Carol Zoref
Work is as significant to the lives of our characters as it is to our own. At times, work itself becomes a character in fiction; the factory, the office, or the shop becomes a vivid and dramatic organizing principle through which a chapter or a story takes place. Conversely, work portrayed in broad, expositional brushstrokes can demean both the labor and the laborer. Work rendered this way can be a lodestone for stereotypes and cliches that suck the value out of a story. We’ll look at examples of work in fiction and a poem or two, consider the usefulness of research, and share a few tales about odd and not-so-odd jobs of our own. You will leave with an exercise to complete because that is what you are hankering for: more work.
Carol Zoref’s novel Barren Island was released on February 7, 2017. It received the AWP Award for the Novel. A long-time Sarah Lawrence College faculty member and Director of the Writing Center, she also teaches undergraduate fiction writing at New York University.