Autumn 2002 Workshops at Writers & Books

Fiction

Write a Novel in a Year

• #F3166
• Instructors:
  • Nick DiChario [ bio ]
  • T. Lucien Wright [ bio ]
• Last Saturday of each month for one year,
  starting September 28, 9 am–2 pm
• $60 per session.
• Receive a membership in Writers & Books with your registration.
• Limit: 10

Anyone who’s ever attempted to write a novel and eventually sets it aside, understands the complexities of pulling all the novel elements together into something cohesive and entertaining.

Writing a novel is a lonely and sometimes frustrating task. Support and feedback from a trusted source could go a long way toward alleviating that frustration.

By year’s end, some students may accomplish a totally finished manuscript, ready to submit, but our goal will be to complete at least a first draft of your novel.

Prior to the first class, students will submit work to the instructors, which will be critiqued during class. Subsequent classes will address pacing, conflict and motivation and will center on the overall picture, not minutiae. The sticky details are best left to draft two and beyond.

Haunts, Howlings, and the Art of Horror

• #F3167
• Instructors:
  • Donna M. Marbach [ bio ]
  • Robbi Hess [ bio ]
• Four Tuesdays, starting October 8, 6:30–8:30 pm
• $60 W&B Members/$73 General Public
• Limit: 15

Do you love vampires, ghosts and other creepy things? Are you the person who pre-orders Stephen King and Anne Rice books even before they’re written? Does your video library house The Complete Collection of Friday the 13th? Have you ever wanted to write a scary story? If so, then this may be the course for you.

This workshop is for beginning writers or those who’d like to experiment with a new genre. We will explore some of the history of horror writing and look at a few examples by noted authors. We will review basic writing techniques with an eye to those most applicable to the horror genre. Mostly though, it will be a class of experimentation and fun. We will provide in-class “recipes” and writing prompts to get you started, but the writing part will be up to you.

So dust off those story skeletons, wake up those psychopathic thoughts and join us for an October writing fest of fun and fear. The course will end with a Haunted Halloween reading and party. There, we will share our best work with friends and family and, as a special added treat, we will feature a surprise reading by an internationally published horror writer.

Novel Critique Workshop (Intensive)

• #F3125
• Instructor: Marcos Donnelly [ bio ]
• Six Tuesdays, starting October 15, 6:30–9 pm
• $178 W&B Members /$195 General Public
• Limit: 6
• NOTE: This course has been designed for 6 students only, which allows for more interaction with the instructor.

Are the vagaries of writing your novel weighing you down? Conflict, tension, POV, dialogue, narrative flow, can all be extremely daunting, even to writers who have published many novels.

This course is designed for writers who are well into their novel and are looking for professional help to get them further into it, even to THE END. This course will be interactive, involving at least two hours of critique time each class.

Prepare to have up to forty pages of your novel critiqued and strengthened. Please be aware that this workshop is designed for participants who have already taken a novel writing course and have an understanding of novel elements.

Adopting the Orphan: A Novella in Eight Weeks

• #F3140
• Instructor: Sarah Freligh [ bio ]
• Eight Wednesdays, starting October 2, 6:30–9 pm
• $159 W&B Members/$182 General Public
• Limit: 8

It’s been called “the orphan of contemporary fiction”—too long for most magazines and too short for book publishers. Yet the novella is a unique literary form that has been adopted by such writers as Richard Ford, Eudora Welty, and Jim Harrison.

In this eight week class, participants will write an entire novella from start to finish (eight plus pages per week) and share their pages in progress with fellow novella slaves during weekly discussions. By the end of the class, each participant will have completed a first draft to review and revise and will be rewarded with their very own Certificate of Adoption.

Prerequisites: Sound knowledge of technique (i.e. character, point of view, setting, dialogue, etc.) For first class, please read and bring to class “Jealous” from Richard Ford’s Women with Men. Be ready to discuss and develop aspects of plot and character for you own novella. Those wishing to may participate in a special reading of their work at class end in the Verb Café.

The Novel—How the Heck do I get Started?

• #F3126
• Instructor: Lois Gresh [ bio ]
• Eight Wednesdays, starting September 25, 7–9 pm
• $121 W&B Members/$146 General Public
• Limit: 12

You’re well into your novel and you’re wondering how it’s going.

This workshop is designed to determine exactly how it’s going, what needs fixing, and what doesn’t. It will address all the novel elements, and your level of expertise concerning those elements. Conflict, motivation and pesky subplots will also be discussed.

At least fifty pages of your novel will be scrutinized during the workshop. The goal is to have the first three chapters spit-shined and ready to submit by the end of the workshop.

Short Shorts: or, How to Write War and Peace in Three Paragraphs

• #F3124
• Instructor: Len Messineo [ bio ]
• Eight Thursdays, starting September 19, 6:30–8:30
• $121 W&B Members/$146 General Public
• Limit: 15

Increasingly literary and general interest magazines are calling for short-short fiction, also called micro, fast, quick, furious, skinny, or postcard fiction.

This eight-week class will analyze successful models of short-short fiction, how they use traditional elements of story writing (plot, character development, conflict, etc.). The larger part of the class will be dedicated to discussing ways you can improve your manuscripts using sound story writing principles and practices to make your work highly publishable.

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