High PlainsWriting
ZoomWorkshops 2021
Covid-19 note:
Before Covid-19, we held workshop here at the ranch and also took them on the road, in 2019 to Prague (pictured) in 2018 to Chania, Crete. We had all kinds of big plans for 2020 (Goa, India, Edinburgh, Scotland), but you know what happened with that.
We hope to hit the road again sometimes soon, but until then we will be running workshops via Zoom via Hugo House in Seattle, The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, and Love Street Writers in Melbourne, Australia.
See the upcoming schedule, below.
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What is High Plains Writing?
To progress in their craft, a writer needs both inspiration and time for new ideas to incubate, crack open and grow. And to explore new artistic territory, a writer also needs a third element: a bit of pressure. We need risk in order to leave our comfort zones, time zones, hemispheres. A little push off the cliff's edge.
High Plains Writing Workshops supply all three. All are led by Robin McLean, who has been leading workshops in college courses and community workshops for a decade. The workshops are immersive, propelling writers toward new work and deeper into pre-existing stories.
Read what writers say about working with Robin.
Time as a Tool for Tension, led by Robin McLean
Instructor: Robin Mclean
Class Type: 1 Session
Fiction, Online
Term: Spring 2021
Days of the Week: Sunday
Minimum Class Size: 5
Maximum Class Size: 15
All Levels | There are always at least two ticking clocks in fiction. One is the timeline of the story. The other is the clock on the reader's patience. To get the reader to the end of the tale, the two clocks must interact successfully through a series of decisions to keep the tension taut: where to compress time for best effect, where to expand it, where to jump ahead or back. In this one-day session you will practice—looking to Joy Williams, Colson Whitehead, and Chekhov for guidance—the careful management of time to increase the tension and, therefore, power in your fiction.
Character as Action, led by Robin McLean
All Levels | "Character," according to Aristotle, "gives us qualities, but it is in action—what we do—that we are happy or the reverse." In this one-day session, writers of fiction will explore building more engaging characters through action, as opposed to dialogue or happenstance. Come away with methods for giving your characters more agency and depth, freeing them to move your story forward in unexpected ways. We will look to Samuel Beckett for guidance.
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