Starting Over

$300-$450. This class is being offered on a sliding scale basis, and the default is the lowest end of the price range indicated. If your financial situation allows and you wish to pay on the upper end of this range, or if you'd like to pay in installments, please email thresholdacademy@protonmail.com.

Do you feel when you’re writing that your sentences control you?

Are you haunted by styles and sensibilities that show up in your prose without realizing it?

When you read your own work, does it sound like anyone could have written it? 

Samuel R Delany writes that “content is the illusion myriad stylistic factors create when viewed at a certain distance.” Most of us have been writing in one form or another since grade school, following tired formulas and classic examples, without much attention to the patterns, idiosyncrasies, and quirks that make our voice unique. And if you haven’t had a chance to slow down, then there's a good chance that the voice you write into feels scratchy and ill-fitting, like a stretched-out sweater. This style intensive is an opportunity to start over. By examining the smallest units of prose—words, sentences, paragraphs, punctuation—you’ll be given the time, feedback, and a community of writers in which to explore, play, explode, and renew your style. We’ll spend time with writers known not just for their ‘clean’ style, but for their unmistakable sentences and paragraphs that couldn’t have been written by anyone else. Don’t think you have a style? This is the perfect opportunity to try on new voices, new techniques, and get to know yourself better as a writer. Students will learn from examples, from sharing their work in a supportive community, and by doing. 

WORDS - 2 WEEKS

SENTENCES - 3 WEEKS

PARAGRAPHS - 3 WEEKS

3-PARAGRAPH STORIES - 2 WEEKS

8 students max

Wednesdays, 3/20 - 5/22, 4-6pm PST / 7-9pm EST