Getting To Know Your Novel Online Course Feb-Mar 2021

Online Course Info:

Finishing the first draft of your novel is a herculean effort, for sure. But when you’re finished a draft, your relationship with your novel is really just beginning.

Before you dive into revision, use this workshop and the guidance of Sarah Aronson to deepen your understanding of the pillars of novel construction. Then apply that knowledge with her guidance to begin revising, deepening your relationship with your own characters, plot, setting, and more as you work.

Finally, continue your revision with invaluable critique, feedback, and support from your accountability partner, Sarah, and our guest faculty.

The strengthened relationship you develop with your novel over the course of this workshop will better position you to complete revisions effectively and bring the book to market.

Online Workshop Participant Cap:

18 students.

What You’ll Learn & Experience:

This 8-week intensive features LIVE lectures, writing exercises, and multiple opportunities for feedback on your work-in-progress.

This course provides a unique opportunity to improve your novel through multiple feedback perspectives:

• Partner feedback: You and your partner will share as much feedback as you want on up to 50 pages of your draft.
• Guest Reader feedback: One of our workshop Readers, all published authors, will give you written feedback on up to 30 pages of your draft.
• Revision time: During weeks 7 and 8, you will have time to make revisions on your draft.
• Faculty feedback: After you’ve made revisions, lead faculty Sarah Aronson will read and give you feedback on your cover letter, synopsis and 10 pages of your draft.

During the 8-week course you will:

• Join weekly sessions LIVE (or watch recorded sessions at your own pace.)
• Participate in online discussions (Sarah will facilitate and respond to questions.)
• Complete writing exercises for use both inside and outside your work-in-progress.
• Receive multiple perspectives of feedback.
• Have time to make suggested revisions before submitting for more feedback.

Sarah will check in with each student via email weekly, to answer questions and give direction.

Scroll down to see a more detailed agenda.

Please note:
If you’re unable for any reason to attend either session, you’ll have access to the recordings of each through May 15, 2021.

Join Us If:

• You have a complete or near-complete novel draft. You’ll get the most out of this workshop if you’re at this stage. You need to be ready to workshop it in earnest, and eager to get it ready for agents/publishers.
• You’re willing to work! This program is best for those who will dedicate time and attention to the writing exercises and their critique submission.
• You want mentor and peer support to bring out the best in yourself and your novel. If you’re intimidated by critiques, it’s ok! Sarah and her team are generous, warm, and effective.

Watch a short video where Sarah talks about the difference between this course and her Whole Novel course, which will be held later this year:

Preliminary Agenda:

Week 1: What is your novel about?
A discussion about THEME and what YOU bring to your novel.
LIVE, February 9
12:30pm Eastern, Introductions
1pm Eastern, Live lecture; plus writing exercises

Week 2: Main Characters and Plot
LIVE, February 16, 1pm Eastern; plus writing exercises

Week 3: Secondary Characters take Center Stage

LIVE, February 23, 1pm Eastern; plus writing exercises

Week 4: Focusing on Scene Work: Flashbacks, Prologue, Action, and Incredible Endings

LIVE, March 2, 1pm Eastern; plus writing exercises
March 3: Submissions due for guest faculty (first 3 chapters or 30 pages) 

Week 5: Editor “Office Hour” and Editor Lecture
LIVE, March 9, 1pm Eastern, craft session with editorial guest, Kat Brzozowski

LIVE Office Hour, March 11, 1pm Eastern, come with all of your business and craft questions for our editorial guest, Kat Brzozowski

Week 6: NO LIVE LECTURE 
March 12-19

LIVE, March 16, 1pm Eastern, Brainstorming session with Sarah: Bring ideas & questions

*This week you will receive written feedback from guest reviewer and are encouraged to schedule a meeting with your accountability partner. 

Week 7: Revision Panel
LIVE, March 23, 1pm Eastern; revisions encouraged

Week 8: Final Q & A with Sarah
LIVE, March 30, 1pm Eastern; revisions encouraged
Submission details offered for revised first 10 pages and synopsis to Sarah

To come: final meetings with Sarah to look at revised opening and synopsis.

Resources

8 Articles to Help You Write a Kidlit Novel
Podcast: Sarah Aronson talks about getting to know your novel and Rube Goldberg
Faculty Interview: Sarah Aronson
Listen for Stories
Eulogy Virtues

Testimonials

“This is by far the most supportive and professional workshop I’ve ever been to – I felt nurtured and more than achieved my goals.”

“Sarah’s warmth, generosity, responsiveness, and great insights made this class one of the most outstanding I have ever taken. She set not only the structure but most importantly the tone that made this workshop so successful from its online beginning to its in-person culmination.”

“Sarah is a thoughtful teacher who is generous with her time. She truly cares about her students!”

Who, What, When, Where and Why:

Who should take this course?

• You’ve started writing a new novel. Even if you’ve previously written a novel, the course will provide support for your new project.
• You have something tangible to work with. If you have a draft, a half-draft, a character that you know you want to write about, you can use the exercises and lectures to help you brainstorm and find more elements of your novel.
• You’re halfway through a manuscript and you are stuck. This course has exercises for that! Sometimes writer’s block is not actually a block. It’s actually your novel telling you to start digging, to look further down the road, to think bigger. Maybe it’s telling you that you’re too busy and to relax a little bit. Whatever it is, this course will help you figure it out and get to the end.
• You want feedback on your work. Critique friends and partners are the answer to your uncertainty about your writing. Learning to trust others is one of the most important skills an author can have. This course provides multiple feedback perspectives.

What is this course about?

• Getting to know your novel on a deeper level, digging and exploring about what your novel COULD be and getting to know all the aspects of novel writing.
• Talking with a group about the craft of writing, diving into character, secondary characters, plot, sub-plot, scene, setting, dialogue, voice. It’s helpful to work with people on these topics.
• How to step back from your draft and think about what you want to say, why you want to say it, who you are in that story and what your characters have to offer.
• Exploring every aspect of craft as it applies to the novel.
• Discussing, doing writing exercises and brainstorming to help each other.

When and Where does this course take place?

• It’s an online course, so you can attend from anywhere!
• The course runs over 8 weeks, from February 9 to March 30.
• LIVE Zoom lectures and discussions are on Tuesdays at 1 pm Eastern, but everything is recorded and you can watch them when it’s most convenient for your schedule.

Why should you take this course?

• Sometimes when you’re writing novels, you need help from someone else. You need guidance to help articulate what you want to say, to get you away from the words on the page and back into the inspiration and intuition that brought you there to begin with.
• Your faculty leaders have all written and revised novels. They know what your process feels like—and they know how to move through the process, too.
• Our editor special guest can give you some insight about how they choose books, how they work with authors and motivate you to make your work better.
• This past year of uncertainty has been challenging for creatives. When there’s something to fear, it’s very hard to focus on creativity. As Sarah says, “In this class, we can help each other feel safe and get back on track.