Intro to Fiction: Laying the Foundation with Junse Kim

“We writers too often need others to tell us that our writing is good,” says instructor Junse Kim. “And this is where it all goes horribly wrong. We become impatient for praise, obsessed with completing a story before learning the basic skills we need to write it. It’s the equivalent of, say, an aspiring carpenter who has committed to building a beautiful house, yet doesn’t know how to hammer in a nail or saw a piece of wood.”

In this remote class, you’ll develop concrete skills and narrative techniques through fun writing exercises designed to help you master your craft. At the end of five weeks, you’ll have a better grip on how to use these techniques (for developing character, setting, and plot) as tools for building your story. The class will also analyze other narrative genres, from movie scenes to comic books, to analyze storytelling skills you can apply to your fiction writing.

*The live video conference portion of the class will last for 1.5 hours, from 7:00pm-8:30pm. The final hour of class will occur outside of the videoconference. Junse will ask you to do writing exercises that specifically relate to his lessons from the video-conferencing session. You can email those exercises to him, and then he will offer an evaluation.