The same story will sound drastically different depending on who is telling it. In other words, the impact of a story rests heavily on its narrator. Many of us take narrators for granted and focus more on the plot and characters in a story. In this class we'll explore the very intentional choices writers make when choosing a narrative voice and demonstrate how narrators can make or break a story. We'll expand upon basic decisions like choosing between first and third person by looking at examples that utilize elements in narration such as narrative distances, focalization, quirk and personality in diction, and unreliability. We’ll also try out several writing exercises designed to revitalize our writing by looking at it from different narrative angles. This class is perfect for all levels, but especially for writers who are feeling stuck and need a fresh way to approach their existing project.
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Kumari Devarajan (they/them) is a Tamil Sri Lankan fiction writer from Washington DC. They hold an MFA from Vanderbilt University where they were a Russel G. Hamilton scholar and Editor-In-Chief of the Nashville Review. They have been awarded grants from Lambda Literary and Community of Writers, and their fiction can be found in The Los Angeles Review. Formerly, they were an award-winning podcast producer for NPR.
Kumari has led multiple LGBTQ+ affinity group meetups with The Porch, and we're thrilled to have them teaching their first Porch class this season!
