Everyone who enjoys reading fiction knows the experience of being so caught up in a short story or novel that their own life slides away and all that matters are the characters, details, and things that happen in the world they are led to imagine. It may be the primary reason that people are drawn to writing fiction. The writers who succeed at immersing readers in their work, Fred Shafer believes, are often those who have maintained a close contact with what they have seen, heard, and felt as readers. They have become experts, in their own right, in the process of reading. Writers who have lost contact with, or taken for granted, the process of reading may fall short of creating a full experience for readers, even after trying to meet all of the technical and thematic demands they have identified in a manuscript. In his three workshops, Fred’s purposes will be to discuss the kinds of effects that tend to be overlooked or forgotten, to show what their absence will cost a manuscript, and to suggest steps that writers can take to bring their reading closer to their writing.
Fred Shafer was an editor with TriQuarterly, the literary journal published by Northwestern University, where he taught fiction writing in the School of Professional Studies for many years. He leads three private workshops in short story and novel writing.
Fred Shafer will accept manuscripts for critique. Please see the Manuscript scroll down on our website for details.
