Grackle image by artist Susan Idlet.
The LONG Project is a 4-5 person class for writers who have completely or nearly finished a draft book or long project, and want the whole thing read for workshop. Your peers will serve as beta readers, cheerleaders, and critics.
In the first hour we will discuss questions all the writers have, and we will have a writing prompt meant to help add scenes, ideas, and fill out a work. The second hour is reserved for workshopping. We’ll have twenty minutes of breaks/snack/lunch so those skipping out on the workday don’t return hungry, and I’ll be available to chat with during that time. Every week we will have one workshop.
Workshops may help writers seriously face problems of structure, character arcs, and forward momentum. We help reconceptualize the story that may have come out in fits and starts, with an eye for the end. We will discuss plot holes, sags in the pacing, and problems with characters who may seem one thing in the writers eyes but seem something else to early readers. Again, we will talk out problems the writers face as they iron out the flaws and problems they identified in their earlier drafts. This is a time for tightening, for writers to discover where readers find themselves most engaged, and when they lose interest or belief in the story and why. To see if the story they intended is the story that is received.
This class meets 6 or 7 times, depending on whether 4 or 5 people sign up. During the weeks of full novel workshopping, it focuses on one novel, every other week. The last class involves turning in outlines and early revisions for a new draft, and during the first class we’ll discuss outside reading, how to give each other feedback, and we’ll make a schedule for our work.
July 11, 1: 2.5 hours for schedule, how to give feedback, and introductions
July 18, 2: 2.5 hours novel workshop
Aug 1, 3: 2.5 hours novel workshop
Aug 15, 4: 2.5 hours novel workshop
Aug 29, 5: 2.5 hours novel workshop
Sept 12, 6: 2.5 hours novel workshop
At least two weeks before the first class please send me a document containing:
a) your title, the word count, and what draft this is (first, third, seventh…don’t overthink it, just tell me what you think it is)
b) genre (literary, adventure, romance, sci fi, coming of age, ya, etc, maybe a mix)
c) form (book of essays or short stories, memoir, novel, play, other…
d) audience (who you expect will enjoy and buy the book)
e) a one page summary of your work
f) your (first??) attempt at a back cover copy of your story. Back cover copy is, in essence, the descrption on the back of a book, or the inside cover, that convinces people to read the book when they pick up a copy in a bookstore. It is no longer than 200 words. The copy might include a little of your summary, or set the context for you novel, but it will lean more heavily on describing the mystery or journey readers will be engaged in while reading your book. It should have a similar tone to the way you write in the book.
COST:
This class costs more than people like to pay, and there are no coupons for this class! But it takes me 6x longer to read and to respond to than other workshops, and I am charging just twice as much. I can’t have even half the students. I promise I cannot afford to teach it for less, this is the reason there are so few manuscript workshops that read the full novel. This costs MUCH less than hiring out to have somebody read your manuscript, and you get six readers. There is a discount for people who have been taking the LONG Project classes all along because I will have read a good chunk of the work already and will be familiar with your project.
If you have not taken a previous LONG Project class, it costs $750; if your novel is longer than 350 double-spaced, 1.5 inch margins, 12 point font Times New Roman pages, it is $1 a page extra.
If you have taken a previous LONG Project class, it costs $600, plus $1 per extra page over 350.
This class will have 4 or 5 students.
Miah Arnold will facilitate this group.