Class Description
This session is part of GrubStreet's Manuscript Month, a programming deep dive into the publishing journey. Learn more about Manuscript Month here!
You’ve been writing, maybe even publishing, stories for a while. You’ve put in the time to learn how short story writing works. You’ve got the concepts down, some solid craft tools and feedback to improve your pieces. But now you’re ready for something longer, more ambitious. Your characters and settings are asking for a deeper exploration. Maybe one or more of your stories has ballooned to a high page count, and you wonder: can this be a novel?
In this session, we will explore the exciting but daunting leap from short pieces to a full-length manuscript. We’ll delve into the differences and overlaps between short story and novel writing, as well as the frame of mind and habits you should expect to develop in order to tackle this new stage in your creative process. We’ll look at concrete approaches to project management, research, and drafting a full manuscript. We’ll discuss how novels can be born from your shorter pieces through character development, deepening of conflict, and expansion of your setting and themes.
You can expect to leave the session inspired and armed with strategies to move beyond short stories and begin the long, beautiful road toward completing a novel.
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.