Even when a story is skillfully written, it may not be enough to make the reader care. The key lies in the emotional impact your story has on readers — inviting them to not only invest in your characters, but to embark on an emotional journey of their own. We’ll discuss how to avoid cliché and heavy-handed moralizing; determine the most effective balance of internal thought, scene, and underlying tension; and discover how to let an object or image (your father’s watch, a specific place, work of art, etc.) carry the emotional weight of your story and create layered meaning. Reading examples and short exercises will give participants the opportunity to experiment with creating empathy on the page. This workshop will be helpful to any writer wishing to strengthen reader engagement.
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About Lynn Auld Schwartz
Lynn Auld Schwartz is a writer, story development editor for fiction and nonfiction works, and has ghostwritten three books. Her plays and staged readings have been performed in Atlanta and NYC, including Lincoln Center. She founded the Temple Bar Literary Reading Series in NYC, has received two Individual Artist Awards in Fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, and an Annie Literary Arts Award from the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County. Her stories have appeared in literary journals and she produces and directs a Page To Stage series, which offers teen and adult regional writers the opportunity to perform their life stories on stage. A graduate of The City College of New York, Columbia University, and The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, Schwartz has taught fiction, flash fiction, and memoir at St. John’s College, The Writer’s Center, and is a Writing Guest Artist for Anne Arundel County’s Performing and Visual Arts Magnet program. More about her at writerswordhouse.com.
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