Writing the Speculative Novel 4-Week Online Workshop, Starts Monday, May 5th, 2025
Class Starts Monday, May 5th, 2025
Now Enrolling
**This Class is Open to All Writers**
Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.
Led by Holly Lyn Walrath, a writer, editor, and publisher. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Analog, and Flash Fiction Online. She is the author of several books of poetry including Glimmerglass Girl (2018), Numinose Lapidi (2020), and The Smallest of Bones (2021). She holds a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. In 2019, she launched Interstellar Flight Press, an indie SFF publisher dedicated to publishing underrepresented genres and voices.
Learn how to write (and finish) a speculative novel from outlining to revising to submissions.
Learn tips from a freelance editor who has worked with successful speculative writers to edit their books to perfection. With over ten years of experience in editing both self-published and big fiver writers, I know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to longform writing.
In this class, we’ll explore techniques for outlining, critiquing, and revising the speculative novel. Learn how to create your own outline that you can re-use for future projects. Learn how to take on revision from the big picture to nitty gritty proofreading.
Craft your book so that it has the best possible chance to get published!
COURSE OUTLINE:
Week 1: From Idea to Story: Taking an idea from a spark to a fully realized concept
Week 2: Outlining Techniques: Creating your personal outlining method that you can use over and over again
Week 3: Critique, Editing, and Revision: How to self-revise a novel
Week 4: Submissions, Agents, and Editors: Crafting a query letter, synopsis, and pitching your book for publication
- Learn how to take an idea from a spark to a fully-realized concept
- Learn different outlining techniques and create your own outlining method
- Explore how to revise a speculative novel from big-picture to line-level edits
- Craft a query letter and synopsis
ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
This class is asynchronous, meaning you complete the weekly assignments on your own schedule. There are no set meeting times in order to allow for greater participation; your cohort will consist of writers from across different time zones, which allows for a wonderful diversity of voices.
Along with your weekly deadlines, there is plenty of interaction with Holly and your peers within Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. Students also post work and provide and receive feedback within the online classroom environment.
You can finish the work as you see fit week-to-week, which is perfect for any schedule. There are discussion questions each week inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever is most compelling and/or useful for them. Holly engages with these discussions throughout the week, and you will receive feedback from all assigned writing activities.
HOW DOES WET INK WORK?
Wet Ink was built and designed specifically for online writing classes. Wet Ink is private, easy to use, and very interactive. You can learn more about the Wet Ink platform by Watching a Class Demo.
ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
- Instructor: Holly Lyn Walrath
- Class is capped at 12 writers
- Starts Monday, May 5th, 2025
- Course is fully ONLINE; students can work according to their own schedule within weekly deadlines. Once you have enrolled the instructor will send you a link to our online classroom, provided via Wet Ink.
Instructor Holly Lyn Walrath is a freelance editor based out of Houston, Texas. She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Analog, Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, and in the Other Terrors anthology from the Horror Writer's Association, among many more publications. Holly is the author of the collection The Smallest of Bones, published by Clash Books in 2021 and Glimmerglass Girl, winner of the SFPA Elgin Award. She is the managing editor of Interstellar Flight Press, an indie press for underrepresented voices and genres. Visit Holly's website here.