Great Smokies Young Writers Workshop: Developing Voice & Fiction Writing
Hone your literary skills through workshops with experienced local authors and poets. Generate new pieces, revise works-in-progress and critique works of others in a collaborative workshop setting.
Developing Voice:
Fiction is woven together from a multitude of voices: omniscient authors, first person narrators, each individual character all have distinctive manners and (hopefully) recognizable traits. What does it mean to have a “voice”? How do you distinguish between voices and maintain a cohesive style? This course will address these issues, looking at authorial and character voice as an integral part of storytelling. We’ll analyze a range of examples of voice in fiction and drama, and then work on our own developing voices. Students will receive feedback from the instructor and fellow writers, revising towards 5-8 pages of prose focusing on some form of voice
Entering the Portal of Story:
Ever wonder what it would be like to step through a portal, out of this reality and into another? The spark of an idea can transport us to other realms, but what do we as writers do once we get there? In this class, we’ll be exploring some techniques for how to move from that initial spark into a story—with fully-drawn characters, meaningful settings, and scenes that propel your reader forward. The focus of this class will be on speculative genres—fantasy, sci-fi, magical realism, etc.—but you don’t have to have experience writing in these genres to join
Registration Details:
- June 15 – 20, 2025
- $1,440
- Pre-College Programs are open to rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
- Price includes lodging, meals, all course materials, activities, and excursions
- A $500 deposit is due upon registration with remaining balance due by May 1, 2025. Click here to see our cancellation policy.
- Students reside in campus residence hall and dine in campus dining hall
- Enrollment is open until spaces are filled
- Registration is through the Camp Doc platform. Detailed registration instructions can be found here.
- Character Development
- Plot Development
- Generative Writing
- Participating in peer workshopping sessions to give and receive feedback on work-in-progress
- Students will be encouraged to participate in an end-of-week reading for an audience of family and friends
Topics and schedules are subject to change
Sample Schedule:
Morning
- 8 a.m. – Breakfast
- 9 a.m. – Entering the Portal of Story – Use games and generative writing exercises to design characters and setting, laying the groundwork for a broader story
- 12 p.m. – Lunch & free time
Afternoon
- 1 p.m. – Developing Voice – Analyze examples from fiction and drama, then complete generative writing exercises to develop an authentic character voice
Evening
- 5 p.m. – Dinner
- 6:30 p.m. – Activities / Recreation / Free Time
Options could include: sand volleyball, Asheville Tourists game, game night, movie - 11 p.m. – Lights out
Topics and schedules are subject to change
Meet Your Faculty
Lauren Yero is a Cuban American writer living in the mountains of Western North Carolina. She writes speculative, near-future stories of resistance, adventure, and first love that question the structures our world is built upon. Her debut YA novel, UNDER THIS FORGETFUL SKY (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster), was a Poets & Writers “Get the Word Out” pick, and both Kirkus Reviews and Book Riot named it one of the “Best Books of the Year.”
Jamieson Ridenhour is the writer and producer of the popular audio drama Palimpsest, the author of the werewolf murder-mystery Barking Mad (Typecast, 2011) and writer and director of the award-winning short horror films Cornerboys and The House of the Yaga. His ghost play Grave Lullaby was a finalist for the Kennedy Center’s David Cohen Playwriting award in 2012. Jamie’s short fiction and poetry has appeared in Strange Horizons, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, TheNewerYork, Across the Margins, Mirror Dance, and Architrave, among others, and has been podcast on Pseudopod, Cast of Wonders, and Radio Unbound. Jamie has a Ph.D. in Victorian Gothic fiction. In addition to publishing scholarly articles on Dickens, LeFanu, and contemporary vampire film, he edited the Valancourt edition of Sheridan LeFanu’s Carmilla (2009) and wrote a book-length study of urban gothic fiction, In Darkest London (Scarecrow, 2014). He has taught writing and literature for over twenty years, currently at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC. His poetry chapbook, Universal Monsters, is coming in early 2025 from Main Street Rag Press.
Questions? Please contact us at precollege@unca.edu.
