1 Sessions: Saturday, January 31
2:00-5:00pm ET
Kristi Coulter

Kristi Coulter is the author of two acclaimed memoirs, Nothing Good Can Come From This and Exit Interview: The Life & Death Of My Ambitious Career. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Mississippi Review, New York Magazine, Elle, and elsewhere. She has taught at Hugo House, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington. Kristi lives in Minneapolis and Los Angeles and is at work on a novel that she has reverse-outlined twice (so far).

Writers are often characterized as either "plotters" or "pantsers," a binary that, like many, isn't all that helpful or useful in real life, where both approaches can serve even those of us who are naturally drawn to one side. This seminar is especially geared toward seat-of-the-pants writers who amass a pile of rich, gloriously unkempt pages and wonder "How do I make sense of this? How do I turn it into, you know, a book?'

The answer: via reverse outlining, a technique for discovering your book's structure while you're neck-deep in writing it, or even after you've completed a draft. Via discussion, handouts, and examples, we'll explore the possibilities of reverse outlining along with best practices for building your own. We'll also talk about various ways to use the results of your reverse outline in completing or revising your manuscript.

Some in-class practice will be included, followed by time to debrief, so please bring at least 50 pages of a novel or memoir draft to work with.

Workshop Highlights:

• How to reverse-outline a novel or memoir draft or partial draft

• The points in a writing process when reverse outlining is most useful

• How to apply the results of your reverse outline to your draft

This class has 1 scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, January 23rd.