How to Write a Novel: Writing the Draft

Description

In this course, you will learn:

• Character elements that are multi-dimensional and complicated.
• How to write dramatic dialogue that is believable.
• Techniques for dealing with intricate plots.
• The requirement of strong emotional stakes at all levels, from scene to tale.
• Techniques for seeing your draught through to the end

Syllabus:

1. Introduction to the course.
2. Ways to structure and organize your writing time.
3. Point of view: from whose perspective will the reader experience the story? Each comes with its advantages and disadvantages.
4. Types of prose and their uses.
5. Voice: a strong, consistent stylistic quality that permeates your writing.
6. Beginnings. The first sentence, first paragraph, and first page.
7. Active and Passive Characters. How to give a character more agency.
8. Character Complexity and Conflict. Internal, interpersonal, and societal antagonisms help build complex and fully realized characters.
9. Tension in Scene.
10. Backstory and Flashbacks.
11. What is the function of dialogue in fiction?
12. How dialogue differs from everyday speech?
13. What dialogue should never do?
14. What are the hallmarks of great dialogue?
15. How to work with subtext.
16. Exploring the depths of your character: what is spoken, what is unspoken, and what is unspeakable.
17. How to format dialogue and work with dialogue tags.
18. The evolving outline. What to do when you start to stray from your initial outline.
19. Troubleshooting Structural Problems.
20. Troubleshooting plot in five popular fiction genres (literary, speculative, crime, historical, and romance).
21. Endings. How to navigate through writing an effective ending.
22. Why do research? What can research bring to different types of fiction writing?
23. When to do research.
24. What should you research?
25. How do you best incorporate research?
26. Case studies. Historical Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Crime Fiction, and Socio-Political fiction.
27. The ethics of research.
28. Writing about yourself and your family.
29. Blind Alleys. How to identify and back out of them.
30. Procrastination and Hitting the Wall. Ways to combat these mental blocks
31. Grappling with Theme.
32. Dos and don'ts.