wonder guiding the writer through the darkness as its revelations move the book into a whole greater than the sum of its parts, a destination at which a writer hopes to arrive.
This class is for writers who want to reach high, be tough on themselves, ruthlessly slash and reimagine until they create a story that deeply resonates with readers. If this intrigues you, join Rosemary Nixon and company to explore the concept for five invigorating days, July 10th to 14th. Your novel’s dot zap will be teased out through an exploration of published stories, pertinent writing exercises, critique of a section of each participant’s work, with ample time for questions, discussion, and ideas around concepts that crack open the shells of defamiliarization, structure, texture, and tone.
This class takes place in person at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre in Calgary.
Rosemary Nixon is a pre-eminent award-winning short story writer, novelist, freelance editor, and creative writing instructor. She has her Masters in Fine Arts from UBC. Rosemary has done numerous writer-in-residencies in universities and libraries in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario including the University of Calgary’s Distinguished Writers Programme. Her work has been nominated for various awards. Her 4th book Are You Ready To Be Lucky? was nominated for The Frank O’Conner International Prize, and The North American Forewords IndieFab Award. The Cock’s Egg won the Howard O’Hagan Award. Rosemary freelance edits for Freehand Books. She was awarded the Lois Hole Excellence in Editing Award in 2018.