Gothic Writing Workshop: "Fear As Story Engine" with Erin Crosby Eckstine

Join us for another night of Gothic Fiction Writing with author, Erin Crosby Eckstine! Welcome to introductions to gothic writing with author Erin Crosby Eckstine! FEAR AS STORY ENGINE: HOW TO WRITE FEAR THAT STICKS: Fear is more than what goes bump in the night– it’s a powerful driver of character motivations and actions in fiction. Dive into terror as creative fuel in this writing workshop inspired by the ghost story competition that gave rise to Frankenstein, in which we will explore both visceral and intangible horrors to add depth to characterization, emotional complexity, and conflict. Writers will walk away with: • A set of raw, generative free-writes capturing physical and psychological fears to use in their own work • A practiced technique for deepening characterization and description by digging past surface-level feeling into more nuanced, often contradictory emotional truths • A short original scene demonstrating how fear and anticipation shape perception, description, and tension ERIN CROSBY ECKSTINE: Erin Crosby Eckstine is an author of speculative historical fiction author and creative writing instructor. Her debut novel JUNIE was selected for the Good Morning America book club. JUNIE was selected as a Goodreads Choice Award 2025 nominee in both historical fiction and debut novel, an Audie Award Finalist in Fiction, and longlisted for the Crook's Corner Prize. Eckstine earned a master's in secondary English education from Stanford University and taught high school English for six years. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their cats, where she teaches creative writing at Sackett Street Writers.