https://lighthousewriters.org/workshop/4-week-story-builder-iii—characters?session=7474

Welcome to Story Builder!

This series of four classes is co-taught by Rachel Weaver and Erika Krouse, and covers the four major aspects of crafting your story: tension, plot, characterization, and scene. Each session is four weeks long, and there are four sessions in the entire series. You can take one session or all four, chronologically or in any order you like, according to your needs. These classes will include many topics, but will be tailored to the needs of the writers attending.

This class is designed for prose writers working on novels, memoirs, essays, or short stories. These fast-paced courses work on a cycle of lecture, discussion, and application. The instructor will explore a specific craft element (i.e. conflict, time, setting, protagonists, and more), give a few short examples, open the topic for discussion. After discussion, writers will use exercises to apply the concepts to their own works. We'll focus on practical application rather than theory alone; writers should come with a concrete story idea to which they can apply the week's topics. Writers can expect to generate new writing for a current work-in-progress and gain a broader understanding of all the major elements of story. Beyond general discussion, we won't be doing any workshopping in this class.

Story Builder III—Characters: In this edition of Story Builder, we’ll explore your characters—their identities, wounds, quests, codes, conflicts, and all the factors that make people do the interesting/amazing/stupid things they do. We’ll learn how to build protagonists and antagonists full of agency, who evoke sympathy and fascination in your reader. We'll discover how your side characters can boost your plot and populate your world, and investigate how perspective and voice can draw your reader deeper into your protagonist’s psyche, adding tension and dynamism to your story. Most of all, we’ll write a ton! Our focus is on practical application, generating new work, and bringing clarity to your masterpiece-in-progress.

https://lighthousewriters.org/workshop/4-week-story-builder-iv—scenes?session=7476

Welcome to Story Builder!

This series of four classes is co-taught by Rachel Weaver and Erika Krouse, and covers the four major aspects of crafting your story: tension, plot, characterization, and scene. Each session is four weeks long, and there are four sessions in the entire series. You can take one session or all four, chronologically or in any order you like, according to your needs. These classes will include many topics, but will be tailored to the needs of the writers attending.

These fast-paced courses work on a cycle of lecture, discussion, and application. The instructor will explore a specific craft element (i.e. conflict, time, setting, protagonists, and more), give a few short examples, open the topic for discussion. After discussion, writers will use exercises to apply the concepts to their own works. We'll focus on practical application rather than theory alone; writers should come with a concrete story idea to which they can apply the week's topics. Writers can expect to generate new writing for a current work-in-progress and gain a broader understanding of all the major elements of story. Beyond general discussion, we won't be doing any workshopping in this class.

Story Builder IV—Scenes: This edition of Story Builder is where the rubber hits the road! We’ll focus on your scenes—how to create memorable ones that grab your reader and don't let go. We'll study the difference between a dynamic scene that leaps off the page and a dull one that just lies there, snoring. We'll study scene-building elements such as dialogue, emotion, setting, conflict/suspense, and epiphany so we can create that must-turn-the-page feeling. Most importantly, we’ll write vital scenes from every point in our story: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, and resolution. We'll also work on practical plans so we can build our scenes list and keep going. Our focus is on practical application, generating new work, and bringing clarity to your masterpiece-in-progress.

Scheduling note: To accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be no class on November 27.

Details TBA! Keynote will probably be 7pm on Friday and craft talk will probably be 9am on Saturday. They usually let the general public sign up for the keynote, which is livestreamed; the rest is only for Book Project members.

Write with me in Mongolia! Steppe, mountains, the Gobi..."the new frontier...a magnet for adventure seekers" (NYT). June 2025, hosted by The Himalayan Writing Retreat.