Fiction Writing Workshops
Whether you’re just starting out, need help with a work in progress, or you’re ready to take your novel to market, we have a workshop that will help you reach your fiction writing goals.
Accelerated Fundamentals Of Fiction Writing
This version of Fundamentals of Fiction Writing is only six weeks long. We’ve condensed the course material from the longer versions of this course, and designed this fast-paced workshop for those students who want to start writing fiction now, or who don’t have the time to commit to a 12-week workshop. In this accelerated workshop, you can get all the fundamentals you’ll need to start writing short stories, a novel, or anything in between.
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Advanced Novel Writing Workshop
Could your novel benefit from additional critique? Do you need a structured timeline to keep you motivated? Work with a published novelist and your peers to write and revise 200 pages of your novel manuscript. In this critique based workshop, there are no lectures, reading assignments or exercises. Instead, you will focus on writing tips and reminders throughout. You should be prepared to submit 10,000 words (approximately 40 manuscript pages) and a short synopsis of your book (500 to 750 words maximum) on the course start date.
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Advanced Short Fiction Writing
You can continue to build your short fiction writing skills through this 6 week workshop. Led by a published short story writer, you will write and revise either three 3,000 word stories, two 4,500 word stories, or one 9,000 word story. In this critique based workshop, there are no lectures, reading assignments or exercises. Instead, you will focus on writing tips and reminders throughout. You should be prepared to submit 3,000 words on the course start date.
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Creating Dynamic Characters
Every fiction writer will tell you—and every fiction reader instinctively knows—that compelling characters are at the heart of all good fiction. Creating believable characters and bringing them to life on the page requires observation, understanding, imagination and skill in the techniques of character development and characterization.
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Creativity & Expression
Beyond the basics of good writing lie the more creative elements – skills that elevate the craft of writing to the art of writing. Take your creative writing to the next level – no matter what type of writing you do. Learn techniques to add depth, texture, and emotion to your writing.
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Essentials Of Mystery Writing
Do you read mysteries and think “I wish I could write that?” well, you can. Work with a published mystery writer to learn about the subtleties of the mystery genre, and begin working on your own page-turning mystery. By the conclusion of the workshop, you will have written 2500 and critiqued up to 2500 words of your mystery novel or short story.
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Essentials Of Romance Writing
Does a deep love story live in your soul? Could you join the ranks of the Bronte sisters, Nora Roberts, Judith McNaught, Danielle Steele, or Nicholas Sparks? Discover your romantic writing roots while you familiarize yourself with the specific factors that create a successful romance story.
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Essentials Of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing
Live long and write prosperous! When you write science fiction, fantasy or horror, you dive into your imagination to create worlds that never were. Your words can deliver a reader from their mundane existence into realms yet unknown. By the end of this course, you will have completed a short SF/Fantasy story (up to 2500 words) under the guidance of an experienced, published author.
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Extended Novel Writing Workshop
Whether you write short fiction, nonfiction, memoir or poetry, chances are there is a novel yearning to get out. The idea of actually writing something as long and complex as a novel can seem overwhelming. You can set your novel free – by developing a plan with someone who has successfully negotiated this literary minefield.
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Extended Short Story Writing Workshop
Successful short story writers know there is more to writing a short story than meets the eye. They require a sharply focused idea, finely rendered characters and tightly crafted prose to be effective. Work with a published short story author to write and revise two complete short stories and develop skills to write short stories independently.
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Focus On The Novel
Whether you write short fiction, nonfiction, memoir or poetry, chances are there is a novel yearning to get out. The idea of actually writing something as long and complex as a novel can seem overwhelming. You can set your novel free – by developing a plan with someone who has successfully negotiated this literary minefield.
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Focus On The Short Story
Successful short story writers know there is more to writing a short story than meets the eye. They require a sharply focused idea, finely rendered characters and tightly crafted prose to be effective. Work with a published short story author to write and revise two complete short stories and develop skills to write short stories independently.
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Focus On Writing Fiction For Children
Children’s publishing is a vibrant yet challenging market for today’s writers. Editors say that 95% of submissions are poorly written and inappropriate. Because children have short attention spans and a wide range of reading abilities, it takes more than just a good story to be successful.
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Fundamentals Of Fiction Writing
Give voices and stories to the characters that fill your imagination. Whether your fantasies take the form of short stories or a novel, this workshop prepares you to write fiction. You will apply the techniques that generations of fiction writers have used to bring their characters and stories to life. You will also develop your individual style and creative expression.
You will work with a published fiction author to write and revise short stories or a novel chapter, up to 3000 words total.
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Hooked with Author Les Edgerton
Does your beginning grab a reader and never let them go? Based on the popular book Hooked, this workshop will teach you to create an opening sentence, an opening paragraph and an opening scene that will immediately hook an agent or editor as well as your eventual readers.
You will work with a published fiction author to write and revise a complete short story or the first chapter of your novel (up to 2500 words).
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Marketing Your Short Stories
Creative writers must become salesmen when marketing their short stories. This may seem overwhelming at first, but when you take it step-by-step, the process can become simple. You can present your short stories to potential publishers in the best, most up-to-date way to increase your odds of publication.
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Novel Writing: Scene Fundamentals
Discover how the key elements of fiction—character, plot, setting, motivation, and tension—are combined to create compelling scenes that bring your novel to life for your reader. By understanding your authorial choices, character motivation, and scene intentions—and by using key points in Jordan E. Rosenfeld’s Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at Time—you’ll learn how to craft scenes that hook your readers and keep them turning the pages.
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Voice And Viewpoint
Your characters are often little more than a roving crowd of strangers until you discover your story’s voice and choose your point of view. Voice and viewpoint determine the tone of characters’ movements and thoughts, the tenor of their dialogue. They ultimately drive the storyteller’s every word choice, including the details of setting, the descriptions of characters, the conversations heard, and—sometimes more important—what is left unsaid.
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Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint
Discover how crucial decisions regarding characters, point of view, and authorial flexibility can generate an emotionally compelling work that your reader will love to explore. By beginning with your character and his or her viewpoint—and using key points in Nancy Kress’s Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion, & Viewpoint—you’ll learn how to craft characters so intriguing that your reader will be drawn in to learn more about their story with each turn of the page.
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Write Great Fiction: Description & Setting
In this course we’ll consider the importance of description and setting in creating a fully believable, fully realized fictional world. More importantly, we’ll consider what makes description effective—how precise language, combined with surprising ways of looking at familiar things, creates a full experience for a reader—and how you might begin employing these techniques in your own work to create characters and settings which hum with life.
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Write Great Fiction: Dialogue
Dialogue may be the most important characterization – but most difficult to master – tool at a fiction writer’s disposal. Stiff, unnatural or overdone dialogue will doom the liveliest characters or stall an exciting plot. Effective dialogue propels your characters and story off the page, deep into the imagination of your reader.
In this workshop, you will gain a thorough understanding of effective dialogue in fiction, including the functions of dialogue to develop characters, expose motives, reveal setting, create tension and suspense, speed up scene and more.
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Write Great Fiction: Plot and Structure
Discover how to set up your novel the right way: by looking at plot and structure as extensions of character, motivation, and conflict. By beginning with character – using the LOCK system from James Scott Bell’s Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure – you’ll learn how to formulate plots which keep both the physical and emotional stakes high… and which keep your reader glued to the page.
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Write Great Fiction: Revision & Self-Editing
There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. Good writers become published writers through the process of rewriting. It’s hard work. In this course, we’ll be training ourselves to become our own editors by first teaching ourselves what makes fiction work. By focusing on concrete self-editing checklists, lookouts, and questions—and using key concepts in James Scott Bell’s Write Great Fiction: Revision, & Self-Editing—you’ll learn how to turn your first draft into a fine-tuned, finished, and publishable novel.
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Writing the Breakout Novel
Discover what makes a novel stand out from the rest in all its aspects—from premise to plot to character to theme—using Donald Maass’ bestselling Writing the Breakout Novel as your guide. Breakout novels are built from the foundation up, beginning with a breakout premise which is plausible, original, emotional, and rich in conflicts to explore … and which will inspire and guide you as you build on that foundation. This workshop, then, will begin with the premise and build over eight weeks just as the breakout novel builds: with careful attention to craft and an openness to those creative leaps which will make your novel exceptional.
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Writing The Novel Proposal
For months, maybe years, you’ve worked diligently to craft your novel. You’ve written and revised and revised some more until finally – your novel is finished. Your next step is to find a home for your masterpiece. But just how, exactly, do you go about finding an agent or editor, and – even more important – getting one of them to say “yes”? If your goal is commercial publication, you need to know how to approach the market the way successful novelists do – with a professionally presented novel proposal.
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Writing the Young Adult Novel
Audience becomes a more than usually important consideration when drafting a young adult (YA) novel. In this course, we’ll familiarize ourselves with the genre and audience of the YA novel, learn specific strategies for improving the core components of your YA book—such as character, plot, and setting—and, finally, unearth the mysteries of querying agents and editors. By focusing on specific writing techniques—and using K.L. Going’s Writing & Selling the YA Novel—you’ll learn how to turn your idea for a YA novel into a finished, and saleable, novel.
