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Winter Registration Opens Dec 02
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OWC 303 D — Novel I: The Powerful Beginning

Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Malena Watrous
Duration: 10 weeks
Location: Online
Date(s): Jan 16—Mar 20
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1240
   
Refund Deadline: Jan 19
 
Unit(s): 2
   
Enrollment Limit: 15
  
Status: Registration opens Dec 2, 8:30 am (PT)
 
Quarter: Winter
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 16—Mar 20
Unit(s): 2
Location: Online
 
Tuition: $1240
 
Refund Deadline: Jan 19
 
Instructor(s): Malena Watrous
 
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
 
Enrollment Limit: 15
 
Recording Available: Yes
 
Status: Registration opens Dec 2, 8:30 am (PT)
 
This course is not open to the public, but rather by admission only. For more information on the Online Writing Certificate Program and its application process, please click here.

The beginning of a novel is crucial: establishing a contract with the reader, raising narrative questions, setting the tone and mood of the book, and, of course, introducing the main characters. We will begin by making sure that your novel starts in the right place, with a conflict compelling enough to reveal who these people are, and to ensure that they are making meaningful choices that lead to dramatic action. The challenges that our characters face up front help us to know who they are at the beginning of a book, and also set up expectations for how they might change by the end. Students will spend time thinking about the trajectory they envision not only for their protagonists but also for the secondary characters, and discussing issues related to characterization, such as point of view, dialogue, and voice. In this course, everyone will write and workshop an opening section of up to 5000 words.

MALENA WATROUS
Writing Certificate Lead and Creative Writing Coordinator, Stanford Continuing Studies

Malena Watrous is the author of the novel If You Follow Me and co-author of the novel Sparked and the cookbooks My Mexico City Kitchen and Scandinavian from Scratch. She has contributed to The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Watrous was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow.

Textbooks for this course:

(Required) Danzy Senna, Colored Television (ISBN 978-0593854952)