This eight-week course will give prose writers the oomph needed to finish one piece of writing and start another. In pursuit of perfection, we can find ourselves workshopping the same story, essay, or chapter over and over without ever getting to that “final” publication stage. This class gives writers a chance to pull one of those almost-finished projects out of the proverbial drawer, get it as close to done as possible, and send it out into the world once and for all. We will use concrete revision strategies to achieve that final polish, create plans for submission, and overcome fears of imperfection by cutting ties with our darlings. The life cycle of our writing doesn’t end there—we will also generate fresh ideas, voices, and energy for a new piece of prose. Bring a piece of fiction or nonfiction that is almost done and an idea for a new writing project to our first class meeting.
Claire Fuqua Anderson
is an English Lecturer at the University of Houston, where she has taught for six years. She received her MFA from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program and has taught creative writing workshops for Inprint, Boldface Conference, and Grackle & Grackle Writing Enterprises. In 2017, she was a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant Award, funded by the City the Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. She is working on a novel set during the Dust Bowl.