THE STORY BEGINS ...
ARTS
Make 2016 the year you write your own future
W
ill this be the year you finally write your memoirs? Or pluck up the courage to try standup? Write a No. 1 song? A Broadway script? Your own resume? We all have a story to tell. And the drive for some of us to put pen to paper (or, at least, fingertips to keyboard) can be so strong … yet where to start? And how? But have you ever considered the possibility that, really, you’re asking the wrong questions? Because it’s not so much a case of how or where … you simply need to start. “Writing is a craft that can be learned, as is carpentry or playing an instrument,” says Alex Steele, president of Gotham Writers. The neighborhood writing school (their home is on 8th Ave - between 37th and 38th St) counts among its past teachers many who have gone on to have the kind of careers most writers dream of. Marlon James? He only won the Man Booker Prize for fiction, for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. Jennifer Lee was responsible for writing and co-directing the mahoosive Disney hit Frozen. Tracy K. Smith won a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Life on Mars. And Jonathan Ames created the HBO series Bored to Death (which even featured a version of A Gotham Writers Workshop). “You can begin a class without any experience or any awareness of so-called talent,” insists Alex, “and we’ll help you find the stories inside yourself and show you how to tell them well. You’ll learn the time-tested techniques that go into good writing, and you will write better, regardless of where you start. How far you go, well, that depends on how hard you’re willing to work.” The school is now 22 years old – nine of those based in Hell’s Kitchen because, says Alex: “We like being in the center of
“This class was what I needed to reacquaint myself with the nuts and bolts of writing fiction. I was spending too much time reading fiction and telling myself, ‘I could write something better.’” Mimi Kerr, fiction writing
DIGITAL EDITION
everything. For one thing, it’s easy to get to via subways, Penn Station, and Grand Central. But also the excitement and energy of this area suits our personality.” But while their NYC students come from all over the tri-state area – and many from the creative community right on their doorstep – the online classes draw students from practically every country in the world. “Some have serious professional goals: to be published or produced or start a career in writing. Some want to find out if they have the ability for those things. And some are largely just interested in stretching themselves creatively.” However, it’s doubtful that, 22 years ago, along with the creative writing, comedy, and script-writing, they were offering classes in subjects such as blog writing (“how to write blogs strangers will want to read”), video game writing (“video games are
Above: A writing class deep in creative thought.
continued over
29