New Class: Story Structure 101, June 28

Join my new class, a one-session summer seminar on story structure, offered via the Writing Co-Lab on Sun., June 28, 7-8:30pm.

People are natural storytellers—so why are plot and pace so hard to figure out? Join me for one session on character, conflict, and plot to discuss:

  • the qualities that make characters compelling;

  • generating and structuring action;

  • hinge and crisis points, and where to place them;

  • satisfying and meaningful endings; and

  • dramatic models, and how to find your story’s organic shape.

Along the way, we’ll talk about practical strategies and techniques for brainstorming, analyzing, and revising. We’ll also address how to employ these fundamental elements in stories of different lengths, from flash fiction all the way up to novel series.

This class is suited to new fiction writers searching for a foundation in narrative; experienced fiction writers looking for a new grip on plot; and anyone who finds themselves stuck and in need of a plan to invigorate their draft.

 Read more and enroll via the Writing Co-Lab.

Story Structure 101

Preorder “The Elements of Dark Academia”

I’m excited to see my story “The Genius and the Devil” in the anthology The Elements of Dark Academia, publishing in the UK in August 2026 and now available for preorder.  Get free shipping to the US from Blackstones!

Don your best tweed and sharpen your daggers: school is in session.

In this revelatory collection of over two dozen stories, award-winning anthologist Jared Shurin guides us through the hallowed halls of Dark Academia, from its Gothic roots to its boundary-pushing present. Ranging from the mysterious to the fantastic, the romantic and the horrific, these stories explore the hidden secrets of elite institutions, probe our relationship with power, and examine the darkest corners of human nature.

Within these pages, you’ll meet obsessed professors and the students who will do anything to impress them. Artists and musicians who make deals with the devil. Academic rivalries that turn personal, and even deadly. Students who come to study, but learn that ivory towers often contain dark secrets.

On the syllabus, you’ll find:

  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Evelyn Waugh
  • Dorothy Sayers
  • Carmen Maria Machado
  • M.L. Rio
  • Lev Grossman
  • And many more.

 

The Elements of Dark Academia