Class Description
Feeling stuck and frustrated with your novel's development? In this weekend seminar, students will have the opportunity to workshop the opening chapter of their novels while discussing strategies to revise and organize the manuscript's overall structure and character development. We will also examine excerpts from contemporary award-winning novels, such as Lisa Ko’s The Leavers, Christopher Castellani’s Leading Men and Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, in understanding essential craft-related points. Revision strategies include utilizing different outlining techniques that help align character development with plot point advancement and overall novel structure. We will also practice techniques designed for more effective scene building that enhance narrative momentum and economy of language. Regardless of where students are in the development of their novel manuscript, this class offers valuable strategies, revision exercises and feedback to help them take their novels to the next level.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.