Writing Setting

Wednesdays: September 16 - October 7
7:30 - 10 p.m. EST

Led by JULIA PHILLIPS
with guest authors Xochitl Gonzalez, Melissa Rivero, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, & Angie Kim

$420 $370 (until July 21)

“Setting” is a brief word that encompasses an entire world: geography, time, history, and culture. It’s the ground our stories stand on, affixing our works in some position in space, rather than releasing them into a vacuum.

Through setting, we make our writing more specific and more alive; a story rooted in place gains natural, political, and emotional depth.

So how do we best place our stories in a context that tethers, enriches, and expands them? How do we engage with the wider world in which our dramas take place, so that setting serves as a dynamic element of the story, as compelling to readers as character or plot?

Over the four sessions of this course, taught by award-winning novelist Julia Phillips, we’ll explore techniques for grounding and enlivening our stories through setting. Our visiting authors will be novelists and short-story writers sharing their own experiences, but their guidance will apply across genres, from fiction to non-fiction to poetry, and will speak to places ranging from real to surreal and fantastical.

Each class session will consist of a conversation with a guest author, craft discussion, and generative writing session. You’ll leave each week with suggested further reading and writing assignments to do on your own, all focused on sharpening and activating the sense of place in your story. This course is not a workshop, and no individual feedback will be given, but students will have the chance to share brief excerpts from their works, and have ample opportunity to talk through craft challenges with both the head teacher and guest authors. 

By taking this course, you will:

• Develop a deeper understanding of what makes a story’s setting multi-layered and distinctive 

• Learn practical techniques for animating landscape and atmosphere

• Sharpen your powers of description and observation 

• Study how masterful writers evoke place through the geographical as well as the sociological

• Generate new work in responses to writing prompts focused on setting

• Meet peers and mentors attuned to the power of place

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This is a craft intensive, not a workshop. While there’s no direct feedback on your writing, you’ll generate plenty of new material through customized prompts and weekly assignments. This course will take place live on Zoom, but is designed for asynchronous value if you are unable to participate in all sessions; recordings will be shared each week.

About the Instructors

A limited number of scholarships for this course are available. Please fill out this form by July 28, and we’ll get back to you within a week after the deadline. (Please hold off on registering until you have received a scholarship decision.)

Payment plans are available at checkout via ShopPay.

There is a 10% cancellation fee if you cancel your enrollment more than 1 week before the start of the course. No refund will be given if cancelling within less than a week of the course start date (or after the course has begun).

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Off Assignment’s Masters’ Series courses are unique four-session courses that delve deep into a specific writing topic by harnessing the expertise and craft tactics of a renowned writer in a particular niche, plus four celebrated authors. Participating writers gain a wealth of advanced techniques while benefiting from a cohesive community of disciplined writers.