1 session, Wednesday, October 7th, 7-9 pm Eastern

Online

$100

Enroll in this class.

The best short stories end with a bang — or a twist, or a moment of ecstasy, poetic connection, or brilliant subversion. If there are as many ways to end a story as there are stories, whatever your project, and whatever mode you write in — whether comic or tragic, ironic or earnest, realist or absurdist — your best ending will be inextricable from the mechanics of your plot. In this class we will look under the hood of a couple of short stories to reverse-engineer their endings through analysis of their pacing, plots, and endings, and spend time workshopping brilliant new endings for our own works-in-progress.

Note: this class is part of the series 5 Authors on Story Craft, though it is designed to stand alone. To learn more about the entire series, click here. This class will be recorded.

Enroll in this class.

About the Instructor

Rachel Lyon is the author of Sixes, forthcoming from Zando in 2028; Fruit of the Dead, which was a finalist for the 2025 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize; and Self-Portrait with Boy, a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s 2018 First Novel Prize. Rachel’s short work has appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She has taught most recently at Bennington College and the American University of Paris, where she was the 2024 Paris Writer in Residence. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, she lives with her family in Western Massachusetts.