*This course includes a series of 8 Weekly Video Modules as well as a Live Weekly Zoom Meeting.
**Once the class starts the weekly Zoom meeting will be determined by what time slot works best for the group.
Led by C. S. (Susanne) Lakin, award-winning novelist and writing coach, freelance book copyeditor, and workshop instructor. Lakin is the also the author of the popular nonfiction series of books in The Writer’s Toolbox—aimed to help writers of fiction and nonfiction master their craft.
8 Weeks to Writing a Commercially Successful Novel
Get ready for an 8-week deep dive into the 8 essential elements that will help you write commercially successful novels.
This unique method of scene analysis, revision technique, and nailing genre will fast track you to success when you apply them to your book.
Fiction writers need to go beyond the obvious: compelling characters, masterful writing that nails genre, scenes that “show, don’t tell,” an engaging (preferably riveting) story, and meaningful conflict that creates tension.
Hugely successful books have specific elements that set them apart and cause them to rise to the top of the pile and get readers enthusiastically telling their friends to read them.
While there are plenty more elements that novelists must master—a cast of great characters, masterful plot and structure, for example—the 8 specific elements we are going to dive deep into are often ignored or minimized. Yet, if writers nail these brilliantly, their novel will stand high above the masses published every day.
COURSE OUTLINE:
Week 1: High Moment and Character Change
Week 2: Microtension
Week 3: Deep POV
Week 4: Sensory Detail
Week 5: Emotional Manipulation
Week 6: Backstory and High Stakes
Week 7: Dynamic Dialogue
Week 8: Wrap-up!
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
The focus of this 8-week course is on scene structure because scenes make or break your novel. Though we will be discussing the big picture of your novel’s structure, this is not a course centered on teaching you how to plot a story.
The techniques and exercises are meant for a range of writers -- from beginners to seasoned writers with books under their belt.
During these 8 weeks you will learn what it takes to write purposeful scenes that are carefully constructed to accomplish the important work of advancing your plot. You'll also learn how to create and build meaningful tension, revealing crucial character bits, and manipulating your readers’ emotions so they will feel what you want them to feel.
1) High Moment and Character Change: You have to know the specific purpose of your scene, build to a key moment at the end (last lines) of your scene, which creates change in your character.
2) Microtension on every page. All points to the secrets and twists to come. What are you not saying simmers under the surface of your scenes. This will make or break your story. Discussion of critical action-reaction cycle.
3) Nuances of deep POV, including unique voices for every character. It's important to establish character mood, mind-set, and motivation right from the start.
4) Sensory detail. Going beyond five senses, using specific wording to set mood and tone for the scene. What the character processes through her senses should reveal important things about her and not merely convey information.
5) Emotional manipulation—you must know how you want your readers to feel and how to get them there. And you need to masterfully learn how to show emotion in three key ways.
6) High Stakes! High, believable personal and public stakes that ramp up to the climax.
7) Purposeful backstory in the right amounts and the right places.
8) Tight, distilled dialogue. It makes or break a scene. We'll look at "on the nose" dialogue and discuss dialogue mechanics. Characters rarely say what they mean, but what they need seeps through.