4 Weeks to Develop Your Novel
Develop or rewrite a manuscript an agent will love
Unlock your mystery, suspense thriller, or horror work!
In this class you'll learn to:
This four week class is designed to help students develop their manuscripts the way professionals do: from the seed of an idea, to bullet-proof outline, to high quality first chapters. Participating writers learn genre-specific craft tools, how to write memorable characters, the secrets of a solid mystery, suspense, or horror structure, and how to create a suspenseful, thrilling work.
Build on your killer concept
Write a strong, suspenseful road map--and how to revise it
Create compelling characters and strengthen relationship dynamics
Use pacing, escalations, and obstacles to create tension and thrills
Exploit plot twists, reveals, and POV to build suspense
Learn how to tap into your fears and delve into the shocking and grotesque
Develop your own style, tone, and voice
Receive individualized feedback from a bestselling novelist and publishing professional
Learn how to successfully apply screenwriting techniques to your novel from instructors who are also TV and film professionals
4 Week Lesson Plan
Crack your outline and first chapters in a month
00
Pre-homework
In the pre-homework we revisit your characters, world, central situation, theme, and killer premise from 5 days to a Killer Concept. You flesh out the core elements of your story in preparation for sketching the story's initial beats.
01
Character in crisis
In this first week we continue to build your characters, the foundation of any great novel. Who wants what and what will they do to get it? We delve deep into the emotional backstory of your protagonist to understand their motivation in a visceral way. You also start to sketch your character arcs.
02
Outline for Character: Strong conflict, strong concept
As you continue to develop your characters and their arcs, we put your protagonist and antagonist in the crucible, road test their motivations for strong conflict, and ensure you have the necessary stakes to create a thrilling story. We also help you solidify your concept.
03
Outline for Plot: Situations, escalations, obstacles, reveals
Genre novels must have strong plots. In the second half of the outlining lesson, we put your plotting under a microscope. And do some intensive scene work.
04
Find Your Voice
As you begin the first 20 pp of your book, we dig deep into your personal connection to your work and revisit some fundamental tools of the craft to ensure that your work has a strong sense of style, tone, and voice.
Get your spot today for the January class! Seats limited.
Our product is best in class and we stand behind its quality. This course includes:
Run as a regular class. Weekly zoom sessions with instructors.
Personalized feedback: Reads of your assignments, outline, and up to first twenty pages with notes.
Downloadable resources
Optional on-demand video for missed sessions
Examples drawn from successfully published mystery, thrillers, and horror works that students can use as references throughout their writing process
Membership on private Facebook page
Talks with special guests
SPECIAL DEAL: Take both 5 Days to a Killer Concept and 4 Weeks to Develop your Novel and get $50 off--Limited time offer!
Instructor:
Dedi Felman
Dedi Felman is a writer/director born and raised in the wilds of NJ. A member of the inaugural class of the HBO Access Writing Fellowship, she attended the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting and teaches TV writing for Script Anatomy. Previously, Dedi worked in publishing as a senior editor at Simon & Schuster and an executive editor at Oxford University Press. Titles she’s developed have been New York Times and Washington Post bestsellers and have won the Bancroft Prize, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism prize, and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She continues to freelance consult on book projects at Book Doctor West. Her espionage drama short, "Allegiance", was a finalist at the USA Film Festival and voted a Kickstarter "Project We Love."
