Using and Abusing the Three-Act Structure in Short Fiction with Andreas Trolf

Begins Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET

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Instructor Bio

Instructor Andreas Trolf is a fiction and television writer living in New York. He is the co-creator and writer of the Emmy-nominated Nickelodeon series Sanjay and Craig, as well as the showrunner, producer, and director of the Adult Swim series Tigtone. His work has also appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Florida Review, Joyland, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Wired, Vice, and many other places, as well as collected in the anthology Life and Limb (Soft Skull Press). He is a graduate of New York University.

Who is this class for?

This online fiction workshop is for writers of short fiction who want a working understanding of the three-act structure commonly found in screenplays and television scripts — and how to apply it, push against it, or subvert it in their own short stories. Open to Intermediate and Advanced writers. Some prior experience drafting short fiction is recommended.

What to expect:

This 8-week online writing class is built in two complementary movements. The first weeks focus on building a shared structural vocabulary — three-act terms, dramatic beats, and the difference between applying and subverting expectation — through close reading of contemporary short stories and screenplays. The second half of the course turns that vocabulary on student work, with each writer's story workshopped by the full class and revised based on what surfaces in discussion.

You'll read short fiction by George Saunders, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Ann Beattie alongside feature screenplays from writers working at the highest level of structural craft, and use those readings as a craft lens for evaluating your own drafts. Workshop weeks include written feedback from Andreas in addition to peer discussion, and revision is built into the second half of the course rather than left as an afterthought. The conversation is specifically structural — how a story creates expectations, where it confirms them, and where (and why) it might choose to break them.

Class meetings are live on Zoom, and sessions will be recorded for students who can't attend in real time. The cap of 10 writers keeps workshop time substantial; the minimum of 5 keeps the conversation diverse. By the end of the creative writing course, you'll have a workshopped story, a revised draft, and a craft framework you can return to long after the class ends.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will submit one piece of short fiction to be workshopped by the full class, then revise that work and submit an updated draft for evaluation against the structural questions raised in workshop. Each student receives written feedback from the instructor on their submitted work, alongside live verbal feedback during workshop sessions. By the end of the course, every writer will have a complete revised story that demonstrates a deliberate engagement with — or intentional disregard of — three-act structure.

Readings may include excerpts from:

• George Saunders, "The Wavemaker Falters"
• Ottessa Moshfegh, "Slumming"
• Ann Beattie, "Where You'll Find Me"
• Phil Johnston, Wreck-It Ralph (screenplay)
• Bong Joon-ho, Parasite (screenplay)

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Introduction to Three-Act Structure — Discussion of Wreck-It Ralph (read prior to first class). Homework: short stories by Beattie, Saunders, and Moshfegh.

Week 2: Structure in Short Fiction — Discussion of the Beattie, Saunders, and Moshfegh stories. How is structure utilized, or purposely not utilized, in each? Homework: Parasite screenplay.

Week 3: From Screenplay to Short Story — Discussion of Parasite, comparison to Wreck-It Ralph, and how feature-length structural moves translate (or don't) to the short form. Homework: read first 2–3 pieces of student work and prepare workshop notes.

Week 4: First Workshop — In-class workshop of the first cohort of student stories. Homework: read the next 2–3 student pieces; workshopped writers begin their revised drafts.

Week 5: Second Workshop — In-class workshop of the second cohort. Homework: final group of student work; workshopped writers begin revisions. Week 4 writers turn in revised drafts.

Week 6: Third Workshop — In-class workshop of the final cohort. Homework: workshopped writers begin revisions. Week 5 writers turn in revised drafts.

Week 7: Structure, Expectation, and Choice — Discussion of key act-structure principles, reader expectations, and how each writer chose to use or resist them in their submitted work. Week 6 writers turn in revised drafts.

Week 8: Final Workshop: Structure, Subversion, and the Revised Story — Final review and discussion of revised student work, with focus on the structural decisions each writer made between draft and revision.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• A working knowledge of the three-act structure used in film and television writing, plus a survey of how it operates in contemporary literary fiction
• A clear understanding of how dramatic structure creates reader expectation — and how those expectations can be intentionally subverted
• One complete short story workshopped by the full cohort and revised based on instructor and peer feedback
• Written feedback from the instructor on your submitted work, plus live verbal feedback during workshop
• A craft framework for deciding when to employ three-act structure and when to deliberately disregard it
• A vocabulary for talking about structure — your own and other writers' — that extends beyond this course

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $545 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Andreas Trolf
• Begins Wednesday, September 16, 2026
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET
• Sessions will be recorded for students who cannot attend live
• Tuition is $545 USD.