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Twelve Questions to Structure Your Writing with Francesca Lia Block

In-Person Program

In this seminar for all levels, we will look at 12 questions to help structure your novel, short story, memoir, screenplay, or poetry cycle. For adults.

What does your character want? What do they need? What is their gift? What is their flaw? Do you know their arc? Who is your main antagonist? How does setting enhance your story? How about your style/voice? Do you know the crisis of the book? The climax? The resolution? Finally, are you aware of your theme? Are many of these elements present in your first chapter, on your first page, even in your first paragraph or sentence? Please come prepared with some general answers to these questions in relation to your own work and one piece of work by a favorite creator.

Sponsored by the Friends of the West Hollywood Library.

Francesca Lia Block, M.F.A., is the author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly.

Her work has been translated into Italian, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Portuguese. Francesca has also published stories, poems, essays and interviews in The Los Angeles Times, The L.A. Review of Books, Spin, Nylon, Black Clock, The Fairy Tale Review and Rattle, among others. She edits Lit Angels and Francesca Lia Block (that includes weekly write-with-me sessions) on Substack.

In addition to writing, Francesca is a beloved and devoted teacher. She was named Writer-in-Residence at Pasadena City College in 2014 and in 2018-19 became a Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Redlands where she was a finalist for Professor of the Year award. Currently she teaches fiction at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, at The Village Well bookstore, and privately on Zoom and in Los Angeles where she was born and raised.

Attendance is limited and advance registration is required. Please register every individual in your party. This will be used to save your spots in the program. We cannot guarantee availability for any unregistered attendees.

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