C R E A T I V E W R I T I N G Find Your Writer’s Voice W e begin by discovering our voice; we study writing to develop our voice; we read in book reviews of a fresh voice, a strained voice, a confident voice. The writer’s voice: To what degree is it innate, to what constructed? How do we as writers cultivate a voice both authentic and compelling? In this course, we’ll bring a keen eye to issues surrounding the writing voice. We’ll explore how narrative voice influences or determines other craft elements, such as language and character. We’ll discuss how voice is itself a potent vehicle of meaning. And we’ll do exercises designed to enable you to cut out the literary and cognitive “dead- wood” that may be obstructing your most authentic and compelling voice. We’ll be reading story and essay excerpts from Nathan Englander, George Saunders, Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, Annie Dillard, Jesmyn Ward, Sara Suleri Goodyear, and Barry Lopez. You will emerge from this course with a significantly stronger sense of your own writing voice, as well as how to render it effectively on the page. m a r i Sa h a n dl e r Author Marisa Handler is the author of the memoir Loyal to the Sky: Notes from an Activist, which received a Nautilus Gold Award. Her essays, fiction, journalism, and poetry have appeared in The Sun, Orion, Salon, Witness, Kosmos, and 580 Split. Handler received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and numerous fellowships in creative writing, including a Fulbright and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. CW 06 Saturdays, July 29 and August 5 Sundays, July 30 and August 6 10:00 am – 12:30 pm (PT) 1 unit, $360 Limit: 21 Refund Deadline: July 29 Grade Restriction: No letter grade Course Format: Live Online From Synopsis to Success: Foolproof Story Development T he two linchpins of story planning are premise development and synopsis writing. If a story is going to fail, it will first do so at the premise level. The skills of creating, designing, and validating a premise idea are essential to every writer’s toolbox. In the first five weeks of this course, students will learn the basics of story structure and premise development, and in the last three weeks, they will transform their solid premises into a plan of action—that is, a synopsis of their novel or memoir. Each student will have the option to meet one-on-one with the instructor in a videoconference to work through their premise idea and their synopsis writing. Throughout the course, students will give and receive feedback on each other’s premise lines and synopses. At the end of the course, students will have a thoroughly tested proof-of-concept premise line, a concrete and well-developed three-to- five-page story synopsis, and an action plan for next steps in the story development or writing process. j e f f lyonS Writer and Producer Jeff Lyons is the author of Anatomy of a Premise Line: How to Master Premise and Story Development for Writing Success and Rapid Story Development: How to Use the Enneagram-Story Connection to Become a Master Storyteller. His writing has appeared in Writer’s Digest, Script, The Writer, and Writing Magazine (UK). CW 50 W 8 weeks, July 10 – September 1 2 units, $790 Limit: 17 Refund Deadline: July 13 Course Format: Flex Online 50 S T A N F O R D C O N T I N U I N G S T U D I E S