A Free Creative Writing Salon  ·  Spring & Summer 2026

The ArtofTelling

Short Story  ·  Poetry  ·  Memoir

Your story matters. Come learn to tell it.

A Free Course for Residents of 2601

Notices & Announcements

Posted Wednesday, June 10, 2026 I like to have a structured syllabus but prefer to “go with the flow” and see where the “current” of our discussion pulls us. When we meet next Sunday, I will offer to extend the course with additional sessions, as it seems we have barely started. I would like to return to parts of the syllabus we haven’t addressed. Such is the ebb and flow of writing, literature, and all creative pursuits. Looking forward to seeing you next class.
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Session Four  ·  Unit I — The Short Story
Character & Desire — What Pulls a Story Forward
Sunday, June 7, 2026

Handouts & Worksheets

Main Points of the Lesson

  1. A character is not a description of a person. A character is a want with a body around it.
  2. Without desire, you have a portrait. Without obstacle, you have wish fulfillment. Without consequence, you have anecdote.
  3. The want can be hidden from the character. The story is often the process of finding out.
  4. The want can be opposed by another want in the same character. This is the source of nearly all interior fiction.
  5. The smallest want, taken seriously, can carry a story.

Reading for Class — Click to Open

After Our Discussion — Critical Reception

In-Class Practice

Write a single paragraph — right now, in your notebook — in which a character wants something small and ordinary, and cannot get it. The character can be invented or drawn from someone you know. We’ll discuss how desire shows itself through behavior, not declaration.

What happens with this: stays in your notebook. Two or three volunteers may read their paragraph aloud after the writing. Nothing collected.

Discussion Questions

  1. What does Gurov want in “The Lady with the Dog”? Does he know?
  2. Where does desire show itself through behavior rather than declaration?
  3. For a character you have written about in this course, or one you are thinking about writing: what does that character want? What stands in the way? (If no character comes to mind, try the question on Gurov.)
  4. Is the want opposed by another want in the same character? What is that interior conflict?
Homework
  • Read all four poems in the Session 5 box below: Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,” Robert Frost’s “Birches,” William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow,” and Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day.” Together they total maybe ten minutes of reading. Read each one twice.
  • Optional: answer the Character & Desire Worksheet above for a character of your own or for Gurov.
Before Next Sunday — Session 5 · Unit II opens

Image & the Poetic Line. We turn to poetry. We will look at how images carry meaning (more than statement can) and at the work the line break does (more than the comma can). You do not need to think of yourself as a “poet” to do the work.

Character & Desire Worksheet — for your private notebook

Copy into a Word document. Fill in for a character of your own — from this course or from anywhere — or for a character from one of our readings. This stays in your private notebook — never collected, never read aloud unless you choose.

  • Character’s name: ____________________
  • The want they would name aloud: ____________________
  • The deeper want underneath (perhaps unknown to them): ____________________
  • The obstacle — external: ____________________
  • The obstacle — internal: ____________________
  • The opposing want inside the same character: ____________________
  • What will they lose if they fail? ____________________
  • One small behavior that shows the want without naming it: ____________________
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