Interactive Fiction Workshop with Nat Mesnard
Wednesdays, July 8–August 12
Nat Mesnard
6:30–9pm ET
Online (Zoom)
$525
$475
In interactive fiction, we add an element to the practice of storytelling that changes everything: choice. Whether you’re working with video games, immersive theater, choose your own adventure novels, or the avant-garde, a world of creative possibility opens up when you offer your readers this freedom.
This six-week, 10-student class invites you to explore interactive narrative writing and design in a workshop-style format. Students will playtest and deeply discuss the work of one interactive fiction project from each writer, exploring the craft of game-writing. Whether you’ve been developing a digital project on which you’d like feedback, or are exploring choose-your-own-path style literary prose, this course will support you in realizing the potential of an interactive piece. By the end of the workshop, you’ll be on the path to publication with your game work, situated in a growing understanding of the conversations and communities that surround this innovative form.
Students should come to class with an interactive fiction concept of short-story length that you plan to draft in full and discuss in workshop. This could be a piece developed in Twine, an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories; a prose piece that brings in elements of choice; or interactive work in another tool. As part of registration, you’ll submit a few sentences describing your concept by Thursday, July 2, and you’ll need to submit a full draft in advance of your workshop date.
We have a limited number of scholarships for this class. Scholarships cover 50% of tuition. Recipients will be selected at random. The deadline to request a scholarship is Wednesday, June 24. All applicants will be notified by Wednesday, July 1. You can request a scholarship here.
About Nat Mesnard:
Nat Mesnard is a game designer and writer based in NYC, and a co-founder of Scryptid Games. Their fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have been published in Electric Literature, The Evergreen Review, Edge Effects, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Autostraddle, Kenyon Review Online, and Ninth Letter, among other magazines; work has also been anthologized in WE WANT IT ALL: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics and The Joy of Electronic Literature. Nat teaches interactive storytelling at Columbia University, and the Twenty Sided Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Policies
Our classes are designed to be safe spaces for all who participate. One Story will not tolerate hate speech, bullying, or harassment directed toward instructors or fellow students, and reserves the right to remove participants who engage in such behavior from our classes.
Full refunds are available through June 30. Partial refunds (50%) are granted if the class is dropped within one week of the class start date (July 1–7). Payment is non-refundable on or after the class’s start date. For questions about the refund policy, or to receive a refund, please contact maribeth@one-story.com.
If you have any questions, please contact edu.support@one-story.com.
