Brian Malloy

Introduction to Fiction: Short Story is an online class to benefit the Loft Literary Center, the nation's largest nonprofit independent literary arts center.

Do you have a great idea for a short story? Have you kept a writing journal full of ideas and scenes and are now ready to take the next step by writing a complete first draft? This is the class for you! Each week we will review and practice one or more craft elements essential to creating compelling fiction, including the five parts of traditional short story form, summary, scene, and flashback; point of view, characterization, significant detail, and imagery; setting, figurative language, theme, and revision. We will also review master works to learn what they can teach us about writing our own stories. Finally, we will practice descriptive peer review of our work (describing the characters, conflict/​change, and what is at stake) to receive constructive feedback on our initial drafts. Our focus will be on realism as opposed to science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, or speculative fiction, but writers of these forms interested in realism and how it can be applied to their genre are welcome to enroll.