Closing the Distance: Bringing in Your Reader

Our role as writers is to connect the reader to the emotional truth we're telling, but it doesn’t always work. That connection lives in the clear tone of a poem, the intriguing monologue of an unreliable narrator, or the way we describe the icicles outside the hospital window. All the choices we make – who tells the story, the sensory detail you select, our timeline and setting—either draw your reader closer or pushes them farther away. This workshop will study examples from masters to highlight techniques that draw the reader in, then we’ll do some prompted writing to practice those techniques. Let’s get close. Writers of all experience, genres, and form are welcome. Bring the tools you prefer to use and a photograph to use as a prompt. 

*Jennifer Brennock, “JB,” has taught writing for thirteen lucky years. She writes in several different genres, including poetry and  nonfiction, and is a mom, a historic preservation student, and a typewriter enthusiast. Find a list of her published work with links here. JB lives in Portland, but spends enough time in Astoria that she should probably pay Clatsop County taxes.