Ordinary Time, Extraordinary Time: How Expectations, Power Dynamics & Assumptions Propel Your Reader

The Manuscript Academy

Join our Three-Day Workshop, Making & Breaking Status Quo with Anne Elliott, June 13-15, 2023. Tickets are $49 and include daily classes, daily workshops, a live Q&A, and first pages panel--all with replays, on-demand access, and 30 days to view. This podcast episode is a workshop preview for the three days together. Get your ticket here: https://manuscriptacademy.com/product/making-and-breaking-status-quo What you do with the "ordinary" in your story--and how you break it--creates the extraordinary reading experience. You've heard that agents want characters with power and agency (it's some of our top-requested keywords on #MSWL!), but how do you give them power or--even better--teach them to take it? How do you bring a quiet character the courage to speak up? How do you show the ripple effects when they finally do? What hidden consequences come with taking risks, seeking safety, and finding intimacy between your characters? All of these questions make for compelling fiction that explores that human elements AI just can't touch. There so are many things we love about Anne. Her ability to zero in on fiction in a way that feels like an MFA in your computer is among our favorites. Hope you can join us. Anne Elliott is the author of The Artstars: Stories (Indiana University Press) and The Beginning of the End of the Beginning (Ploughshares Solos). Her short fiction can be found in Story, A Public Space, Crab Orchard Review, Witness, Hobart, Bellevue Literary Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, and elsewhere. Elliott is a veteran of the New York spoken word circuit, with stage credits including The Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center, PS122, and Woodstock ’94. Her fiction has been awarded support from The Story Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, The Normal School, Table 4 Writer’s Foundation, and The Bridport Prize. She holds an MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College, and lives in Portland, Maine. Learn more at http://www.anneelliottstories.com.