NVL 199 W — Plot and Structure: Novel Workshop for Manuscripts in Progress
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Ron Nyren
Date(s): Jun 24—Aug 26
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1000
Refund Deadline: Jun 26
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Summer
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jun 24—Aug 26
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1000
Refund Deadline: Jun 26
Instructor(s): Ron Nyren
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
A beautifully constructed book never happens by accident. Bringing a novel to fruition requires a combination of creative improvisation and strategic planning. Whether you are juggling points of view, trying to link stories, or stuck in the marshy middle of your novel, this course offers concrete tools for shaping your narrative. Topics we will explore include plot and subplot, sequencing, and the handling of time and backstory. In-class writing exercises and close reading of novels by Kaliane Bradley and Rita Bullwinkel will illuminate how to place characters in meaningful predicaments. Each student may submit up to three selections from a novel in progress, totaling 5,000 words, for feedback. By the end, you will have a clearer sense of your book’s unique structure and a plan for moving forward.
This course is open to anyone who has taken at least one creative writing workshop and has a novel in progress.
RON NYREN
Author
Ron Nyren’s novel The Book of Lost Light received Black Lawrence Press’s 2019 Big Moose Prize and was the finalist for the 2020 Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction. Their fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, North American Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Mississippi Review, and 100 Word Story. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, Nyren is the co-author, with Sarah Stone, of Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time (ISBN 978-1668045152)
(Required) Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot (ISBN 978-0593654125)
(Required) Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot (ISBN 978-0593654125)