Sarah Lawrence College Craft Talk with Carol Zoref—Work as Character in Fiction

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 will be 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.