![]() ![]() If a writer is having a problem with a story, there is that classic Baxter response: Make it a problem in the story. “And then: are these techniques working well, or at cross-purposes, to dramatize the story's narrative?” chronic tension, inventories and undoings, dramatic imagery, selective listening in dialogue, sparkplug characters, plot reversals-the whole bag of tools and tricks,” says Baxter. There was never empty praise, but his whole-hearted attention showed a kind of love that we hope to inspire in all our readers.”įocusing the class on the “formal properties” of a story, Baxter asks students to describe its world: “What techniques have been employed to shape this particular story? I talk about request moments, one-way gates, acute vs. He treats each draft as if it is something in The Paris Review, something golden, with guts, worthy of analysis. ![]() Students receive what MFA alum Andrea Uptmor celebrates as “the Charlie treatment”: “a description of what your story was about that ends up more eloquent and true than your own sentences.”Ĭontinues Uptmor: “Charlie talks about his students’ characters as if their lives were of great personal consequence to him. The workshops of this award-winning novelist and story writer have instead been, legendarily, a space of creative exploration. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |