ENGL 4375: Novel Writing Workshop
In this workshop, we expand upon the some of the individual elements of a typical fiction workshop—like character, conflict, setting, mood, voice, time, and theme—and work toward writing the broader, more extensive narrative of the novel. We won’t try write an entire novel in a single semester, but we’ll help you develop your idea, start you writing, and get you well on your way.
We begin by discussing how to approach ideas and discuss how novels differ from short stories and other media (like films, plays, television shows, and serial podcasts). Then you’ll settle on your own novel project. You’re encouraged and welcome to bring into the course your own plans for a novel, maybe that one special book idea that’s been calling to you to be written since your sophomore year of high school, but if you don’t know what you want to write yet, or you can’t decide, we’ll help with that.
Your writing work for this course will take shape in three primary ways:
) You’ll structure an outline for your novel.
) You’ll write three chapters of your novel throughout the semester, sharing and workshopping them with others in the class to gain feedback and insight.
) As a class, we’ll look at three different novels from published authors to see “how they did it.” We’ll also do our best to set up Q&A sessions with a few of these authors or others.
As in all workshops at UIW, you’ll also learn best practices for providing constructive and productive feedback in a supportive setting, all while being a part of a strong creative community with other new novelists. We’ll end the course with a discussion on avenues for possible publication for your book.