NVL 58 — Beyond Chapter One: Novel Workshop
Quarter: Fall
Instructor(s): Brittany Ackerman
Date(s): Sep 24—Dec 3
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Class Meeting Time: 6:30—9:00 pm (PT)
Please Note: No class on November 26
Tuition: $1040
Refund Deadline: Sep 26
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Fall
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 6:30—9:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Sep 24—Dec 3
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1040
Refund Deadline: Sep 26
Instructor(s): Brittany Ackerman
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
Please Note: No class on November 26
Once a novel is underway, new craft challenges emerge. After the story launches, authors must sustain narrative momentum, manage subplots, deepen character arcs, and shape the larger architecture of the story. Whether you're 20 or 200 pages into your novel, this course will help you tackle these challenges with new skills and instill the confidence to keep moving forward.
Our discussions will focus on the demands of long-form fiction, including pacing, character development, point of view, and plot. Each student will workshop up to 5,000 words for constructive feedback from both peers and the instructor. We’ll also read brief selections from contemporary novels by Adam Ross, Rachel Kushner, David Szalay, and others, examining how writers construct scenes, build tension across chapters, manage subplots, and balance narrative scope with intimate detail. You’ll leave with a stronger sense of your novel’s direction, clear revision strategies, and techniques to get to your novel’s surprising yet inevitable ending.
Our discussions will focus on the demands of long-form fiction, including pacing, character development, point of view, and plot. Each student will workshop up to 5,000 words for constructive feedback from both peers and the instructor. We’ll also read brief selections from contemporary novels by Adam Ross, Rachel Kushner, David Szalay, and others, examining how writers construct scenes, build tension across chapters, manage subplots, and balance narrative scope with intimate detail. You’ll leave with a stronger sense of your novel’s direction, clear revision strategies, and techniques to get to your novel’s surprising yet inevitable ending.
BRITTANY ACKERMAN
Author
Brittany Ackerman has led workshops for UCLA Extension, The Porch, HerStry, Write or Die, and Lighthouse Writers. She is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work has been featured in the Jewish Book Council, The Sun, MUTHA, Literary Hub, The Los Angeles Review, and Joyland. Her first essay collection is The Perpetual Motion Machine, and her debut novel is The Brittanys. She writes "Taking the Stairs" on Substack. Ackerman received an MFA in creative writing from Florida Atlantic. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.