NVL 45 W — Going the Distance: Novel Workshop for Manuscripts in Progress
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Stephanie Reents
Date(s): Jan 6—Mar 10
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1040
Refund Deadline: Jan 8
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
Writing a novel is challenging. Like a long road trip, it can also be lonely, psychologically taxing—and thrilling! The best strategy for a first draft is to put some miles beneath your wheels and discover more about your story. Whether you’re stuck in the middle or crave accountability and guidance, this course provides the structure to draft the next 70 pages of your manuscript. Generative exercises, weekly deadlines, and supportive feedback will inspire you to keep moving forward. Each week, you will submit approximately 2,000 words to your small workshop group for feedback. Twice during the term, you'll meet with your instructor, who will give oral feedback on your workshop pages. Do note: because of the quantity of writing you produce, you will not receive written feedback from the instructor, though you can request a transcript of your conferences. Weekly lectures will focus on topics such as creating drama and improbability, raising stakes, making scenes, and deepening characters.
This course is designed for students who are actively drafting their novels rather than those looking for feedback on already finished manuscripts.
STEPHANIE REENTS
Author
Stephanie Reents is the author of We Loved to Run, The Kissing List, a collection of stories that was an Editors' Choice in The New York Times Book Review, and I Meant to Kill Ye, a bibliomemoir chronicling her journey into the strange void at the heart of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. She has twice received an O. Henry Prize for her short fiction. Reents received an MFA from the University of Arizona and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Charles Baxter, The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot (ISBN 978- 1555974732)
(Required) Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (ISBN 978-0375755583)
(Required) Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (ISBN 978-0375755583)