Year 1:
Fall: The Writing Life: Form and Theory of the Novel (OWC 101)
Winter: Novel I: The Powerful Beginning (OWC 303)
Spring: Novel II: Plot and Structure (OWC 304)
Summer Break or elective*
Year 2:
Fall: Novel III: Subtext, Theme, and Language (OWC 305)
Winter: Novel IV: Manuscript Completion and Revision (OWC 306)
One-on-One Tutorial
OWC 310 - This option is not required to receive the certificate, and is available for one calendar year after completing Novel IV.
*Students must complete one elective drawn from the open-enrollment Continuing Studies creative writing courses. The elective may be taken during the Summer break, concurrent with any Novel Writing Certificate courses, or up to a year after Novel IV. Examples of electives include Poetry, Memoir, and courses focused on specific genres or craft elements.
Curriculum Overview
The Novel Certificate Program guides writers through the full arc of developing a novel. The sequence begins with an introductory course, The Writing Life, followed by four Novel workshops that support students as they draft and revise their manuscripts.
In The Writing Life, students explore the fundamentals of novel design by reading published novels alongside selected craft texts while responding to generative prompts and sharing excerpts from works in progress. The course helps writers clarify the project they want to pursue and prepares them for the workshop-centered Novel sequence.
Novel 1–4 focus on sustained progress on a full-length manuscript, as students generate new pages, share them in workshops, and receive detailed feedback from both the instructor and their peers. Each course highlights craft questions that arise at different stages of a novel, from beginning to end. Discussion of published novels and respected craft texts help illuminate how experienced authors handle challenges of structure, character, pacing, and thematic development.
In the first four courses, students can expect to submit a total of 6,000 to 7,500 words per quarter for feedback from both the instructor and their peers. In Novel 4, students workshop 10,000 to 12,000 words, allowing for sustained engagement with a longer section of the manuscript.
Students aiming to complete a full novel during the two-year sequence should continue drafting new chapters between workshop submissions, using deadlines as milestones while steadily building the manuscript toward completion. Most published novels are between 70,000 and 85,000 words. Reaching that length will require sustained drafting beyond what is submitted for workshop.
Many instructors incorporate writing sprints, optional residencies, or other forms of structured writing time to help students maintain momentum, sustain a regular writing practice, and move consistently toward their goals.
Elective
Learning how to write a novel requires a varied skill set, so students in the certificate program must complete one elective to expand their narrative capacities. This elective should focus on a particular genre or craft element in which you would like to take a deeper dive.
Electives may be selected from the regular open-enrollment Continuing Studies creative writing course offerings, either online or on campus, and must be taken for a letter grade. Each quarter, students will receive a list of upcoming courses that satisfy
this requirement.
- If you have rich characters but find plot challenging, a short story course could help you to work on heightening conflict in scenes with a stronger sense of causality.
- A poetry course would allow a quicker, more plot-driven writer to slow down and work on developing a quality of imagery and theme leading to more resonant work.
- A screenwriting class could be beneficial for authors who struggle with dialogue.
- There are also craft-specific offerings including courses on POV, character, plot, description, and dialogue.
You may or may not be able to work directly on your novel in this course, but it will make you a better artist, and you will bring that artistry back to your novel.
Courses taken through Stanford Continuing Studies within the past five years may be applied toward this requirement, subject to the program director’s approval. Continuing Studies does not accept transfer credits; therefore, courses taken outside of this program (including at Stanford) will not meet the elective requirement.
One-on-One Tutorial (OWC 310)
The One-on-One Tutorial is an an option only available to Certificate students who wish to work intensively with an instructor for ten weeks on revision of a full manuscript.
Before the quarter begins, the instructor will read the student’s entire novel draft and provide a developmental edit letter. Each instructor-student pair will establish the goals of the tutorial and create a schedule of revision deadlines for the quarter. During the term, the student will have the opportunity to revise up to 100 pages for feedback, accompanied by scheduled meetings to discuss their progress.
Students are invited to indicate instructor preferences, and we make every effort to honor those preferences. Pairings are never finalized without the student’s full approval.
Tuition for the One-on-One Tutorial covers manuscripts up to 85,000 words. A surcharge applies for manuscripts that exceed this length.