Class Description
What makes certain novels so gripping? What gives them the power to keep a reader urgently engaged for weeks on end? In this six-part class, with great novelists as our teachers, we’ll go beyond conventional understandings to investigate some of the most important hidden drivers of page-turning fiction.
We’ll begin with concept, premise, and theme, discussing how these crucial ideas can be used to define and sharpen a novel’s underlying foundations. We’ll explore dramatic conflict and stakes and some of the less familiar aspects of narrative drive, such as micro-tension, shadow description, and informational scenarios. We’ll plumb the mechanisms of mystery, suspense, and dramatic irony, and discuss the interplay between point of view and the strategic release of information that creates truly gripping fiction. From there we’ll discuss the inseparability of character and plot, and dive into structural elements such as classic story progression, external vs internal arcs, the dramatic scene as an essential building block, and the essential role of a well-built, large-scale novelistic architecture.
Using music as a metaphor, we’ll talk about the importance of pattern and variation in novels, and in particular the special role played by image systems, repeated subliminal patterns that can contribute much to a gripping and emotionally satisfying reading experience. Finally, we’ll discuss the importance of novel openings that provide irresistible invitations to the reader and symphonically resonant endings that deliver the reader back into the daily world in a satisfying way.
A combination of discussion and brief, dynamic writing exercises will give fiction writers a better grasp on the tools they need to make their stories harder to put down, and therefore more likely to be published and widely read.
Writing Roadmap: We've created a simple, goal-based writing roadmap to help you find the perfect GrubStreet course for your writing needs.
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.