In this first class, we’ll discuss the basic elements of a scene. You’ll practice writing the beginning of a scene from your novel and outlining a scene that you’ll write during the week. We’ll also discuss the writing process and how to build a regular writing practice.

Assignment: Write five pages of your novel. Focus on starting a new scene using the techniques we discussed.

In this class, we’ll discuss what makes effective dialogue and how to write compelling scenes that center on dialogue. You’ll practice writing dialogue scenes in class in preparation for your weekly assignment.

Assignment: Write five pages of your novel. Work on writing a scene of dialogue.

In this class, we’ll discuss the basics of description, sensory detail, and the central writing rule “show, don’t tell.” You’ll practice writing setting descriptions in class.

Assignment: Write five pages of your novel. Focus on a scene of description, in particular a description of a new setting.

In this class, we’ll discuss what makes an effective chapter and discuss techniques for outlining and structuring chapters. You’ll outline the next few chapters of your novel to give you a sense of where your book is headed.

Assignment: Write five pages of your novel. Focus on finishing a chapter and transition to a new one, as we discussed in class.

In this class, we’ll discuss character arcs and character development. You’ll outline where your character is going and how their emotional arc changes from chapter to chapter.

Assignment: Write five pages of your novel.

In this class, we’ll discuss what makes prose lyrical and effective through a detailed discussion of sentence rhythm. You’ll work on editing some of your earlier pages to improve the lyricism and the flow.

Assignment: Write five pages of your novel. Work on editing earlier pages to help you find your writing style and voice.

In this class, we’ll discuss how to keep tension alive in your scenes and how to tie your chapters to an overarching conflict. You’ll work on identifying the central conflicts in your novel and editing your scenes to tie them to these conflicts.

Assignment: Write five pages of your novel. Trying to reach a major plot point where the conflict develops.

In this class, we’ll discuss how to make your writing emotional and thematically significant. You’ll identify the key themes in your novel and work on editing your pages to bring out these themes.

Assignment: Write five pages of your novel.

In this first class, we’ll discuss what makes a compelling story and why conflict is essential to a good novel. We’ll also discuss the broader benefits of outlining.

Assignment: Begin your outline by identifying the primary conflicts and your protagonist’s motivations.

In this class, we’ll discuss characters, including protagonists, antagonists, and supporting characters. We’ll also discuss how to choose a point of view for your story.

Assignment: Develop your characters by creating biographical details, inner conflicts, and complex motivations.

We’ll discuss the traditional three-act plot structure as well as other experimental structures.

Assignment: Begin developing the basic plot elements of your novel and refining the overall structure.

We’ll discuss setting, atmosphere, and mood and why a sense of place is essential to a good novel.

Assignment: Identify the key settings of your novel and develop detailed descriptions of each.

We’ll discuss how writers open their novels and what makes a strong hook.

Assignment: Write or refine the opening pages of your novel to be as compelling as possible based on your previous assignments.

We’ll discuss what makes a good chapter and the basic elements of a scene.

Assignment: Continue developing your outlining by creating a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, and eventually a scene-by-scene outline.

We’ll discuss how to decide on the overarching thematic elements of your novel and how to work these into the primarily narratives.

Assignment: Identify the themes of your novel and integrate them into your outline.

We’ll discuss how to write the outline ending to a novel and how to bring all the elements together.

Assignment: Complete your outlines and refine your opening pages.