Breakout Session 5 for the "To Taste Life Twice" Seminar. Pre-registration is required.

Writing a Cinematic Scene

Instructor: Kim Cross

A building block of all great narratives—fiction or nonfiction—a cinematic scene immerses readers in a story so utterly that it plays out in their minds like a movie. This workshop will reveal how to write compelling scenes by developing your writer's eye for telling detail, your ear for great dialogue, and instinct for tension and drama. It will teach you how to write observed scenes (events you are able to witness) as well as reconstructed scenes (past events that must be assembled through meticulous research). We'll talk about interviewing for scene, using tools like Google Earth to write about places we can't visit in person, and how to choose the right scene to begin a story.

Author of What Stands in a Storm and The Stahl House, Kim Cross is a New York Times Best-Selling writer, journalist, and historian known for meticulously reported narrative nonfiction. Her stories have been recognized by the New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Sunday Longread, Longform, and Best American Sports Writing. Her fourth book comes out this October from Grand Central/Hachette. She also teaches Feature Writing for Harvard Extension School.

Learn more about the three-day "To Taste Life Twice" Seminar here.