What does a reader need to know, and when do they need to know it? Both writers and readers need to understand their characters' pasts in order to understand their actions and emotions in the narrative present. This understanding enables writers to generate suspense for the reader and increase their emotional investment in the character's future. But how do we decide what to tell and what to withhold? What's the difference between backstories and flashbacks that provide crucial a-ha moments for the reader and those that bring the narrative to a screeching halt? In the course of this class, we'll read stories in which flashbacks and backstories both answer and ask questions and make essential contributions to plot advancement and character development. Through the readings, discussions, and generative writing, participants will gain an array of strategies for using the past to deepen characterization and create more propulsive narratives.
Whitney Bryant holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work is forthcoming in Shenandoah and has also appeared in The Georgia Review, One Story, and Chapter 16, and she is the fiction co-editor of the online journal Atlas + Alice: A Magazine of Intersections. In order to support her writing habit, she has taught literature and writing to high school students in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia over the past fifteen years. She has recently completed a novel in stories. She enjoys exploring Nashville's arts scene and outdoor activities.
"Whitney was the perfect blend of encourager and teacher! She is also so skilled in bringing a class together."
"Whitney was fantastic at adapting to all of the different story ideas everyone had. Our group had a wide variety of genres and experience levels and she deftly found a link between every one of them and what we happened to be discussing at the time."
"I really loved Whitney's class! We were constantly encouraged to lead with curiosity, which I'll take with me outside of my creative practice."
