The Foundations of Fiction (Writing Mastery)

Learn to design inspiring, memorable characters by describing appearance with telling details that readers can visualize, illustrated through iconic examples and a playful 'TMI' writing prompt.

This mini lecture explores too much information (foundation) by testing overly detailed, poorly described characters, using an 18th-century French court lady and other prompts to refine concise fiction descriptions.

Explore how fiction provides inside peeks into a character’s thoughts and feelings, and learn to guard perspective by focusing on crucial moments and remaining consistent about whose thoughts we reveal.

Discover how memorable fiction relies on characters acting under pressure, showing rather than telling, and practice with a 10-minute prompt about a screaming stranger.

Explore how fiction centers on a character's desires and goals, with examples from Emma, Skeeter, and Harry Potter, and practice a 'what do they want' prompt to write a scene.

Learn to extract a character's goal or desire from prompts. Explore scenes like a 99-year-old seeking her missing mother and a lobster-obsessed assistant to a busy executive.

Learn to craft unique, complex, and surprising characters by avoiding stereotypes, exploring round versus flat traits, with examples like Katniss Everdeen, Huck Finn, and Richard III, plus a surprise prompt.

Explore how flaws make fiction characters relatable and memorable, analyzing Hamlet's indecision, Becky Bloomwood's shopping addiction, and Elizabeth Bennet's prejudice, while guiding writers through what needs fixing prompts.

See how the what needs fixing prompt places a random character in a scene to reveal flaws, from a lazy professor to an anxious heavy metal star, using therapy cues.

Explore how fictional characters change by confronting flaws, building readiness, and facing conflicts, with prompts to craft scenes where a protagonist overcomes them.

Learn to craft dynamic dialogue by distilling speech, avoiding overly realistic or fake lines, and focusing on essential exchanges, with practical prompts to rewrite bad dialogue into engaging scenes.

Lead students to turn a very bad dialogue about a teen asking for money from their father into a fixed scene that reveals clearer character dynamics.

Explore dynamic dialogue by mixing summarized and direct dialogue to control pace and focus, using zoom in and zoom out to highlight key moments in fiction.

Master zooming in and out on prompts by blending summarized and direct dialogue to weave random character prompts into coherent scenes.

Learn to vary dialogue tags and use descriptive verbs and physical gestures to show character emotion, while avoiding overuse and letting dialogue speak for itself.

Characterize dialogue to reveal character through speech, making lines distinctive to each character and using dialogue as a key tool to build believable personalities.

Practice characterizing two contrasting speakers in a dialogue prompt and guessing who’s talking, by pairing a museum tour guide with a dog trainer across diverse topics.

Learn advanced subtext by having characters say one thing and mean another, revealing hidden motives through dialogue and unspoken meaning. Practice writing scenes that convey what isn't said.

Discover how to render dialect in fiction with care, balancing flavor and readability. Use selective word choice and syntax to convey accents without stereotyping or overstatement.

Explore the three main types of point of view—first, second, and third person—together with narrative voice, and learn how the choice of narrator shapes your fiction.

Explore the three forms of third-person narration—omniscient, close (limited), and the forthcoming multiple third person—through classic and modern examples, showing how point of view shapes what readers know.

Practice close third-person narration by writing from one character’s point of view while signaling the other, using two-character prompts like Alex and his wife and Richard and Rachel.

Study first person point of view, where I and me reveal a character’s inner thoughts and voice. Learn to write from a head you’ve never inhabited.

Explore advanced point of view with multiple first and third person narrators, labeled chapters, and distinct voices, including examples from Boys of Summer and The Help.

Explore the second person point of view, where the narrator uses you and your to address the reader or another character, with examples from choose-your-own-adventure and literary passages.

Explore how second-person narration challenges a beginner novelist through editor-like feedback, addressing plot gaps, character development, dialogue, and sentence structure, with emphasis on style and craft.

Explore the unreliable first-person narrator, examining credibility and perspective with classic and contemporary examples, including thriller contexts. Learn to hint at unreliability while narrating from a character's point of view.

Explore the trust me I'm lying prompt about an unreliable narrator, who wrestles with jealousy at a baby shower. See how perspective shapes truth through misread signals.

Explore how present and past tense narrate stories, and examine narrative style, point of view options, and tools like unreliable narrators to shape storytelling.

Learn to show and tell in fiction by slowing down and using sensory details to paint scenes. Balance showing with telling to keep momentum while highlighting key moments.

Slow it down to show, not tell, using sensory details and setting to heighten fiction—from Emma's barefoot grass scene to the alien landing.

Master advanced flashbacks in fiction by crafting short, smoothly transitioned past moments that reveal backstory through memory, dialogue, or brief summaries.

Explore how flashbacks and memory drive tension, from a coffee shop encounter with paranoia and a pocket watch to a doctor’s bad diagnosis and a bittersweet Cancun memory.

Explore epistolary and other narrative formats such as letters, emails, texts, journals, and mixed formats to diversify fiction storytelling.

Explore not your average story prompts by following a stressed woman at a meditation retreat told through email and other formats to reveal character and setting.

Explore how setting functions as a foundational block of fiction, shaping characters and story through memorable places and times, using carefully chosen evocative details over overload.

Explore how familiar settings reflect who a character is, using homes, rooms, and towns to convey personality; practice by building a living room scene with five details.

Build a living room using creative prompts, from a record player and toolbox to a bookshelf and stamp collection, while weaving character and narrative voice into the space.

Explore unfamiliar settings and fish-out-of-water moments to reveal character through scenes like Wonderland, Room, and Jane Eyre. Uncover how writers place characters in new worlds to heighten tension and curiosity.

Create an instant scene by placing a character who would not belong there in a random setting, revealing the setting through details like no wifi, bug spray, tents, and dialogue.

Explore how setting shapes mood, atmosphere, and emotion in fiction, using dark and stormy nights to evoke foreboding. See how place, time, and weather influence character mood.

Describe the rainy moment from both first- and third-person viewpoints, using singing or crying in the rain prompts to reveal mood, perspective shifts, and rain as miraculous backdrop.

Explore how to set a story across eras using era-specific details and research to evoke time periods, illustrated by a Break Up Time Machine prompt.

Explore the story skeleton that underpins all fiction, from act one setup to act three resolution, and learn how three-act structure unifies plot, characters, setting, and point of view.

Identify why a protagonist’s big problem drives storytelling, and learn to build the setup and three-act skeleton (beginning, journey, resolution) through character flaws and change.

In act two, the journey and conflict form the core of a great plot; a character ventures somewhere new, faces escalating obstacles, and the story stays engaging.

Learn how the resolution tallies the second-act conflicts into a satisfying ending in the third act. Plan the ending before you write, choosing a journey and conflicts from your notes.

Master the three act A-plot structure—setup, journey, and resolution—and use the story skeleton handout to brainstorm, map, and finish your fiction.

Finish strong by embracing consistent daily writing, silencing the inner critic, and using prompts, setting and plot lectures to generate ideas and elevate your fiction writing.