Critiques:
 

Work with Ryan to finish your novel or story collection lying in the drawer. It's easy to get excited about starting a book, but very hard to complete it. 

 

 

Writers usually hit a dead end halfway through, feel hopeless, and give up. That's because hundreds of successful craft choices must take place before a book begins to work. A good teacher identifies the places in your manuscript that need work, and gives you the tools needed to see your way to the end. 

Creating recognizable human experience on the page, for example, is a must. Ryan's critiques help authors create work that, like all good writing, takes emotional risks. This riskiness sets literature apart from the dishonesty of bad books, TV, and movies. 

 

In her story “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried,” Amy Hempel writes of a woman who abandons a close friend dying of cancer, and confronts the aftermath of her choice. Thom Jones, in “The Pugilist at Rest,” explores one soldier’s psychological territory of war, aggression, and epileptic torment, in which “illness” provokes dark illuminations of self and humanity. 

The philosophy behind "high risk" assumes that you wish to inhabit your protagonist with a commitment to deeply human experience, unafraid to record painful and unflattering desires and behaviors. Successful literary characters have internal flaws that generate conflict and dramatic action.

Writers of all levels of artistic accomplishment are accepted.

 

Private Workshops

 

Ryan also works with writers who want to develop a first draft of a chapter or story. With these writers, he conducts one-on-one telephone workshops. He charges $105 per meeting, at $35 an hour: one hour to prepare and two hours for the workshop.

 

Contact: ryanblacketter@gmail.com