Crafting Your Short Story or Novel

If you want to write short stories or novels, or develop your storytelling skills, this course will guide you from a blank page to THE END.

Your instructor brings over two decades of experience as a publishing house employee and as a published writer. By the end of the course, you should have completed a work of short fiction or a first novel chapter. (No class 10/9).

Topics covered include:

• Shaping raw materials, or even a single idea, into a story 
• Three methods for generating a story from nothing
• Plotting and improvisation 
• Genre fiction fundamentals 
• Character development
• Case study: "That Room" by Tobias Wolff
• Finding your beginning and ending
• Writing the first draft 
• Simple editing tips 
• Formatting a professional manuscript and cover letter 
• Publishing your work