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 got an idea for a novel, or you’re well on your way into a draft. Questions of voice, character, and tension are emerging; threads of a plot are slowly solidifying in your mind. But the branching paths of where your story could lead, the central conflict and stakes, and your character motivations are still fuzzy, maybe even overwhelming.
In this four-week intensive, writers with some workshop experience will build a road map for their novel through outlining, voice- and character-building exercises, and laying the foundations for setting and theme. We’ll explore the questions of what haunts stories and how we can drive to the heart of our novel’s problems to get it moving. Writers will prepare excerpts of their novel drafts to be workshopped, and will work in class on building an outline and brainstorming scenes. We’ll read novel excerpts from writers such as Anthony Doerr, Zadie Smith, Raymond Chandler, and Toni Morrison to explore how we navigate genre and create a narrative world that readers will find compelling.
You can expect to leave the course with feedback on a novel excerpt, as well as tools for forging ahead to the completion of your novel draft.
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.