Creative Writing: Write A Book, Short Story, or Novel (Level Two)

The second level of my most advanced creative writing course! In this class, each student will begin or further develop a short story or novel length work.

This course has firm prerequisites. To enroll, students MUST have:
-Completed Level One of this course-- Creative Writing: Write Your Short Story or Novel (Level One)
-Turned in a final story/portion of a story for that course on schedule; this story must been at least 10 pages, typed, double-spaced
Students who have not completed these prerequisites (even if they are advanced writers) are encouraged to take/repeat Level One so they are prepared for the level of rigor this course requires.

Using the myriad of tips and tricks I've learned from a decade of writing professionally, speaking in schools, and teaching camps/classes, I encourage students to treat writing as play-- but to also hold themselves accountable and respect their talent!

Students are encouraged to explore and develop their own voices, and can write in any genre or style they choose. They will be asked to set a goal for themselves based on their writing experience, the time they can devote to their writing, and their writing ambitions. Holding students accountable for their writing work keeps them from starting then abandoning stories-- which I think can be detrimental to creative development (think of it like training to run a marathon by only running a mile each day!).

We'll begin each class by discussing the work students have turned in the week prior. When feedback is finished, we'll cover the following topics:

Week One: We'll recap the structure of a story, discuss the three act structure as well as the fifteen "beats" of a story.
Week Two: We'll discuss beginnings-- how to hook the reader without giving away too much or too little information from the get-go.
Week Three: We'll discuss navigating the "inbetween" scenes-- the moments that come between the biggest plot points.
Week Four: We'll discuss writing big character moments-- like grief, love, and pain.
Week Five: We'll discuss indirect and direct world-building for fantasy, realistic fiction, and everything inbetween.
Week Six: This is an open week, where individual student questions and concerns about their writing can be addressed. In this class, each student will submit a two page sample of their writing for the peer review in week seven.
Week Seven: Students will split into breakout rooms to provide peer review; each student will be responsible for reviewing the work of one to two classmates prior to this meeting.
Week Eight: Our final week! We'll go through each individual writer's work and discuss their strengths, as well as the areas where they could continue to grow.

Students are asked to turn in their writing progress each week, at least twenty-four hours before the following class. If work isn't turned in by the deadline, I won't be able to provide feedback! Students, please keep this in mind and set as many alarms/reminders as necessary so that you can get the most out of our class together.