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The Difficult Middle: Keeping Readers Engaged For the Whole Ride, with Jacqueline Sheehan

$85.00

Most manuscripts start off with energy and promise, only to lose momentum somewhere in the middle. Scenes accumulate. Characters wander. The story bloats, expanding outward instead of moving forward. But pacing problems are rarely just pacing problems. More often, they signal something deeper: a character whose desires have become unclear, a conflict that isn't escalating, narrative threads that have drifted apart, or a story that has temporarily lost its sense of direction. In this three-hour workshop, we'll learn tools for restoring tension, urgency, and momentum to longer works. Through craft discussion, examples, guided exercises, and supportive sharing, we'll investigate the relationship between character, conflict, structure, and pacing, and learn techniques for tightening the middle of a manuscript without sacrificing depth or complexity. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of where their stories may be losing energy and concrete strategies for moving them forward.

This workshop will meet in-person at our Florence, MA studio. 

Saturday, November 7, 9:30 a.m - 12:30 p.m. EST

Most manuscripts start off with energy and promise, only to lose momentum somewhere in the middle. Scenes accumulate. Characters wander. The story bloats, expanding outward instead of moving forward. But pacing problems are rarely just pacing problems. More often, they signal something deeper: a character whose desires have become unclear, a conflict that isn't escalating, narrative threads that have drifted apart, or a story that has temporarily lost its sense of direction. In this three-hour workshop, we'll learn tools for restoring tension, urgency, and momentum to longer works. Through craft discussion, examples, guided exercises, and supportive sharing, we'll investigate the relationship between character, conflict, structure, and pacing, and learn techniques for tightening the middle of a manuscript without sacrificing depth or complexity. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of where their stories may be losing energy and concrete strategies for moving them forward.

This workshop will meet in-person at our Florence, MA studio. 

Saturday, November 7, 9:30 a.m - 12:30 p.m. EST

Meet the Instructor

Jacqueline Sheehan, PhD is the New York Times bestselling author of The Comet’s Tale, Lost & Found, Now & Then, Picture This, The Center of the World, and The Tiger in the House. She writes NPR commentaries, travel articles, and essays including the New York Times column, “Modern Love.” She edited the anthology, Women Writing in Prison. Jacqueline teaches workshops at Grub Street in Boston and around the world. Find out more at http://www.jacquelinesheehan.com/.