Fatal Flaws & Great Desires

We’ve moved online! All workshops will be conducted through Zoom, an interactive platform that allows you to participate in exercises and contribute to group conversation in your workshops. The day before your workshop you’ll receive an email with a link to Zoom for your workshop session. 

Member price: $22
Instructor: Nina Alvarez

Are you a fiction, nonfiction, or memoir writer with an established protagonist–but you’re having trouble working out a satisfying, compelling story arc? Using the “nutshell technique” storytelling chart from In a Nutshell, by Jill Chamberlain, you’ll figure out your protagonist’s journey from weakness to strength as they strive for what they think they want. With that in mind, you’ll be able to plan out your story’s turning points, shape, and even theme.

Nina Alvarez‘s poems, creative nonfiction, reviews, and short stories have been published in many journals including Tupelo Quarterly, Split Lip, and Prick of the Spindle. She has overseen the editing and publication of over 30 books through her author services company, Dream Your Book, and her small press, Cosmographia Books. Nina has been awarded multiple teaching awards, writing awards, and a fiction residency at the Vermont Studio Center. She has been a teaching artist for adult and teen writers at Writers & Books Literary Center in Rochester, NY since 2011. Nina earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Albany ’03.