Your Novel in a Year will give participants a unique year-long experience devoted to the writing of a novel. You’ll join a small cohort for regular in-person (and perhaps one or two online) sessions to learn about novel craft, workshop scenes and chapters, strategize on revision, set accountability measures and deadlines, and receive support from fellow writers working toward the same goal.
Aspiring novelists at any stage are encouraged to apply. If you’ve already drafted a full manuscript, you may want to use this class to help you revise prior to submission. If you have a great concept for a novel and only twenty pages drafted, that’s fine, too. Writers in all genres are welcome: mysteries and thrillers, romance, speculative fiction, YA, literary fiction, historical fiction, and hybrids of all of these. The only requirement is that you come in with an idea that you’ve started to flesh out and a strong commitment to attend and participate. The class will take it from there.
The Tuesday evening sessions will combine the workshopping of students’ drafts along with instructor-led seminars and mini-lectures on a variety of subjects: premise, story arc, and character; point of view and setting; scenes, chapters, and sequences of chapters; synopses and outlines; and agent querying and the literary marketplace. We’ll also study a number of model debut novels to get a sense of story structure and the current literary market. Our readings will include helpful guides to the craft of fiction by a variety of authors, editors, agents, and other gurus. A key component of the class will be individualized feedback from the instructor, including an evaluation of your premise and an initial 20-page excerpt from your novel in the fall or winter; and, over the summer, a constructive critique of your synopsis and a 100-page section of your novel in progress.
Find out more and apply at the link.. Application deadline: 9/22/23
Instructor: Bruce Holsinger