Do you have a story inside of you that you 're unsure how to tell? Maybe you have a general picture\, but the details are hazy. Maybe you have all of the details down\, but you aren't sure ho w to frame it. Or maybe you've got too much and you need help knowing what to leave on the cutting room floor. The good news is: you're already a st oryteller\, regardless of whether you've written a word. The better news: you'll leave this workshop as a writer. This free generative fiction works hop for adult writers of all levels will teach you how to apply cinematogr aphy techniques to your prose writing to help zoom in and focus on what ma tters most\, heighten tension\, and reveal character. We will look at and discuss examples of how these techniques are applied in sample excerpts an d engage in activities to apply these techniques to our own writing. Parti cipants will leave this workshop with a new toolkit for enhancing and impr oving their fiction\, as well as some freshly generated work.
\nPens and notebooks will be provided for participants. You are also welcome to bring your own materials and/or a writing device like a laptop.\n
\nFacilitator Elisabeth Giffin Speckman (sh e/her) received her MFA in Fiction from Butler University. She has taught undergraduate courses in first year studies\, prose\, academic writing\, s creenwriting\, media literacy\, and acting\, as well as various youth and community workshops and classes in creative writing and drama. Elisabeth w rites in multiple genres. Her plays include Clyt\; or\, The Bathtub Play ( O&rsquo\;Neill Finalist 2023\; Henley Rose Finalist) and Catch/Release (He nley Rose Finalist) and have been produced throughout the United States an d five other countries. She has developed work with the Yale Writers&rsquo \; Conference (now Yale Writers&rsquo\; Workshop)\, the Kennedy Center Pla ywriting Intensive\, 29th Street Playwrights Collective\, The Bechdel Grou p\, The Skeleton Rep(resents)\, and The Barrow Group\, and has studied com edy and sketch writing with Upright Citizens Brigade\, Bad Medicine Comedy \, and The Second City. Her plays are available via Next Stage Press\, You thPLAYS\, and the New Play Exchange\, among others. Her short screenplays have been selected\, nominated\, and awarded in national and international film festivals. Poetry\, prose\, and photography appears or is forthcomin g in trampset\, Harrow House\, Pink Ochre Literary Magazine\, Midwestern G othic\, Flash Fiction Magazine\, CHEAP POP\, Three Line Poetry\, and Pidge onholes\, among others. More info at her woefully out of date website egspeckman.com.
\n\nAbout the Butler MFA Community Workshop Series
The Butler MFA Community Workshop series is a free writing program facilitated by Butler University alumn
i of the MFA in Creative Writing. These one-off workshops\, hosted at part
ner sites including bookstores\, nonprofits\, and public libraries in the
Greater Indianapolis area\, connect adults at all stages of their
writing journeys with workshop experiences shaped by graduate-lev
el study. Thanks to a generous gift from the Efroymson Family Fund\, alumn
i from the program's concentrations in Poetry\, Creative Nonfiction\, and
Fiction will guide local writers into creative practice. Each workshop is
designed to help participants generate new work\, learn new ways of thinki
ng about the craft of writing\, and more confidently continue their own wr
iting practices. \;Learn more about Butler University's Maste
r of Fine Arts in Creative Writing by visiting their website.