by Writing Workshops Staff
2 hours ago
Michelle Kicherer writes fiction that tends to revolve around a weird lady, a man in power, and, more often than not, a dog. It is the kind of specificity that resists cliché on instinct, and it doubles as a teaching philosophy. She spent years, she says, mastering plot so thoroughly that her own voice went quiet, and she has been teaching her way back ever since. Now she works voice and plot in tandem, treating every line as a negotiation between what a story does and how it sounds.
That conviction anchors Writing The Novella: Exploring Long-Short Fiction, her six-week Zoom intensive at WritingWorkshops.com, the official education partner of Electric Literature.
The novella lives in the tight space between short story and novel, where every page has to earn its keep, and Michelle treats that constraint as a gift. Across six weeks, you will learn to open with an immediate hook, reverse-engineer a story's plot from its underlying "aboutness," and build the editorial eye that turns a rough draft into work you can submit. You will also inherit the question Michelle asks of every sentence, the one that runs the whole class: Is there a better way to say that?
Here is our Meet the Teaching Artist Interview with Michelle:
Writing Workshops: Hi, Michelle. Please introduce yourself to our audience.
Michelle Kicherer: Hi! I'm Michelle Kicherer. My favorite achievement is being named Class Clown in high school. My biggest failure is that I lost the certificate. Now I'm a book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, a book publisher, and I write fiction that usually centers around a weird lady, a man in power, and often, a dog.
Writing Workshops: What's the thing you wish someone had taught you earlier in your writing life, and how does this class address that?
Michelle Kicherer: I wish someone had helped me to really lean into my unique brand of weirdness and humor. I spent so much time learning how to do plot that I lost my voice along the way a little bit. So now, I teach voice and plot in tandem, always looking at how the two interact. Especially with novella, where space is limited, we're always asking: what is the author's intention with each part/line? Then we do the same with our own work, always challenging ourselves with the question: is there a better way to say that?
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?
Michelle Kicherer: Students will learn to hunt and kill their cliches, always challenging each sentence with the class motto: "Is there a better way to say that?" Better meaning more unique, more YOU.
"Students will learn to hunt and kill their cliches, always challenging each sentence with the class motto: 'Is there a better way to say that?'"
Writing Workshops: What's the last sentence you read that made you stop and reread it? Type it out for us.
Michelle Kicherer: "Let's pack, my husband said, but my rebelliousness at the time was like a sticky fog rolling through my body and never burning off, there was no sun inside, and so I said that the boys and I would stay." -- from Lauren Groff's The Midnight Zone (this whole story is full of re-readable, chilling, beautiful lines)
Writing Workshops: Describe a moment in a workshop, one you were teaching or one you took as a student, where something clicked for someone. What happened?
Michelle Kicherer: We're often writing characters who have had too much therapy -- they seem to know everything about themselves! We recently did an exercise where we took a colored pen to a printed story page and underlined any moment where a character is too-self aware. People started kinda nervously laughing when someone said: I need to regress my character a little so they have something to grow toward. I LOVED that. Yes -- think about the direction your character is going: what are they regressing from or progressing toward?
Writing Workshops: What's a craft move you're slightly obsessed with right now? Not a big concept, just a small, specific technique.
Michelle Kicherer: I love thinking about giving each character some sort of role in a scene. When I introduce a second character, how can I use them as a mirror to point out something about my protagonist/narrator (and perhaps use them to point out something my protagonist might not even recognize about themselves)?
Every scene runs smoother when your characters have a job to do. Learn to build that kind of intention into your novella, line by line.
Enroll in Writing the Novella →Writing Workshops: What's a book you press into people's hands that has nothing to do with writing craft?
Michelle Kicherer: Halle Butler's Banal Nightmare is so funny and smart -- and she does this fascinating point of view shift where in one scene the camera moves from one character to the next seamlessly. It's a master class in perspective (and talk about characters who aren't self aware...).
Writing Workshops: What's the worst writing advice that sounds smart?
Michelle Kicherer: "Write the thing you know." I think there is some validity in that, but it can also lead you to dulling up the writing a bit. What world do you know that you can use, but also: what blind spots can you give your character? Can you insert them into a world where they might fumble a bit and make some mistakes -- and in turn push you toward exploring something new? I love getting a little uncomfortable.
Writing Workshops: Finish this sentence: "Most writing classes won't tell you this, but..."
Michelle Kicherer: You don't have to answer anyone's questions in workshop. No one needs to know what your intention was -- utilize peer feedback and curiosities to help you get closer to your goals.
"You don't have to answer anyone's questions in workshop. No one needs to know what your intention was."
Writing Workshops: Who was your first literary crush?
Michelle Kicherer: George Saunders' Tenth of December. I read that collection in grad school and was so baffled and excited and overwhelmed in a good way, realizing that something more was possible with literature than I'd previously realized.
Writing Workshops: What's your teaching vibe, in one sentence, not a paragraph?
Michelle Kicherer: We're going to laugh in every class and leave motivated.
Writing Workshops: What would your students be surprised to learn about you?
Michelle Kicherer: That I used to be a nutritionist in schools, psych wards and group homes.
Michelle has written the form she teaches. Her debut novella, Sexy Life, Hello, was called one of the year's most compelling short reads by Willamette Week, and it carries the same weirdness, humor, and hard-won revision she brings to the classroom. In Writing The Novella, she promises a room where you will laugh in every class and leave motivated, whatever stage your draft is in. If you have a novella living somewhere between a spark and a full draft, this is where it gets sharper. Save your seat, and find a better way to say it.
Six weeks, one novella, and a whole toolkit for making every page earn its place. Bring any stage of your draft.
Save Your Seat in Writing the Novella →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.
