Online Syllabus Novel Writing II. Writers Program Representatives: Nutschell Anne Windsor, (310) ; Phoebe Lim (310)

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1 Online Syllabus Novel Writing II Writers Program Representatives: Nutschell Anne Windsor, (310) ; Phoebe Lim (310) From the Writers Program Catalog: Armed with your overall concept and first chapter, you continue to develop your knowledge of craft... The goal is to complete the next 50 pages of your novel. Instructor: Robert Eversz Workshop Format and Goals The primary focus of our Novel II online workshop will be on exploring the characters and dramatic situations established in your first chapter or in the first chapter you plan to write. Every week we ll write our novels, read the pages submitted by our workshop colleagues, and give our reactions to those pages on the discussion boards. In addition to submissions by participants, I ll post lectures and writers essays every week. My most important lectures or rants will sometimes take place on the discussion boards, based on creative issues I see in material submitted by our writers. The goal for each participant will be to write 50 pages that have dramatic implications rich enough to sustain the narrative weight of a novel or novella. Some participants will decide, in consultation with the workshop, that their pages will need reworking. Rewrites can be an essential part of constructing a viable narrative trajectory for your novel. Thirty pages that serve as a template to the rest of the novel are better than 50 pages destined to lead to the bottom of a desk drawer. Though your primary goal will be to write your novel, reading and commenting on other participants work is also critically important. We learn not just from our own mistakes and achievements; in workshop we learn from the mistakes and achievements of others. Unlike most readers, writers must learn to see how a story is constructed. In addition to writing our novels, we ll learn how to identify stylistic flaws and structural problems in the work we read. Writing Requirements For the first week, you ll introduce yourself to the workshop, read and respond to the posted lecture and essay, and sign up for a date to submit your work. Your introduction will consist of a one-sentence description of your novel, sometimes called a tagline; a brief biographical statement; and your first chapter, if you ve written one. Please embed your tagline and bio in the body of the post, and attach your first chapter as an.rtf or.doc document. You ll find the guidelines in the Week 1 - Novel II Module.

2 You ll have three opportunities to present manuscript pages for critique. Your first submission will be the first chapter or the pages following your first chapter. Your second submission will be next pages of your manuscript, or a rewrite of the first pages. Your third submission will be the next pages of your manuscript. In total, you should submit between 40 and 55 pages of manuscript. Do not exceed 60 pages of submission, even if we re all raving about your work. You ll turn in your manuscript pages on the Sunday of the week you ve been scheduled to present to the workshop. Our first scheduled submission date is Sunday, July 5 th. Every week up to five writers will submit pages to the workshop via an attachment posted to the discussion board designed for the work of that week. Document Formatting and File Formats The pages of your novel you submit to the workshop will be double-spaced and in Times New Roman 12 font. As much as I encourage creativity, the formatting requirements set forth by publishers, agents, and literary journals generally mandate this format, so we may as well get in the habit now. Please save the attached material you submit in.rtf or.doc file format. Your word processing program should include this format in one of the Save As options. You should also have on your computer a program that reads.pdf files, such as the Adobe Reader. The Adobe Reader works on all computer platforms and systems. It s free to download so if you don t have it now, find and download it. Reading Requirements Each week you ll read the assigned lecture and writer s essay, and post your reactions to the relevant discussion board. If you re taking the course for credit, you must read and respond to the weekly lecture. In addition to the weekly lecture, the course features an essay on writing every week, or an interview with a writer who has published with great distinction. I don t agree with all of the essays, by the way, so feel free to engage critically with the material. Reading group members pages will be enough work that I won t require outside reading. Several books are recommended for long term reading, however. Everyone needs a good grammar and style guide. Strunk and White s The Elements of Style has long been indispensable even to the most hardened of professional writers. A fun yet excellent alternative is The Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. I recommend that participants pick up Robert Olen Butler s From Where You Dream. Other recommended books include John Gardner s On Becoming a Novelist, How Fiction Works, by James Woods, Write Away, by Elizabeth George, and Story, by Robert McKee.

3 Writers who take this workshop often continue to Novel III and IV. I suggest reading one or two craft books for each workshop. As examples of literary and cinematic form, the lectures that accompany this course work primarily with The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, Catcher in the Rye, The Road, Lord of the Rings, Million Dollar Baby, and American Beauty. I try to use more than one example to demonstrate each point but you might want to reread Gatsby and Hamlet during the academic quarter if they aren t fresh in your mind, and to download the screenplays to American Beauty and Million Dollar Baby. You can find the scripts for both films online at How To Read and Comment on a Story in Workshop I suggest you read for characterization and story flow. Do not line edit. When reading a story, pay attention to the places in the text where you re confused, lost, or you find your mind wandering. The most useful critique tells a writer where you got pulled out of a story and why. Most creative problems have multiple possible solutions. When commenting on creative issues in a story, avoid the natural urge to rewrite the story using your own ideas about the plot, style, and characters. In the jargon of the writing workshop, those who try to rewrite someone else s story are being prescriptive. Specific story and character choices are part of the writer s creative process; we don t want to meddle too deeply. Sometimes, however, we feel we must recommend a specific creative choice when commenting on a story. Always remember that the choice you recommend (which may be very helpful) is only one of many choices the writer might make. We help other writers the most when we give our reactions to a story line by line, paragraph by paragraph, and chapter by chapter, then articulate the reasons behind our reaction. If, for example, you feel confused in a scene, point out where you start to get lost, and if possible, why. Sometimes, an element in the story you re reading will strike you as being unclear or confusing but you won t be able to figure out why. That s to be expected. Note where you were confused or distracted by a story and mention it during our discussion. Sometimes we can be much better story critics collectively than we are individually. That s the genius of a good workshop. I can t tell you the number of times I ve been puzzled about why a particular story isn t working until someone in the workshop identifies something I hadn t noticed that helps me define the underlying problem. Workshop Etiquette, or Netiquette Please remember that when working together online we aren t able to rely on the vocal intonations, facial expressions, and gestures of interpersonal communication, so it s important to phrase our comments politely.

4 Critiques will be honest, reasoned, and targeted to helping other participants improve the work; the ideal critique is one that leaves the author clear-eyed about what she has written, and energized by newly seen strategies for improving her work. The brilliance of an individual critique is of far less interest to everyone than its helpfulness to the writer whose work is being discussed. A Note on Interpreting Critiques When reading the comments your colleagues have penned about your story, it's important to remember that you don't need to act on every criticism or suggestion. You ll soon identify those in the workshop who are particularly attuned to the strengths and weaknesses of your work. These are your readers, and you should pay strict attention to them. Look for common threads in the comments, and for consensus. You'll probably notice that some of the comments contradict each other. This is when paying attention to consensus helps. If a couple of readers object to something, it's a good idea to take a serious look at it. Remember, however, that the changes you make don't have to be the ones the readers recommend. Often, when an editor tells me a particular scene isn't working, I'll decide that the problem isn't in the scene but in the setup to the scene, which happened a few pages before. Also, readers may make comments about your work that best apply to what they want to see developed in future chapters, not in the chapters you've just presented. For example, someone might complain that they don't know enough about one of your secondary characters. This doesn't necessarily mean you should stop the scene to drop in a detailed passage of character exposition. Instead, you might want to developing that character a little more when she next appears on the page. Grading Criteria The grading for this course will follow criteria used in MFA programs in creative writing. Those of you taking this course for credit please be advised that I don t grade talent. Students of mine who appeared at first to be awkward writers have suddenly gotten it and subsequently gone on to publish. I can, however, evaluate effort. If you write with serious intent, submit your work on time and in good order, and participate actively on the board discussions, you need not worry about your grade. If taking this course for credit, you must read and respond to the work of your colleagues. If you re not taking this course for credit, you still must read and respond to the work of your colleagues. Don t ask others to read your work if you re not willing to read theirs. Lecture, Essay, Submission, and Discussion Schedule For the purposes of this class, our week begins on Monday morning Pacific Standard Time (PST) and ends on the following Sunday night. The creative work that you submit for the course will be due by midnight on Sunday, PST, and you ll post it to the writing

5 discussion board assigned that week. No late work will be accepted, except through prearrangement with the instructor. Please remember that if you wait until the deadline to comment on work, our discussions will be short and will likely go nowhere. Participate in the discussions no later than the weekend. Workshop Lecture & Assignment Schedule Week 1 Lecture: How to Read Like a Writer. Essays: Authors Favorite First Lines. Assignment: Introduction Statement Week 2 Lecture: Common Flaws in Literary Style. Essays: Elmore Leonard s Ten Rules for Writing Fiction, and A Response to Elmore Leonard s Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

6 As UCLA's principal provider of continuing education, the majority of UCLA Extension courses are designed for the post-baccalaureate professional-level student. Enrollment is therefore normally reserved for adult students 18 years of age and older. The Writers Program may consent to enroll younger students based on special academic competence and approval of the instructor. Minors who enroll in a Writers Program course without first receiving permission from both the department and the instructor are subject to withdrawal. To request approval, please contact the Writers Program at 310/ Academic dishonesty covers behavior in cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication of information. These behaviors are not tolerated. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the UCLA Extension Student Conduct Code and the official statements regarding cheating and plagiarism at: Also in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, UCLA Extension provides appropriate accommodations and support services to qualified applicants and students with disabilities. These include, but are not limited to, auxiliary aids/services, such as note takers, audiotaping of courses, sign language interpreters, and assistive-listening devices for hearing-impaired individuals, extended time for and proctoring of exams, and registration assistance. Accommodations and types of support services vary and are specifically designed to meet the disability-related needs of each stude3nt based on current, verifiable medical documentation. Arrangements for auxiliary aids/services are available only through UCLA Extension Disabled Student Services at (310) (voice/tty) or by at access@uclaextension.edu. Please request such arrangements with at least five working days advance notice. All assistance is handled in confidence. Accommodations must be pre-approved. Requests for retroactive accommodation will not be accepted. Note to students: While this syllabus is posted to give you an overview of the course, it is subject to change. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Writers Program at (310) or via at writers@uclaextension.edu. We are happy to answer any questions and to help you find the best class to achieve your writing goals.

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8 Week 3 Lecture: The First Chapter: The Inciting Incident Essays: The Importance of Place **A copy of the complete syllabus will be available to enrolled students when the course begins.**