Craft Seminar: The World of World: Writing Outside Your Main Characters with Isle McElroy
Craft Seminar: The World of World: Writing Outside Your Main Characters with Isle McElroy
1 Session: Monday, November 16
6:00-9:00 pm ET
Isle McElroy
Isle McElroy is the author of three novels: The Atmospherians, People Collide, and the forthcoming Satellite. They were a 2025 Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute and were named a 2026 National Magazine Finalist in criticism. Their writing appears in The New York Times, The Cut, Vulture, The Atlantic, The Believer, and elsewhere.
What would happen to your story if your main character died? Would life continue without them? If not, you likely haven’t done enough to create a rich, believable world.
In this class, we will discuss the importance of world in fiction. World is not just setting, it’s everything that makes up the universe within and beyond the primary focus of your story. We will explore strategies for enhancing the world of your fiction. How do you create conflict in the background of your novel or story? How do you set actions in motion that will later shape your main characters’ lives? This kind of world-building is important across genres: from literary realism to speculative romance. Creating a lively, functioning world is difficult but necessary to good fiction. It’s the difference between flat, forgettable storytelling and a rich, three-dimensional narrative that exists as its own separate universe. It’s the difference between a manuscript in a drawer and a book on display in a window.
Highlights:
Learn the difference between world and setting.
Receive verbal feedback on in-progress writing.
Learn strategies for how to enhance the world of your fiction.
This class has 1 scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Sunday, November 8.
Isle McElroy's debut novel, The Atmospherians, was praised in The New York Times Book Review as “exceptional writing” and was named a book of the year by Esquire, Electric Literature, Debutiful, and others. Their second novel, People Collide, was named a New York Times Critics' Pick and a best book of 2023 by NPR, Vulture, Them, Vogue, and other venues. Abbi Jacobson is currently adapting the novel. Their third novel, Satellite, will be published by Viking in 2027. Their essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, and elsewhere. They have received fellowships from The Black Mountain Institute, The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Tin House Summer Workshop, The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Elizabeth George Foundation, and The National Parks.
