This class is aimed at fiction writers who already have a project going. We’ll be looking at ways to go deeper into your characters, whether you’re working on a novel or short stories.

Fiction writers who deliver an emotional wallop in their writing, such as Maggie O’Farrell in “Hamnet,” or Donna Tartt in “The Goldfinch,” are also masters of going deep. So we’ll be looking at how they, and a few other writers, do so. One strategy is slowing time down in a scene. A second technique is using a close third-person point of view. We’ll experiment with these strategies in your own writing.

Our class format will be instructor presentations, discussion and free writing in the first half of class, then in the second hour, a “writing workshop” format, in which one or two class member volunteers share their work and receive feedback.

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*Limited to 9 students

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About the Instructor

Diane Chiddister is a lifelong fiction writer, and a MFA graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She veered into a professional life of journalism, while always writing short stories on the side. After retiring from journalism in 2018, she wrote her first novel, One More Day. which won the grand prize in the North Street Book Prize in 2022. She’s just signed a contract with Atmosphere Press for her third novel, Shoulders of Love, which will be published in fall of 2026.

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