(Online) Managing Timelines in Fiction with Pingmei Lan

Do you feel your scenes read too fast, too slow or just right?

Do you feel confident with pacing in your work?

Are you using time as a vehicle not only to move characters through scenes, but also to build tension and dynamics in your stories? This class will help you unlock the mystery behind pacing and managing timelines in fiction. Instructions will include a variety of celebrated examples on how to structure, transition or manipulate time. Along the way you will learn a set of key concepts and craft techniques such as story time, elapsed time and freeze frames.

There will also be an opportunity to try out at least one of the techniques discussed in class. By the end of this class, you will be more prepared in building structured timelines, writing well-paced scenes and pulling your whole story together.

Although the class will mainly live in the context of fiction such as short stories or novels, techniques discussed here also apply to other prose genres such as memoir or personal essays.

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