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Description Fills the Page. Imagery Does the Work.

Somewhere along the way you were told to be specific. So you are. You give us the red coat, the smell of diesel, the chipped mug on the counter.

And the story is better for it. The reader can see where they are.

But the details stop where they land. They report what things look like, and then they’re finished. Meanwhile the parts of the story you actually care about, the grief, the longing, the thing between these two people that neither will say, stay stuck in abstraction, and the reader’s attention slides right off them.

Here’s what’s missing. In the strongest fiction, a single image does two or three jobs at once. It’s concrete and literal, yes. But it also carries associations, and the associations multiply. When Shakespeare writes “birds sit brooding in the snow,” you get the birds. You also get flight, wings, air, sky, nest, and everything those suggest about what is grounded and what is free. One image, and the meanings keep opening.

An image that does only one job is space you’re using once when you could be using it twice. The shorter the piece, the more that costs you.

This isn’t instinct or luck. It’s a set of craft techniques, and you can learn them.

What You’ll Discover

In this workshop with award-winning author Nina Schuyler, you’ll learn to build images that keep working after the reader moves past them. Instead of decorating your scenes, you’ll make concrete detail carry the weight of plot, character, and theme.

By the end of this workshop, you’ll know how to:

• Tell the difference between abstract and concrete language, and know when each one serves you
• Choose images that evoke emotional tone and create subtext without stating it
• Pair two images so each one deepens the meaning of the other
• Write metaphors and similes that find the unexpected likeness between two things
• Build patterns of recurring images that gather meaning and expose tension in your plot
• End a story on an image that radiates meaning, surprising and inevitable at once

Plus: You’ll write new stories from prompts built directly out of the stories you analyze, and receive detailed guides you can reference forever.

What’s Included

• Two intensive 3-hour sessions with award-winning author Nina Schuyler
• Close analysis of nine published stories that show imagery doing real work, from Chekhov to Kathy Fish
• Guided writing prompts Nina builds from each story, so you practice a technique right after you see it
• Techniques for symbolic juxtaposition, image arcs, and image patterns that build across a story
• Detailed story analyses showing exactly how these writers make a single image multiply
• Interactive feedback opportunities to share and discuss your work
• Lifetime access to all recordings, materials, and resources

Stories That Will Change What You See on the Page

We’ll work from carefully chosen pieces, pulling out techniques you can use the same day:

• “Gooseberries” by Anton Chekhov: how imagery can quietly undercut a story’s stated message.
• “Initials Etched on a Dining-Room Table, Lockeport, Nova Scotia” by Peter Orner: how the associations around one central image infuse both plot and character.
• “No One’s a Mystery” by Elizabeth Tallent: how competing images create tension inside a plot.
• “Dimensions” by Kathy Fish: how a central image can express a story’s theme largely through metaphor, a technique called symbolic juxtaposition.
• “Shoe Story” by Peter Orner: how a single image interrupts habitual action and cracks a character open to possibility.
• “Hot Spot” by Nora Lange: how an image changes over the course of a story, collecting meanings like a magnet.
• “Salt” by Whitney Collins: how images proliferate meaning and render a psychologically deeper story.
• “Yours” by Mary Robison: how unexplained images work like breadcrumbs, creating momentum all the way to the end.
• “Early November” by Peter Orner: how imagery amplifies tension and finds the connection between the dead and the living.

You’ll learn to read these stories the way Nina does, seeing which details were chosen and why, then applying the same thinking to your own drafts.

Perfect For Writers Who:

• Write in any form, short or long, and want every detail pulling its weight
• Have been told to “be specific” and still can’t tell which details earn their place
• Write description that establishes the scene but carries no weight beyond it
• Reach for abstraction to convey emotion and watch the reader’s attention slide off
• Have a strong image somewhere in the draft but no sense of how to make it recur and build
• Want endings that feel surprising and inevitable instead of merely finished
• Write metaphors that feel decorative and want ones that feel discovered

“As an ex-professor of Economics at Northwestern University, I can spot a teacher who knows what they are doing. You explain a concept, show examples of how it worked in a story and induce your students to practice a version of our own. […] I now have at least half a dozen sentences that will make it into my stories and the same number that will make me relook at my stories with a view to making improvements. […] And, since I have never got on well with prompts, that is no mean achievement.”

— Peter Watson

“Your analysis of the set readings was excellent — so insightful and informative. I also thought the prompts were really well crafted. I always say I can’t “write to order” but it seems I actually might be able to as I generated two pieces from the various prompts. One is a stand-alone flash piece and the other I think I will develop into a longer short story. Thank you SO much for that.”

— Student, Flash Fiction Setting Class

“As I listen to you talk about the readings and break down how you see the writing working and the intentions of the authors, I start to get really wonderful ideas. My fireworks mind explodes with ideas that lead to so many more ideas. Thank you!”

— Ann

“Thank you so very much for your class on setting. I’m on my second Master’s in Creative Writing and they don’t go into detail like that!”

— Student, Flash Fiction Setting Class

“Nina Schuyler is the BEST instructor I have ever had. Not only for creative writing. She is the BEST instructor that I’ve had in any subject. She is knowledgeable, experienced, engaging, and approachable.”

— Student, Stanford Continuing Studies

⏰ 👉🏼 Not sure if this time works for you? Check your local time here by entering the Pacific time on the right. Your local time will appear on the left.

Day 1: September 12 (10:30 AM PT / 11:30 AM MT / 12:30 PM CT / 1:30 PM ET / 6:30 PM BST)

• Open with Chekhov’s “Gooseberries” and see how imagery can work against a story’s stated message
• Learn to separate abstract from concrete, and when each one belongs on the page
• Trace the associations that radiate out from a single central image in Peter Orner’s work
• Study competing images and the tension they generate in Elizabeth Tallent’s “No One’s a Mystery”
• Learn symbolic juxtaposition through Kathy Fish’s “Dimensions”
• Write from prompts built directly out of the stories, then share and discuss

Day 2: September 13 (10:30 AM PT / 11:30 AM MT / 12:30 PM CT / 1:30 PM ET / 6:30 PM BST)

• Follow an image as it changes and accumulates meaning across Nora Lange’s “Hot Spot”
• See how images create psychological depth in Whitney Collins’s “Salt”
• Learn how unexplained images build mystery and momentum in Mary Robison’s “Yours”
• Study how imagery amplifies tension and bridges the living and the dead in Orner’s “Early November”
• Practice ending on an image that radiates meaning
• Leave with a toolkit of imagery techniques you can use immediately

Can’t make it live? All participants receive LIFETIME ACCESS to workshop recordings and materials.

Underprivileged discounts are available to a handful of students. Please email shannon@101words.org and provide an explanation of your situation.

Imagine an editor reaching the last line of your story and sitting with it for a second before moving on. Not because you explained the ending, but because the image you left them with keeps opening.

That’s what imagery does when it’s working. It’s the difference between a story a reader understands and a story a reader can’t quite put down, and it’s most of what separates competent work from the pieces that get published and remembered.

None of this is mysterious. It’s a set of decisions about which details go on the page, how often they return, and what they’re allowed to suggest. Those decisions are learnable, and they make everything you already do well work harder.

Your Investment

Workshop Price: $99
Value: Lifetime access to techniques that will deepen every story you write

Underprivileged discounts are available to a handful of students. Please email shannon@101words.org and provide an explanation of your situation.

What skill level is this workshop designed for?

This workshop benefits writers at all levels, from beginners seeking a strong foundation to published authors looking to refine their techniques.

Will I get individual feedback on my writing?

While we don’t offer one-on-one feedback, volunteers can share their exercise work during class, and the instructor will provide live feedback that benefits all participants.

What if I can’t attend the live session?

No problem. You’ll receive recordings of both complete sessions plus all materials, so you can work through everything at your own pace and return to the content whenever needed.

Will I have time to write during the sessions?

Absolutely. This is a hands-on workshop with multiple guided writing exercises. You’ll create new work and have opportunities to share and receive feedback.

Can I ask questions during the workshop?

Yes! This is an interactive session with questions and discussion integrated throughout the workshop.

I have another question.

Feel free to reach out to Shannon: shannon@101words.org

The techniques Nina teaches aren’t secrets. They’re skills, built from close attention to how real stories work, and you can practice them starting the same afternoon you learn them.

Your images are already on the page. What changes is how much work you ask them to do.

Underprivileged discounts are available to a handful of students. Please email shannon@101words.org and provide an explanation of your situation.

Can’t attend live? No worries! All participants receive access to workshop recordings.

Questions? Contact shannon@101words.org