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.

This 6-week course is for people who want to write a novel and are wondering about how best to start. 

During our time together, we’ll consider the novel comprehensively. You’ll take the pieces you have so far (maybe it’s notes, character sketches, a few chapters, or maybe it’s just an idea for a scene) and build on them to create an outline. The initial stages of writing a novel include making a lot of foundational choices about character, voice, pacing, and structure. We will make all these choices together.

This is a hybrid craft / workshop course, so the first half will be dedicated to figuring out the basics and the second half will be a workshop, for which you’ll be submitting the first few pages of your novel. If all of this seems daunting to you, then I encourage you to take the leap and sign up anyway!

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, and a clear plan for completing your novel.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE: