Begins Saturday, November 7th, 2026

Live Intensive via Zoom from 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone: Los Angeles (PST): 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM / Chicago (CST): 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM / New York (EST): 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM / London (GMT): 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM / Berlin (CET): 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Now Enrolling! Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.

Instructor Robert Anthony Siegel is the author of a memoir, Criminals, and two novels, All Will Be Revealed and All the Money in the World. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian Magazine, The Paris Review, The Drift, The Oxford American, and Ploughshares, and has been anthologized in Best American Essays 2023, O. Henry Stories 2014, and Pushcart Prize XXXVI. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, a Mombukagakusho Fellow in Japan, a Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and a Paul Engle Fellow at the Iowa Writers Workshop. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop.

Who is this class for?

This online fiction workshop is designed for writers at all levels who want to understand and command one of fiction's most versatile tools. Whether you're just beginning or refining an established practice, you'll leave with a working grasp of how third-person point of view actually operates on the page — and how to bend it to your own purposes.

What to expect:

Third-person point of view is the most common way to tell a story, and yet it may be the most varied and complex as well. In the hands of some writers, it goes deep into character consciousness; in the hands of others, it avoids thoughts and feelings altogether and sticks to surfaces, actions, and events. In some stories it stays with a single viewpoint character; in others it travels freely, moving from character to character.

This 4-hour weekend intensive offers a focused overview of the subject, using published stories as examples. Together we'll examine how the various modes of third-person actually function — the distant "journalistic" register, the close and interior, the slippery overlap of free indirect discourse, and the roving narration that shifts between viewpoint characters. After each story, you'll put the craft into practice with generative writing exercises that can be shared with the group.

As a live online writing class, the intensive blends close reading, craft discussion, and hands-on writing in a single afternoon. You'll receive the stories in advance, but reading ahead isn't required — we'll look at the key passages together when we meet, so come as you are and be ready to write. This session will be recorded.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will practice four distinct approaches to third-person point of view through in-class generative exercises tied to each craft topic. You'll draft short passages that test distant third-person, close third-person, free indirect discourse, and shifting-viewpoint narration, then share your work and discuss technique with the instructor and the group in real time. The goal is a concrete, portable toolkit you can apply immediately to your own fiction.

Readings

Readings may include excerpts from "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway, "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri, and "Gold Boy, Emerald Girl" by Yiyun Li.

COURSE OUTLINE

This four-hour intensive moves through four craft topics:

Topic 1: Distant, or "journalistic," third-person point of view — "Hills Like White Elephants," Ernest Hemingway

Topic 2: Close third-person point of view — "Interpreter of Maladies," Jhumpa Lahiri

Topic 3: Free indirect discourse — the overlap between authorial narration and character consciousness (drawing on all three stories)

Topic 4: Switching between viewpoint characters — "Gold Boy, Emerald Girl," Yiyun Li

Each topic is followed by a generative exercise that can be shared with the group.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• How to write a distant third-person point of view
• How to write a close third-person point of view
• A close, practical look at free indirect discourse
• How to switch effectively between viewpoint characters

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $150 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: Robert Anthony Siegel
• Begins Saturday, November 7, 2026
• Class will meet once via Zoom on Saturday, 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET
• Tuition is $150 USD.