Meet the Faculty: Sarah Archer

“I read and write for character first”

---

Charlotte Lit welcomes Sarah Archer back to our faculty in Spring 2026. Sarah will lead a three-part class exploring the art of crafting the basic unit of a story: a scene. The class will pull insights from short and long fiction and screenwriting to examine how a successful scene draws an audience in and makes them turn the page. More information and registration here.

Sarah Archer does it all — long and short fiction, poetry, and screenwriting. Her debut novel, The Plus One, was published by Putnam in the US and received a starred review from Booklist. She is a Black List Screenwriting Lab fellow who has placed in competitions including the Motion Picture Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship, the Tracking Board’s Launch Pad, and the Austin Film Festival. Her short stories and poetry have been published in numerous literary magazines, nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize, and reached the finals of the Doris Betts Fiction Prize. We asked her a few questions so you could get to know her better.

---

I feel compelled to ask the screenwriter: What’s a movie you’ve watched many times without getting tired of?

My go-to is the cult classic Harold and Maude. This movie has all my favorite things: drama, comedy, smart writing, bold performances, Cat Stevens music, 70s style, a mansion, a hearse, and a weirdly attractive hippie boy. It’s an odd, sweet story that never fails to make me smile and cry.

You also write short fiction, long fiction, poetry — does one resonate for you more than the others?

If I had to commit to one medium forever (please, writing gods, don’t make me!), I would choose long fiction. I read and write for character first, and no form provides deeper access to a character’s head and heart than the novel. But each medium has benefits, and I grow as a writer by considering stories in different shapes. Poetry teaches me how to turn a scene in a script on one key line. Screenwriting teaches me how to write a novel with a structured second act. It’s all part of the same creative ecosystem.

What’s one significant object in your writing space?

I moved to a new house not long ago, and while my workspace is still a work in progress, I’m grateful to have an office lined with windows. Staring at the world around you and letting thoughts marinate is a valid part of writing—I will go to bat for this claim! Visual access to the natural world, with its rhythms of days and seasons, also allows me to tap into different moods.

Do you have a word or turn of phrase you especially love?

“Crepuscular,” meaning dim, or resembling twilight, is a favorite for several reasons: first of all, it’s just cool. I also enjoy words with obscure etymologies that challenge my memory. And twilight itself, that confluence of daylight and darkness, is rich with poetic possibility. Similarly, “chiaroscuro,” the combining of light and shadow in art, is a concept I aim to apply to my writing.

Tell us about a favorite pastime that’s not writing or reading.

I’m an absolute museum nerd. A few that are worth the trip: the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh (a world-class collection, beautiful outdoor spaces), the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles (exhibits on everything from animals who have visited space to artwork done on the heads of pins), and the Booth Museum of Natural History in Brighton, England (floor-to-ceiling Victorian taxidermy).

What can students look forward to when they enroll in your class, “The Art of the Scene,” at Charlotte Lit?

Relating a story through scene—showing through action and dialogue rather than telling through summary—is a challenge for many writers. We’ll unpack exactly how to accomplish this and examine techniques to make scenes concise, surprising, and emotionally impactful. We’ll also look at how scene order and transitions, and the considered use of narrative summary, can give a story momentum and flow.