Kelly Dwyer: Teaching

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Please join me, Kelly Dwyer, for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival on campus this summer!

We'll meet in the beautiful and inspiring UNESCO City of Literature, Iowa City, where we'll workshop, laugh, eat, become inspired, and WRITE!

"Mending the Muddle of the Middle," ISWF 2023

I'll be teaching two workshops this coming summer:

Weeklong Workshops June 16–21: Writing the Popular Novel (In Any Genre)

Weekend Workshops June 22–23: Plotting the Plot in a Weekend

If you're interested in signing up for these classes, or in any of the wonderful classes taught by the fantastic faculty members this summer, please go to:

https://iowasummerwritingfestival.uiowa.edu/

I can't wait to write with you in Iowa City!

"Look out, Iowa City, we're coming back, and this time we mean business!" --Amy Margolis, Director, Iowa Summer Writing Festival.

Yes, that's right, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, which has been online over Zoom since the pandemic, is returning to Iowa City this summer, and I'll be there, walking those hallowed streets, eating in those nice restaurants, visiting with old friends and making new ones, and, oh yeah, teaching three classes... :)

Mending the Muddle of the Middle (Of the Novel), Weekend Workshop, July 15-16

The Popular Novel (In Any Genre), Weeklong Workshop, July 16-21

and

Killer Openings, Weekend Workshop, Weekend Workshop, July 22-23

Registration is not yet open, but you can start planning now by booking a flight and reserving a room at the Iowa House, the Graduate Hotel, or another hotel or Airbnb in Iowa City or the vicinity.

Go to the ISWF website for more information at Iowa Summer Writing Festival or email me for questions at KellyDwyer0077@gmail.com

I'd love to have you in class and see you LIVE IN PERSON in Iowa City!

the "Dark Angel" sculpture at the cemetery in Iowa City

Developing Dynamic Characters: Live ISWF Class Over Zoom

I'm teaching a new live class over Zoom the last weekend of April through the University of Iowa

IOWA SUMMER WRITING FESTIVAL

Come write with me!

xo Kelly

Lonely picture of me by myself on Zoom. Keep me company, please!

Developing Dynamic Characters (Weekend Workshop)

Kelly Dwyer, Instructor

Dates/Time: Friday, April 28–Sunday, April 30, 2023

Introductory Meeting and Overview, Friday on Zoom:

7:00–8:00 p.m. Iowa/Central Time
8:00–9:00 p.m. Eastern Time
5:00–6:00 p.m. Pacific Time
6:00–7:00 p.m. Mountain Time

Workshop Meetings, Saturday & Sunday on Zoom:

11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Iowa/Central Time
12:00–5:00 p.m. Eastern Time
9:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Pacific Time
10:00 a.m.–3:00 a.m. Mountain Time

Saturday and Sunday meetings include a one-hour break. Class meets for four hours each day.

*International students should get in touch with Kelly if you would like to take the workshop but cannot make Friday night’s intro session. kelldwyer@yahoo.com

Course Description

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Toni Morrison’s Sula. Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Richard Wright’s Invisible Man. Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett. Jade Chang’s Charles Wang. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield. Junot Diaz’s Oscar Wao. Steigg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert. Jeanette Winterson’s Jeanette. Malinda Lo’s Ash. Murakami’s Oshima. …

Dynamic characters. We may love them, hate them, or love to hate them, but by the end of the novels or memoirs in which they star, we feel like we know them better than we know our friends or family—and maybe even ourselves. They’re filled with contradictions, and yet they feel real. They linger long after we’ve finished their stories. And they change, going through a transformation that carries the plot of their books. How do we go about creating and developing such complex, memorable, and dynamic characters ourselves?

In this weekend workshop, we’ll discuss how to create memorable characters, and how to deepen characters we may already be working wit h. We’ll discuss how character relates to plot, and how, in creating a character arc, we’re also creating a plot outline that will help us map out (or revise) our stories, novels, or memoirs.

The weekend workshop will include lectures, discussions, exercises, and assignments, which writers will be encouraged to share on a volunteer basis. The workshop is for writers of all levels, from beginners who are just starting out, to intermediate authors who are in the process of revision, to advanced authors who may have already completed a book (or two or three) …

Writers are free to “bring” a character they’re already working with or to create a new one from scratch. The exercises and assignments will be adapted to your needs either way. This is a mostly generative workshop in which we will be working on new material, but writers are free to revise material if they prefer.

Writers will leave the workshop with an understanding of what makes a dynamic character, and will have already begun to write or revise a complex, memorable, and dynamic character themselves.

Instructor

Kelly Dwyer's third novel, Ghost Mother, will be published by Union Square & Company in Fall 2024. Kelly taught in the University of Wisconsin system for fifteen years and has taught at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival for over twenty years. Whether in person or online, Kelly is passionate about helping other writers achieve success. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Oberlin College, Kelly grew up in San Pedro, California, and now divides her time between Madison, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles. Kelly also writes flash fiction and plays, which have been performed in Boston, New York, and Glasgow. Feel free to visit http://www.kellydwyerauthor.com/.

Registration & Fees

The fee for this course is $350. Payment in full is required to register.

Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Class size is limited to 10.

Note: Your credit card payment will be processed by an external provider and will appear on your credit card statement as “UI Writing—Magid Center.”

Refund & Cancellation Policy

If you need to cancel your enrollment, please let us know as soon as possible. We can only offer full refunds if you cancel one week prior to the start of class. After that, before the start-date of class, we can offer a 50% refund. We cannot refund day-of cancellations, and we cannot refund or partially refund registration fees once the class has begun.

Terms & Community Policy

1. The Iowa Summer Writing Festival is a program for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to enroll in Festival workshops.

2. The Iowa Summer Writing Festival is a community built on an assumption of shared enterprise, in the spirit of mutual respect. We reserve the right to a) revoke the registration of or b) dismiss from the program any person who disrupts the learning/working environment of others. Participants in the Festival are subject to all University of Iowa policies governing conduct in our community, whether online or in person.

Questions?

Contact the Iowa Summer Writing Festival: iswfestival@uiowa.edu. Phone: (319) 335-4160.

Our tiny staff is out and about. If you phone and we miss you, please leave a detailed message!

If you have any questions for me, the instructor, please contact me at kelldwyer@yahoo.com

We hope to see you over Zoom in April!

The Iowa Summer Writing Festival Students and yours truly at our "Killer Openings" class, July 2022

"Happy Families are all alike; unhappy families are unhappy in their own way."--Tolstoy

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in posession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

--Jane Austen

"I am an invisible man." --Ralph Ellison

In this weekend workshop over Zoom, these ten writers and I discussed what makes a Killer Opening Line, a Killer Opening Paragraph and first page(s), a Killer Inciting Incident, and a Killer First Act. Our purpose was twofold: we studied the subject and workshopped opening scenes in order to write Killer Openings that editors, agents, and readers would not be able to put down; and in order to have a roadmap for ourselves so that we would be able to finish our novels, stories and memoirs.

Some writers came to the class with a project in mind, and some came without any idea about what they were going to write about. Some came with a novel completely finishshed, and these writers were interested in learning how to make their openings more compelling as they revised.

It was a fantastic class and weekend, due in part to the fascinating topic, and due in large part to the fantastic group of writers who participated.

I'll be teaching the class again in the fall, and I'd love to have you in it.

To sign up for the Festival's email list, just write to: iswfestival@uiowa,edu

To check out current listings, go to: The University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival Current Course Catalog

Hope to see you in a future class, so we can write some KILLER OPENINGS together!

Photo by Benjamin Balázs from Unsplash

September, 2021

I returned to school this past week, teaching three sections of The 99-Day Novel through the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival over Zoom (see link below). Thirty writers will be starting (or starting to revise) a novel before Labor Day, and finishing their goals, whatever they are--to finish a skeleton of a novel or to finish a completed manuscript--before the holidays. My job is to shepherd them through the process and to be their most helpful reader and their most enthusiastic cheerleader--a job I absolutely love!

I wish all students and educators who are returning to school a happy and healthy year. May we make new friends and grow in "old" friendships, may we learn new things, may we learn from our failures and rejoice in our successes, may we have fun!, and may we attempt feats just out of our reach...

What are you doing and learning this September? I wish you well in your endeavors!

*For more information on the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival upcoming classes, sign up for their email list/ go to: ISWF

I have been a student or a teacher for much of my life. The Tuesday after Labor Day always represents a new year for me more than January 1 ever does. I'm excited for new classes, new students, a new school (University of Wisconsin at Platteville), and new writers whose novels and memoirs I'm working with this year.

Summer is my favorite season. I love long days, sunlight, travel, fireflies, and the beach. But Fall is a close second. I'm looking forward to wearing sweaters again. I love autumn leaves. And Halloween is my third favorite holiday, after Christmas and birthdays (my own, my daughter's, friends'). Most of all, I love the promise of Fall: a new year, a new slate, life starting over again.

What are you looking forward to?

I'll be teaching two weekend writing workshops and two weeklong writing workshops this summer. I can't wait!

Flash Fiction in a Flash: Writing (and Submitting) Publishable Flash Fiction | Weekend Workshops June 24-25

Plotting the Novel | Weeklong Workshops June 25-30

Better Talky-Talky: The Art & Craft of Dialogue | Weekend Workshops July 8-9

Novel in a Week | Weeklong Workshops July 9-14

I'll also be giving an eleventh-hour presentation on "How to Write (and submit for production) the 10-Minute Play" on Wednesday June 28th. The presentation is at 11 AM and is free and open to all festival participants.

My creative writing workshops are fun, productive, and stimulating. Writers always come away with plenty of ideas, inspiration, newfound skills, and the confidence to complete their projects.

To register, or for more information, go to:

http://www.iowasummerwritingfestival.org/

Come write with me this summer!

A retelling of "Gilgamesh" set in nineteenth-century Louisiana swampland. A trio of high school students who run away from home. Jewish women in 1492 Spain fleeing the Inquisition. A woman at a public relations firm who needs to make tough decisions regarding her work and her own heart. A boy adopted from Africa who can't acclimate to life in American until he sees his birth mother one last time. A World War II story that was so vast and complicated it reminded us of War and Peace, so its funny and humble author began referring to it as "War and Pieces."

These were just some of the remarkable novel ideas the participants in "Novel in a Week" worked on with me at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in June. Our weeklong discussion included the following questions about each novel:

Is the initial conflict enough to sustain a novel?
How can we raise the stakes?
What does the protagonist want?
Who or what is standing in his or her way?
How does the climax organically come out the plot? (What is the climax?)
How can you go home and finish this wonderful book of yours? :)

I have been teaching at the festival for about fifteen years now, and every year I derive great pleasure and satisfaction from helping other writers achieve their goals. And the goals are almost always the same: To get down on paper (or on the screen) this idea banging about in our heads in such a way that other people will want to read it.

What could be easier?

What could be more difficult?

I was lucky to work with an incredible group of talented, nice, and fun people. I hope they are now doing what I told them to do: which is to ignore laundry and finish their novels--because I can't wait to read them.

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