Class Description
A great premise or the spark of an idea can set the writer mind whirling. But often that initial excitement and energy fades as it comes up against the need to turn that nugget of inspiration into a plot that can span the length of a novel. Fortunately, all stories are built upon the same foundation: story beats. This lecture-driven seminar focuses on what these story beats are, how they serve your story, and how you can begin employing them to develop a well-paced, purposeful first draft. This course will provide students with the tools they need to plot to their level of comfort: anything from a short synopsis to a scene-by-scene outline. By presenting an overview of several different plotting models, students will leave with the knowledge they need to turn that spark of an idea into a well-paced, purposefully plotted novel.
This course is part of The Nuts and Bolts of Novel Planning series. It can be taken alone or in conjunction with the seminar: The Nuts and Bolts of Novel Planning: Character Goals on September 15th, and The Nuts and Bolts of Novel Planning: Setup and Payoff on December 8th.
Class Format
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting!
Scholarship Information
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.
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.