One-day workshop, participants will move through writing exercises and experiments to produce a honed piece of flash fiction between 300-500 words. We will consider foundational elements of craft and form in short and long narrative forms, but we will practice sharpening and honing the miniature story, considering narrative voice, plot, tension, stakes, and original uses of language. We’ll track down imagistic nouns and verbs to shave adjectives and adverbs, for example. How does the tiny story deliver its power without skimping on surprise, character development, and dialogue? Writing a short-short story that combines comedy, suspense, and tenderness is our goal and a gateway to longer forms. Playwrights are welcome to craft a mini one-act or monologue. Poets can craft prose poems. How much beauty and terror can you stuff into your single envelop? We will work in an atmosphere of collaboration, rigor, and compassion. Laurie Stone is delighted to return to the Hudson Opera House where she has had the honor many times of reading, performing, and guiding writing and performance workshops. She is author of several books of fiction and nonfiction. She has been a longtime writer for the Village Voice, theater critic for The Nation, critic-at-large on Fresh Air, a member of The Bat Theater Company, and a regular writer for Ms. and New York Woman, among others.