Fall Craft Intensive: Mac Crane
Workshops
$75.00
Description
Editor's Note
Against Clichés: Defamiliarization, Associative Leaps, & Injecting Surprise Into Your Prose with Mac Crane
Saturday, December 13
9 AM – 12 PM PST/ 12 PM – 3 PM EST
Online
We’ve all been there at one time or another—we’ve written something that has potential, something with a great storyline and characters, but there’s just one problem: the prose doesn’t sing. Whether we’ve relied on clichés, avoided taking risks, or included language and transitions that are too predictable, we know we are capable of better, more surprising language and turns. The good news is, there are many tools for waking up our prose and injecting surprise into our work that will compel and delight readers.
In this generative course, open to writers with all levels of experience, we will learn actionable ways to write against cliché, make the mundane seem fresh and new, write memorable turns of phrase, and lean into unexpected transitions.
We will do this by closely reading examples of surprising and defamiliarized work from prose writers and poets alike, learning techniques we can turn to when we are stuck, and then doing various prompts using our works-in-progress and/or drafting new work.
Scholarship
We have one scholarship available for this intensive. Scholarships are conducted through a lottery. If you are interested in submitting your name, please fill out this form.
BIO:Mac Crane is the award-winning author of the novels, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself and A Sharp Endless Need, and the forthcoming short story collection, Perverts (July 2026). They’ve received fellowships from American Short Fiction Workshop, Sewanee Writers Conference, and Vermont Studio Center. Originally from Allentown, PA, they currently live in San Diego with their family.