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Information and materials for students in

Making Your Novel Happen

 

NYU X32.9356
Spring 2008
Instructor: Meredith Sue Willis   
Email: MeredithSueWillis@gmail.com

Mondays 2/11/2008 - 5/5/08
6:20 PM to 8:40 PM
48 Cooper Square   Room 116

No Class  March 3;   March 17

 

Updated 5/6/08
Click here for updates and changes
Schedule of Presenters

 

 

             Tolstoy                          George Eliot                                   Henry James            

 

Welcome to Make Your Novel Happen!  The primary text for this course is the writing students produce and present to one another. There will be occasional other readings, usually available online. There are also a few optional readings that might interest you. Each participant will present his or her work at least twice, more if possible. Each time you are scheduled to present, bring copies of what you'll be reading a week in advance -- enough for each member of the class.  All homework, in-class exercises, and presentations for critique should be from the novel you are working on. Please also read and be prepared to discuss your classmates' work when it is presented. The weekly short assignments are optional and should be no more than two pages long. They should also be part of your novel. Unless otherwise noted, the short assignments are given to MSW only.

Meredith Sue Willis

 

 

 

 

Schedule of Classes and Work Due

Click here to check list of presenters for future classes.

1. 2-11-06    Structure of the course; types of long prose narrative (novel, novella, memoir, genre novels); topics to be discussed; terms like "show & tell," point of view; scene and summary; outlining; the state of the market for fiction; the writing life. Classic story structure.

 

No Class February 18

 

2. 2-25-06  Assignments due: Provide copies for the whole class of (1) a short summary of your novel’s story line (less than 100 words) and (2) the first page of your novel; and (3) read the short novel “The Death of Ivan Ilych" by Lev Tolstoy. Discussion: The tension, conflicts, and “wants” that power your story.  INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

Just for fun: Take a look at Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

Optional: Read the review in 2-27-08 New York Times Book Review  of an unfinished novel by Richard Wright. (you mayhave to have/get a free sign up for the NYTimes site) The point of the review is (a) that this should never have been published because (b) it is a very rough draft, and while drafts are an essential part of the process of writing, they are not finished products. Wright is, of course, one of our really fine American writers-- if you haven't read Black Boy and Native Son, I recommend them highly.

 

 

No Class March 3

 

 

3. 3-10 Short assignment due: A short scene for your novel in which the main character thinks about or demonstrates what he or she wants. The character may not be fully conscious of this want. Remember, you may always substitute another short scene or passage for response from the instructor.  Reading assignments: "What Your Character Wants" online and material on point of View  for discussion. Optional: If you haven't read this yet, take a look at the discussion of Memoir and Fiction by Keith Maillard and Carole Rosenthal in Books For Readers Issue #80. INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

 

 

No Class March 17-- NYU Spring Break

 

4. 3-24 Short assignment due: A scene from your novel with a conflict that is important to the plot/storyline. Discussion: Scene & Tense.  Reading assignments: 1) Notes on Scene; 2) More Point of View with Samples ; and  3) Pros and Cons of the Present Tense .  Also, take a look at the material on using flashbacks. INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

5. 3-31 Short assignment due: A scene in your novel where time speeds up or slows down. This might include physical action (running, fighting, chopping onions, dancing, kissing) where you use slow motion. For speed up, you might use a "jump cut" or long historical view: "Twenty years later, when Carole was a famous movie star..." INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

6. 4-7 Short assignment due: Another short scene using techniques from film: perhaps an establishing shot followed by a close up, or a scene that jump-cuts to another scene. See some film terms for fiction. Discussion of the relationship and differences between the techniques of movies and fiction.  Reading assignments: Look at these notes on plot and on the "multiplot" novel.    Also, read the leisurely scene from the Henry James novel Portrait of a Lady  that has a long set up and then runs on mostly in dialogue. INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

7.4-14  Marketing DIscussion: Skim over Resources for Writers; also look at notes on various kinds of publishing at  Publishing Types and Print on Demand.  Also see Sample Query Letters. Short assignment due: A scene in which the weather plays a substantial role. This could be as simple as a character walking down the street aware of how the terrible humidity is ruining her make-up to some plot device that hangs on rain or snow.  Reading assignments: Read material at weather. In particular, read the passage from George Eliot's Adam Bede.   INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

8. 4-21 Short assignment due: Choose your main character or perhaps a character you are having trouble with. Write a dream for that character. If your novel is first person or third person limited, you'll need to find a way to fit this in if you choose to do it for a character other than the main character. Could the character tell the dream in conversation? Write it in a letter?  Reading assignments: Take a look at some thoughts about dreams and a sample.   INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

9. 4-28 Short assignments due: (1) a draft of your final page, and (2) a one page outline of your novel emphasizing its shape.  Reading assignments: If you haven't looked at them yet, skim over the "Optional Readings." INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

10. 5-5 Read: Notes on Revising a Manusrcipt. INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.

 

 

Optional Readings:

 

Phillip Roth and RIchard Wright on writing.

Virginia Woolf from "Killing the Angel"

Article on how authors get paid.

"The Business of Books, by André Schiffrin," reviewed by Meredith Sue Willis (the status of publishing)

Here is a funny poem by Billy Collins about workshopping poetry.

 

 

More information:

Bibliography of How-to-Write books

 

Proofreader's marks.

 

For Information on Agents.

 

"On Cutting," (article by MSW about editing and revising)
      

Dialogue: The Spine of Fiction  (article by MSW about writing dialogue)

 

 

 

Fiction Online by Meredith Sue Willis:

"Scheherezade and Dunzyad"in The Pedestal Magazine

More Fiction Online by MSW

 

 

 

 

 

People don't turn themselves over to writers as full-blown literary characters– generally they give you very little to go on and, after the impact of the initial impression, are barely any help at all. Most people (beginning with the novelist– himself, his family, just about everyone he knows) are absolutely unoriginal, and his job is to make them appear otherwise. It's not easy. If Henry was ever going to turn out to be interesting, I was going to have to do it.
                                                  – Phillip Roth in Zuckerman's voice in Counterlife

 

 

 

I don't know if Native Son is a good book or a bad book. And I don't know if the book I'm working on now will be a good book or a bad book. And I really don't care. The mere writing of it will be more fun and a deeper satisfaction than any praise or blame from anybody.
                                                  -- Richard Wright, "How ‘Bigger' Was Born"