Led by Swan Huntley, the author of the novels Getting Clean With Stevie Green, The Goddesses, We Could Be Beautiful, and I Want You More. She is also the writer and illustrator of the journal-style mini-tomes The Bad Mood Book and You’re Grounded. Swan earned an MFA at Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo, where she was the 2019 recipient of The LeSage-Fullilove Residency. She lives in Los Angeles.

Who is this class for?

This online fiction writing workshop is for writers at all levels who want to write a novel and are wondering how best to start. Bring whatever you have so far — notes, character sketches, a few chapters, or just an idea for a scene. If the whole thing seems daunting, that is exactly the reason to take the leap and sign up.

What to expect:

Over six weeks, we'll consider the novel comprehensively. You'll take the pieces you already have and build on them to create an outline you can actually work from. The initial stages of writing a novel involve making a lot of foundational choices — about character, voice, pacing, and structure — and in this creative writing workshop we will make all of those choices together, week by week, with the whole group thinking alongside you.

This is a hybrid craft and workshop course. The first half is dedicated to figuring out the basics: who your main character is and what they want, what point of view the story is told in, how many narrators it needs, what each character sounds like, and how time moves across the span of the book. The second half is a live Zoom writing workshop, for which you'll submit the first few pages of your novel.

By the time we reach the workshop weeks, everyone in the room will have a clear sense of what each writer is trying to achieve, which makes the feedback genuinely useful rather than generic. We'll talk about how to give good feedback before we begin — knowing how to give it is just as valuable as knowing how to receive it — and about the importance of building a writing community that lasts after the class ends.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will produce a working outline of their novel and draft the opening pages of the manuscript. You'll write out a full list of your characters with identifying details, draft the basic plot in one to two paragraphs and then refine and expand it, write sample lines of dialogue for each character, and complete one to five pages of finished novel prose. Those pages are submitted for workshop during Weeks 4, 5, and 6, where you'll receive live verbal feedback from Swan and from your fellow writers.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Character + Story

In the first class, we'll introduce ourselves and talk about where we are in the process of writing our novels. I've found it's helpful to hear about how other people have been thinking about the task of completing a book, and what's been keeping them from doing it. Then we'll answer these questions: 1. Who is the main character in your story and what do they want? 2. What do you know about your story so far?

Assignment: 1. Write out a list of your characters, starting with the protagonist and working your way to the most minor character. Include identifying characteristics (age, job, physical description, etc.) as well as any other information that seems important. 2. Write out the basic plot of your novel in 1-2 paragraphs.

Week 2: POV + Dialogue

We'll start by going over the homework and then we will answer these questions: 1. What is the POV? First, second, third-person? Why have you made this choice? 2. How many narrators are telling this story? Why? 3. What does your main character sound like? Is this different from how the other characters sound? (I will ask you to write out a few lines of dialogue for each of your characters.)

Assignment: Refine and expand your plot.

Week 3: Time & Structure

After going over our homework, we will answer these questions: What is the time span of your novel? Why? How is time broken up within this span? Are you using a 3-Act structure? A 5-Act? Neither?

Assignment: Write the first few pages of your novel. Just one page is fine. Five pages is the max. Yes, the time I am giving you is enough time to do this, I promise.

Weeks 4, 5, and 6: Workshops

By this point, we'll all have a good sense of what each of our fellow students is hoping to achieve in their novel, so we can give super-thoughtful feedback. Knowing how to give feedback, I've learned, is just as helpful as knowing how to receive it. We'll talk about that before we start workshopping, and about the importance of having a writing community, which will be helpful once the class is over.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• An outline of your novel
  
• The first few pages of your manuscript, workshopped by your instructor and peers
  
• A clear plan for completing your novel
  

Praise for Swan:

"Swan Huntley has an incredible knack for asking exactly the right questions to help bring clarity to the process of novel writing, and her expertise is so impressive and invaluable to a beginner (or any level) writer. This course genuinely helped me become a better writer, which is invaluable." -former student

“Huntley is adept at deploying Catherine’s good fortune as a fulcrum of suspense… Huntley deftly establishes Catherine’s tendency to rationalize and repress… Lively… Huntley writes with wit and verve, excelling at economically hilarious descriptions… The book’s strengths lie… in the zippy social satire, in the portrait of a dysfunctional family (Catherine’s relationship with her sister turns out to be especially affecting) and, most of all, in Catherine’s voice–strange and funny and engaging to the very end.” 
—Jennifer DuBois, The New York Times Book Review
 
“Here’s a thriller we can sink into. Deeply psychological and nuanced, Huntley’s We Could Be Beautiful follows one wealthy Manhattan woman who has nearly everything. The one thing she lacks, however, is a relationship. That is, until her white knight comes along one evening. But it never quite works out that way, does it? (Not in a book like this, certainly.) Huntley’s novel is a twisting, turning, secret-filled story that’s worthy of your precious summer reading time.”
—Meredith Turits, Elle
 
“A novel that is deeper than its heiress-meets-man-of-her-dreams setup. The reason: Huntley’s uncanny ability to detect the fault lines in Manhattan’s glitterati as if flaws in a precious diamond—and make us laugh about them.”
—O Magazine
 
“A riveting psychological thriller, Huntley’s debut takes you inside the world of Manhattan’s elite—and keeps you on tenterhooks.”
—People, “Book of the Week”
 
“A sparkling dark romance… Huntley strings you blissfully along (like a great con man)…right up until that epic twist.”
—Redbook
 
“Quite the psychological thriller that keeps readers on edge wondering how far Catherine will go and how much she’ll sacrifice for the truth… Brilliantly exposes the life of an affluent family and what greed, lies and wealth can do to them.”
—Amanda Douville, New York Daily News
 
“Posh Manhattanite Catherine West has everything but the family she’s always wanted. But when she falls for the man of her supposed dreams, she unravels a web of deception that upends life as she knows it… Mesmerizing… As elegantly plotted as it is—and it is—Huntley’s debut stands out not for its thrills but rather for her hawkish eye for social detail and razor-sharp wit. It is more than a classic psychological thriller: it is also a haunting—and weirdly moving—portrait of love and family among Manhattan’s flailing upper crust. An intoxicating escape; as smart as it is fun.”
—Kirkus (STARRED REVIEW)

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $445 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Swan Huntley
  
• Begins Wednesday, February 18th, 2026
  
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom for 90 minutes on Wednesdays, 8:30 PM - 10:00 PM ET
  
• Tuition is $445 USD.