Schedule & Curriculum

Schedule

In General, All Novel Generator Programs Follow the Curriculum Below:

Phase One

The first phase focuses on craft, and writing on one’s own. We will cover craft topics crucial to decisions the writer needs to make in the early stages of the first draft: characterization, the protagonist’s desire, point of view, voice, dialogue, and scene. Sometimes readings will be assigned to help students see examples of craft elements applied by established authors.

Guided writing exercises in class during Phase I, in addition to the assignment each week, will help you think deeply about your novel’s themes, your characters’ desires, and to do some writing outside the novel, if need be, to understand your story better. Students will each have a brainstorm session with the class to talk through key elements of their novels (almost like a mini workshop). If you can make page-count progress on your novel during Phase I, consider it a bonus; this is really the time to get the foundation of your story in place.

Phase Two

This phase will mainly focus on workshopping, though all phases will have some form of varied workshopping/feedback. According to each instructor’s guidelines, some deeper workshops will require advanced reading of peers’ work in preparation for a robust in-class discussion to guide the writer on further developing promising ideas and sections. Students will have several opportunities to be workshopped throughout the program, along with the assumption that they are writing new pages of their novel manuscripts each week, typically 5 to 10 pages per week.

Short craft lessons will be interspersed at varying points throughout this phase to further develop the building blocks of their novel such as focusing on scene building and character stakes and arcs.

Somewhere during this or the final phase, instructors typically request to see a portion of the manuscript so they can provide targeted feedback about key elements.

Phase Three

Typically during this time, the instructor will schedule a one-on-one meeting with each student to discuss the submitted scenes and any other questions/issues and guidance/goal-setting the student needs. Also during this time, the students will be buddied up in groups of two or more to provide each other additional support and accountability. The instructor will assign these buddies, who should at the least check in with each other once a week to be sure they’re meeting their writing goals; it will be up to each group to decide how often—or little—they’d like to meet beyond that, and whether or not they wish to exchange work.

Students are mostly writing on their own in this phase, with a goal of 10 – 20 pages per week, and will meet or check in with their buddies. How often the full class meets will be up to each individual instructor and each particular class’s needs.

Final Phase:

So much of the final phase depends on each particular class’s progress, needs, and dynamics, but in general, there are some craft discussions to address lingering questions/challenges with the murky middle of novel manuscript writing and developing a plan to complete and/or start revising their novel drafts. There will be a strong focus on novel pacing, climax, and all the key components to refining the overall shape of the novel. This is also a time to show off your progress to see how far you’ve come, and discuss ways to keep the momentum going long after the program ends.

In addition to the curriculum above, the NEW Genre Novel Generators also include:

• Smaller class sizes
• Instructors with publishing success and experience in each specific genre
• Tips on pacing, structure, tropes, and pitching approaches tailored to each particular genre
• Meeting with a literary agent who will review their query letter and the first few pages of their novel