We will discuss the basics of novel construction: plot, characters, narration vs. scene, point of view, and more. Most of all, we’ll talk about the importance of establishing a regular writing practice.

Come with just an idea. Then be prepared to write during our meetings, and to spend time (ideally daily, if only for short bursts) in between sessions working on background material. You are encouraged to write as much as possible, but we will post a maximum of three thousand words a week to discuss.

At this stage, the feedback is all about empowerment. We are not here to judge the commercial viability of anyone’s idea, let alone to measure talent. I encourage brainstorming, which means that you will likely hear suggestions that are off-base, but will also get inspiring new ideas. We’re all here to help each other.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

By the end of the course, you will understand the fundamentals of novel construction: character, plot, narration and scene, and point of view.

Writing Goals

By the end of the course, you will:

• Have a rough summary of the novel you will write, along with a schedule for completing a first draft.
• Have posted the opening pages of your novel for peer and instructor feedback.

Zoom Session Schedule

We will meet from 7-8:30 P.M. U.S. Eastern Time on December 5, 12, and 17. 

Session One:

• We intro ourselves; I give an overview of the course.
• We’ll spend 10 minutes writing down everything we know about the idea we have. Read what you’ve written on a volunteer basis. Other students (and I) can ask questions, and identify what’s most interesting.
• Now, who is their main character? There may be more than one, but today we start with the most important one.
• Your next in-class assignment is to map out a writing schedule. That schedule starts no later than the following day. Neither doctor’s appointments, nor houseguests, nor bathroom remodels work as excuses.
• I’ll talk about the Inner Critic and ask you to do an in-class exercise in which you identify what that Inner Critic is saying, and compose a defiant answer.
• Next: let’s talk about what your opening scene might be. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t really matter for right now, because it might change.
• Assignments for the week: write a biography for your main character. Choose an interesting name. Expand and refine the basic idea of your novel. Write the first five pages of the opening scene.
• We’ll give and receive feedback. A starting point for that feedback can be what we’d like to hear more about, what we have questions about, and what’s potentially confusing.

The post Get That Novel Started: A Two-Week Writing Workshop appeared first on Writers.com.

The opening chapters of a novel or memoir are often easy and exciting. Then you show the manuscript to a friend or coworker, and their feedback is less than glowing.

Or you change jobs. Or you move.

For any number – and it’s usually more than one – of reasons, you put your book aside. Weeks pass. Months. More. Now the characters have become strangers and the plot a distant memory.

In our two, two-hour Zoom meetings, we will come together to first to examine and untangle the practical (hey, stuff happens) as well as the emotional circumstances that caused you to shelve your project. Then we will work closely with each writer, looking at that person’s individual situation, so as to collaboratively create a writing schedule for them. We’ll also do exercises to help address what’s been in our way. The atmosphere will be supportive and nonjudgmental; our only goal is to get back to work.

The assignment will be to put that writing schedule into practice, and to generate an outline for what remains of your project. You’ll post this assignment two days before the second meeting so that we can review it before the second meeting.

This workshop is for writers of all experience levels who have put aside a manuscript, whether of fifty words or fifty thousand. It’s also for writers who feel stalled in their current project.

LEARNING GOALS:

• You will look at the practical as well as the emotional reasons you put aside a book.
• With the support of the instructor and fellow students, you will learn ways to break through the barriers that keep us from writing.
• You will learn about the most common causes of a stalled manuscript, including a sagging plot, poor character development, and a too-heavy reliance on narration, as well as techniques for addressing those issues.

WRITING GOALS:

• You will commit to a writing practice that starts today.
• You will create a plan, in the form of an outline or step sheet, for finishing the book in progress.
• Based on this plan, you will have a date for completing the project.

ZOOM SCHEDULE:

Why Take a Novel Writing Course with Writers.com?

• We welcome writers of all backgrounds and experience levels, and we are here for one reason: to support you on your writing journey.
• Small groups keep our online writing courses lively and intimate.
• Work through your weekly lectures, course materials, and writing assignments at your own pace.
• Share and discuss your work with fellow writers in a supportive course environment.
• Award-winning instructor Donna Levin will offer you direct, personal feedback and suggestions on every assignment you submit.

The post Get Back to That Book appeared first on Writers.com.

Perhaps you have fifty to a hundred pages of a novel that you don’t know what to do with. Perhaps you have several novels with fifty to a hundred pages written.

If so, you’re not alone. It’s a widespread phenomenon: you get to a certain juncture in the book and suddenly (or not-so-suddenly) face seemingly insurmountable challenges, whether it’s a plot that’s stalled, characters who aren’t interesting, or voices in your head that scream, you can’t do this!

Often that’s when you get an idea for a new novel: the novel you were truly meant to write. This one will be easy, because it’s a much better idea. So you put the current novel-in-progress aside and start the new one. Fifty to a hundred pages later a chilling coincidence occurs: you’re having the same problems you had with the first novel!

The primary goal of this course is to get you to the finish line, or at least to where you can see it without binoculars.

On the way, we’ll talk about the elements of craft: how to build a plot using units of conflict, raising the stakes, creating complex characters, voice, and more, in an atmosphere of nonjudgmental support.

Donna is inspiring and knowledgeable about writing craft. This class will fulfill its promise!
—Carol Park

Weekly Zoom Schedule

Although one of our goals is to write as much as possible, we are equally concerned with craft, and with creating a disciplined writing practice that lasts well beyond the ten weeks.

Weekly one-hour Zoom meetings begin April 22 at 7:00pm Eastern Time. These sessions are for brainstorming, for sharing tips, and for providing community.

You can submit up to two thousand words a week for peer and instructor feedback and encouragement. We won’t be line-editing, which keeps the workload manageable.

Students should adapt the timing of the steps in the course outline to correspond with their own progress.

Get That Novel Finished: Course Outline

Week #1:

We’ll introduce ourselves as regards our writing lives. What other classes have you taken, what writing groups have you participated in, and what was your experience? Tell us about your novel-in-progress.

Then you’ll make an achievable plan to write daily. Yes, daily. Short, daily work is better than the fantasy of a 20-hour marathon over the weekend.

We’ll take a look at Wet Ink, where I’ll post short weekly lectures, and where we can interact during the week.

Week #2:

Where’s the mute button for those voices in our heads? We can’t turn them off completely, but we’ll talk about ways to lower the sound.

This week, you’ll summarize what you’ve written so far and write down as much as you know about what’s coming. In the process, you’ll discover more than you knew before.

Week #3:

Make copious, detailed notes about your plans to revise the opening pages, but do not go back to rewrite.

Week #4:

We’ll talk about the uses and abuses of backstory and character bios. (They’re similar.) Backstory is an effective way both to develop characters and to generate plot. At the same time, we have to avoid using our brilliant backstory in the novel itself, when it’s not needed.

Week #5:

Who are your favorite writers? Let’s talk about the novels and the teachers who first inspired you.

I’ll already have posted a list of recommended books on craft. I’d like to hear suggestions for adding to that list.

Week #6:

Time to revise the summary of the rest of the novel, if you haven’t already. It will have changed.  Make plans for how you’ll rewrite the pages you’ve written during the first five weeks. You’ll also expand on your plans to revise the opening pages you had when class began.

Week #7:

We’ve been discussing plot and character from the beginning, but now we can dig more deeply into both. What have we talked about that you can apply to the rest of this draft and to the next draft?  We’ll talk about building a plot through units of conflict, raising the stakes, and proving a premise. Also: scene vs. narration (and melding the two).

Week #8:

Both this week and next, we’ll discuss more esoteric elements of craft, guided by the needs and wishes of the group. These topics might include dialogue, past vs. present tense, foreshadowing, pace, setting, and point of view. We’ll have been discussing the use of precise language all along: now we can add metaphors vs. similes, and answer the age-old question, just how many adjectives are too many?

Week #9:

A continuation of the topics of Week #8, with the addition of the crucial yet frustrating vague task of “finding your voice.”  What is it anyway, and when did it go missing?

Week #10:

What are your plans to finish this draft, if you haven’t already? How will you continue to get support?

We’ll discuss writing groups: the good, the bad, and the empowering. Should you form your own, take another class, or both? There are guidelines for the former and caveats for the latter. You might also find a writing partner.

Now get that novel finished!

Why Take a Novel Writing Course with Writers.com?

• We welcome writers of all backgrounds and experience levels, and we are here for one reason: to support you on your writing journey.
• Small groups keep our online writing classes lively and intimate.
• Work through your weekly written lectures, course materials, and writing assignments at your own pace.
• Share and discuss your work with classmates in a supportive class environment.
• Award-winning instructor Donna Levin will offer you direct, personal feedback and suggestions on every assignment you submit.

Finish that novel. Enroll today!

The post Get That Novel Finished! Tools and Inspiration to Complete Your First Draft appeared first on Writers.com.

Each week I will post (short) required readings, and assign a writing exercise. I’ll also recommend readings and suggest optional writing exercises. You’ll give and receive constructive feedback from me as well as your peers. Our aim is to discover, or to rediscover, the joy of writing, and to empower one another.

In a weekly, one hour Zoom meeting, we can discuss not only our fiction, but the challenges of creating a disciplined writing schedule. The meetings aren’t mandatory, but they’re part of developing the sense of community so important to a writer’s life.

This is an opportunity to finally begin the fiction you’ve been thinking about, and/or to jumpstart a dormant writing practice.

Recommended, but not required, reading includes John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist, Oakley Hall’s The Art and Craft of Novel Writing, Thaisa Frank’s Finding Your Writer’s Voice, Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing, and E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel.

Donna is a great instructor. I now have a regular writing practice!
—Barbara Moser

Weekly Zoom Schedule

Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00 PM, U.S. Eastern Time. The first Zoom call will take place on Tuesday, February 24th. 

Course Objectives

In this course you will:

• Gain an understanding of the elements that apply to flash fiction, short story, novel, and narrative nonfiction (e.g. memoir).
• Learn to deal with the Inner Critic, who prevents more writing than any censorship law ever has.
• Practice revision, which is the larger part of writing.
• Learn how better to critique your own writing by giving feedback to your peers.
• Have a toolkit of techniques and resources for future writing, including other classes and workshops, writing groups and conferences.

By the end of this course, you will have written at least one flash fiction piece, short story draft, or novel opening chapter, using the techniques we’ve discussed.

Course Syllabus

Week One: The Fundamentals of Prose

The importance of being precise; what exactly it means to “show, don’t tell;” how to use metaphors and similes effectively, while avoiding clichés. Passive vs. active voice; present vs. past tense.

Selected readings include the poem Richard Cory, by A.E. Robinson

As we go through the weeks, incorporate these “rules” in your writing.

Assignment: Describe an incident from your childhood paying special attention to the prose.

Week Two: Character

Resources for developing characters: the bio, the backstory, the character question list.

The three requirements of a protagonist: stature, complexity, and the ability to pursue a goal. The greater freedom (and fun) you can have with secondary characters. How characters grow while remaining consistent.

Selected readings from Kazuo Ishiguro and others.

Assignment: Write a monologue spoken by a character who is very different from you. You might switch genders and/or make the character younger or older, but most important, change their outlook on life. If you’re an atheist, make them religious. An introvert becomes an extrovert.  A conservative becomes a liberal; an optimist a pessimist. Give the character a name and let them describe themselves physically.

Week Three: Dialogue

Dialogue is one of the most immediate ways of giving information about a character. Do they curse? Use correct grammar? “Said” vs. “opined:” how to avoid overusing either.

Selected readings from Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and Alice Walker.

Assignment: a conversation at a party, where the attendees come from a variety of backgrounds. Disagreements encouraged.

Week Four: Plot

Readers may be enchanted by lyrical prose, but even in the most literary fiction, what they want most to know is what happens next. There are many different models for plotting, but in all of them the unit of measurement is conflict.

Selected readings from O. Henry and others.

Assignment: write a scene in which two people are trapped together, for example, in a stuck elevator, in gridlocked traffic, or a collapsed building. We’ll choose from among this and previous assignments, as the starting point for the final project, which is the story or chapter; alternatively, you can choose a new subject.

Week Five: Scene vs. Narration

Movies and television have influenced fiction, in the same way that photography freed painters to create impressionism and abstract art. In the case of fiction, so that the latter is more fully dramatized now, but narration and summary give the fiction writer more mobility.

Selected readings from Charles Dickens and Bill Clegg.

Assignment: write three to five pages that combine narration and scene.

Week Six: Point of View

The pluses and minus of first, (the rarely used) second, and third person. Also third person limited vs. omniscient. The importance of staying in one point of view per scene.

Selected readings from Anita Shreve, Jay McInerny, and others.

Assignment: write a piece in first person. Rewrite in third.

Week Seven: Voice

Along with “show, don’t tell,” the phrase “find your voice” is one of the most common bits of advice you’ll hear. As advice goes, it’s vague enough to be almost useless. Yet it is, possibly, the most crucial element of fiction. We’ll do our best to define it and discuss techniques for “finding” yours. (Hint: it’s not under the bed.)

Selected readings include excerpts from Catcher in the Rye and The Remains of the Day.

Assignment: Write a letter to a close friend, real or imagined, living or deceased, in which you confide a secret (real or imagined).

Week Eight: Revision

Here’s another aphorism from the writer’s hit parade: “most of writing is rewriting.” How many drafts does one do? That’s impossible to determine in advance, but we do know that the first step is a second draft. We’ll discuss how to attack a new draft. (Hint: it’s going to require more than the track changes feature.)

Selected readings include two versions of one fiction piece.

Assignment: Revise the story, or chapter, that you’ve been working on during the second half of class.

Why Take a Fiction Writing Course with Writers.com?

• We welcome writers of all backgrounds and experience levels, and we are here for one reason: to support you on your writing journey.
• Small groups keep our online writing classes lively and intimate.
• Work through your weekly written lectures, course materials, and writing assignments at your own pace.
• Share and discuss your work with classmates in a supportive class environment.
• Award-winning instructor Donna Levin will offer you direct, personal feedback and suggestions on every assignment you submit.

Learn how to write compelling fiction in this eight-week course. Enroll today!

Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

$545.00 Original price was: $545.00.$465.00Current price is: $465.00.Enroll Now

The post Intro to Fiction Writing appeared first on Writers.com.

Congratulations! You have a first draft.

Now what?

You may have heard that “most of writing is rewriting,” and it is all too true. In this two-and-a-half-hour webinar we’ll discuss strategies for planning (and following through on) the next draft.

Step one is creating a realistic writing schedule that you can commit to. The next step is taking a dispassionate look at what you have right now.

We’ll move on to an overview of the main challenges of the novel. What makes for a compelling main character, and a gripping plot? (It’s a myth that a literary novel doesn’t need a gripping plot.) What are the roles of secondary characters, and subplots? We’ll also touch on issues of point of view and scene vs. narration.

We’ll have a substantial Q & A session, during which we can discuss individual issues.

Learning and Writing Goals

By the end of this webinar, you will have learned and crafted:

• The fundamentals of plotting.
• What makes a strong main character.
• The role of secondary characters.
• Recommended readings on craft.
• Both a short-term and long-term writing schedule you can commit to.
• An initial assessment of the strengths and areas of improvement for your first draft.
• Ideas for your next draft.

Webinar Schedule

This webinar runs on Zoom from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM Eastern time. The schedule is as follows:

• 15 minutes: Introduction to revising the novel.
• 30 minutes: Crafting both a short-term and long-term plan for editing your novel.
• 30 minutes: Lecture on the various aspects of writing and editing novels.
• 30 minutes: An assessment of the strengths and areas of improvement for your characters and plot.
• 30-45 minutes: Q & A about the various aspects of novel revisions.

Expect in-depth instruction and lively discussion.

Why Take a Novel Revision Course with Writers.com?

• We welcome writers of all backgrounds and experience levels, and we are here for one reason: to support you on your writing journey.
• Small groups keep our online writing courses lively and intimate.
• Work through your weekly lectures, course materials, and writing assignments at your own pace.
• Share and discuss your work with fellow writers in a supportive course environment.
• Award-winning instructor Donna Levin will offer you direct, personal feedback and suggestions on every assignment you submit.

Get started revising that novel. Enroll today!

The post (Live Workshop) Revising the Novel: Take Your First Draft to the Next Level appeared first on Writers.com.