Ready to write the first draft of your novel? GrubStreet’s Novel Generator is a 9-month program designed to help students at all levels complete the first drafts of their novels.

Writing a first draft is a very different process from revising a finished draft. A writer working on their first draft is discovering the answers to the most basic questions about their novel as they writes: Who are these people

When I teach workshops on writing and/or publishing, I often start out by asking writers to work on the "one-liner" for their projects, whether fiction, nonfiction, or collections. I encourage them to try winnowing it down to just one line — and no, that single line can't comprise 200 words.

Usually someone will ask, sometimes a little aggressively, "Why?" The subtext is perfectly reasonable: their book or collection is too complex to be expressed in one line

By Katrin Schumann

You may have heard, these days many writers are waiting. Waiting to hear back from their overwhelmed agents. Waiting to hear from busy publishers. Waiting for Covid to really be OVER so they can do live book events again. Waiting for inspiration becuase they're exhausted by the last year and a half. Waiting because their release dates have been moved (again).

Thinking of taking an intensive course this year? Interested in taking your short stories or essays to the next level? Ready to write your memoir or novel draft? Applications for our upcoming intensives are now open! Learn more about each of the unique intensive programs below:

Memoir Generator 

Application Deadline: Monday, July 26th at 11:59 PM (ET)

Thinking of applying to the Novel Generator? GrubStreet will host an informal virtual Q&A session with instructor Marjan Kamali on Thursday, July 1st, 6:00-7:00 p.m., to answer any questions you have about the Generator, including the workload, the application process, what the program does and doesn’t entail, the schedule, the philosophy behind our approach, and anything else you have on your mind! Register here.