Fiction Intensive with Kathleen Rooney

“I always keep two books in my pocket, one to read and one to write in,” said Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887. In this five-day generative fiction workshop, we will explore how that simple two-part strategy holds true for writers in the 21st century. Through a pattern of in-class readings, discussions, prompts, and sharing, we will examine the techniques and structures at play in effective fiction, including significant detail, narrative frame, imagery, voice, characterization, plot, dialogue, and interiority. Following close readings of and conversations about a variety of examples, we’ll do numerous in-class exercises in which we’ll get to put these devices into practice. Essentially, we’ll be challenging ourselves with an artistic bootcamp of sorts. By the end of the week, everyone will walk out with knowledge and material that will kickstart fresh projects and also enrich and enliven projects-in-progress, be they flash fiction, short stories, or novels.

You do not need to bring anything in terms of drafts, nor do you need to do anything in terms of prior reading. All you need is an attitude of experimentation and a willingness to try new things at a rapid clip. The pace will be quick and the tone will be one of joyful concentration–you’ll probably get the most out of it if you try not to take yourself too seriously, but to take the work extremely seriously.

Class meets in person, Monday – Friday, July 14 – 18, 9 am – noon.

Class size: minimum 5, maximum 12.

Member discount: Members of Write On receive a 10% discount on all classes and workshops. To become a member, please click here. To receive the discount, members must log in to the website using their unique password and enter member10 in the promotion code box. The code is case sensitive.

Kathleen Rooney, Poet, Author, professor

Teaching Artist: Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary works in hybrid genres, and a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a team of poets and their typewriters who compose commissioned poetry on demand. She is the author of the novels Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk (2017), Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey (2020), and From Dust to Stardust (2023), and her latest poetry collection Where Are the Snows, winner of the XJ Kennedy Prize, was released in Fall of 2022 by Texas Review Press. Her debut picture book, Leaf Town Forever, co-written with her sister Beth Rooney, is forthcoming in Fall of 2025 and her fifth novel, Man Overboard!, will be released in Summer of 2026. She lives in Chicago with her spouse, the writer Martin Seay, and teaches English and Creative Writing at DePaul University.