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Rebecca Winterich-Knox on Scene, Summary, and Writing Mothers and Daughters
by Writing Workshops Staff
7 hours ago
"Show, don't tell" is the first rule many writers learn, and Rebecca Winterich-Knox counts it among the worst pieces of advice that sound smart. Telling, she argues, has its own essential place in fiction. What matters is knowing the difference between scene and summary, between something happening on the page and something being described. It's the lesson she wishes someone had taught her much earlier.
In Mothers and Daughters in Fiction: Rendering Consciousness on the Page, a six-week online workshop at WritingWorkshops.com, the official education partner of Electric Literature, Rebecca brings that lens to one of literature's most fraught relationships. Students will close-read Alice Munro, Toni Morrison, Elena Ferrante, Julie Otsuka, and Sheila Heti to see how they render consciousness through voice, dialogue, and character motive. They'll practice building short, embodied scenes and memorable characters, then draft, workshop, and revise a short story or novel chapter of up to 15 pages, finishing with line edits and a letter of feedback from Rebecca.
Rebecca earned her MFA at Columbia University, where she held a Chair's Fellowship and taught undergraduate creative writing. Her debut novel, Bodies of Water, is forthcoming from Zando in June 2027. Former students describe her workshops as sincere, affirming, and so absorbing that two hours pass in what feels like minutes.
Below, she talks Le Guin, family history as a craft move, and a Greensboro street called Friendly Ave.
Here is our Meet the Teaching Artist Interview with Rebecca:
Writing Workshops: Hi, Rebecca. Please introduce yourself to our audience.
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: In addition to creative writing, I'm passionate about climate action—after college, I spent three years working as a community organizer in Boston, spearheading a statewide campaign to implement a net-zero building code. I currently work in higher ed, but I'm pursuing post-baccalaureate studies in Columbia's graduate English department on the side while also preparing to publish my first novel this June.
Writing Workshops: What's the thing you wish someone had taught you earlier in your writing life, and how does this class address that?
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: The difference between scene and summary -- something that's happening vs something that's being described. Understanding this distinction is vital when it comes to writing lucid, embodied prose, and in this class we'll be studying scene-building techniques through the lens of mother/daughter-focused fiction.
Writing Workshops: If a student walks away from this class with one skill or shift in their writing they didn't have before, what is it?
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: They'll learn how to build memorable characters and construct short scenes.
"I try to approach the writing workshop as a space for play and experimentation rather than mastery, and to meet students of all experience levels where they are at."
Writing Workshops: What's the last sentence you read that made you stop and reread it? Type it out for us.
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: "Knowing everybody" is a phrase that denotes not having many relations with people but having relations with a few people generally thought to be significant and powerful. From What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
Writing Workshops: What's a craft move you're slightly obsessed with right now? Not a big concept: a small, specific technique.
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: I always stop to admire a well-integrated account of a character's family history. I recently read Jessie Redmon Fauset's There is Confusion for the first time, and this is something she does exceptionally well.
Writing Workshops: What's a book you press into people's hands that has nothing to do with writing craft?
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Literary fiction writers have so much to learn from Le Guin's approach to characterization, sentence construction, and world-building. She also has an excellent craft book called Steering The Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story.
Read like Rebecca reads Le Guin. Over six weeks, you'll study characterization in Munro, Morrison, and Ferrante, then put those moves to work in a mother-daughter story of your own.
Enroll in Mothers and Daughters in Fiction →Writing Workshops: What's the worst writing advice that sounds smart?
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: "Show don't tell" -- Telling actually has an important place in fiction (and for some writers, this is a natural strength)!
Writing Workshops: Finish this sentence: "Most writing classes won't tell you this, but..."
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: Hard work, follow-through, and a willingness to revise are more indicative of future success than raw talent.
"Telling actually has an important place in fiction (and for some writers, this is a natural strength)!"
Writing Workshops: Who was your first literary crush?
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: When I was in fifth grade, I read E. E. Cummings for the first time and was floored. He opened up a whole new world of linguistic possibilities for me.
Writing Workshops: What's your teaching vibe, in one sentence (not a paragraph)?
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: Warm and encouraging. I try to approach the writing workshop as a space for play and experimentation rather than mastery, and to meet students of all experience levels where they are at.
Writing Workshops: What would your students be surprised to learn about you?
Rebecca Winterich-Knox: I was raised Quaker in Greensboro, NC, a city with such a strong Quaker presence that our main street is called "Friendly Ave." :)
Class begins Wednesday, March 3, 2027. Bring the mothers and daughters in your fiction to a small, warm Zoom workshop and leave with a revised story, line edits, and a letter of feedback from Rebecca.
Save Your Seat in Mothers and Daughters in Fiction →WritingWorkshops.com is an independent, artist-run creative writing school and the official education partner of Electric Literature. Since 2016, we've helped writers strengthen their voice, develop a greater understanding of craft, and forge a path to publication.
