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Today is Updated 6-30-25
Registration Has Closed for
Building Your Book With Scenes
Movie Scenes from novels: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train; John Grisham's A Time to Kill; James Jones' From Here to Eternity
Half Day Workshop with Meredith Sue Willis
Saturday, July 12, 2025
10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
www.MeredithSueWillis.com
This half day workshop will get you started, restarted, or move you along on a long prose project. Novels and memoirs are usually built of scenes. Scenes can advance your story, organize your book, and also immerse you the writer and your reader with immediacy and momentum in your story. . Included in this class is a written response from MSW on up to 1,500 words of the book you're working on.
We'll discuss scene writing in terms of craft (how do you make the dialogue at the heart of the scene both natural and dramatic?) and structure (thinking in scenes to organize your project). There will be a handful of mini-lectures, discussions, in-class writing exercises, some responses to samples of writing by members of the workshop, and more.
The workshop is appropriate for anyone who has begun a novel or memoir or other substantial prose narrative. Those working on shorter pieces are welcome too, but the emphasis will be on shaping and building longer works through finding and refining strong scenes.
Scene from the movie version of Henry James's The Bostonians
To Read Before Class (Optional--it may or may not be mentioned in class). (I don't always agree with these, but find them interesting).
Article by MSW from The Writer with ideas for starting yourf novel: "How to Get a Novel Started.
"Survivor's Guide to the Long, Slow, Infuriating Process of Revision: Peter Ho Davies Offers Advice for Beginnerss
Writing Dialogue with a subtext
Authors Publish "The Key to a Realistic Writing Plan."
Some book recommendations from Jane Friedman's site
How to Enroll
The Workshop costs $125, including the critique of 1500 words. Payment is in advance, with no cash refunds. To apply, go to How to Enroll. For more information see Frequently Asked Questions .
Email MSW at msw@meredithsuewillis.com to say why you think this half-day class would be useful to you. If you are accepted, you'll get instructions on how to pay and where to send your 1500 words for response.
You are not enrolled until payment has been received.
Enroll soon. Class size will be small, and will close as soon as it fills.
You are invited to send questions that we may possibly address (How to write better dialogue? How to keep my story from sagging in the middle; what if I begin to lose interest; how do I get restarted when I've been away from the project? What is on your mind?)
Email, Internet, microphone, camera, and the Zoom app are required. Zoom is available free here.
For general information about how online classes with Meredith Sue Willis operate, see Frequently Asked Questions and MSW's Online Classes page.
Acknowledgement of payment is your registration.
There are no cash refunds,
Meredith Sue Willis's Books
Novels and Short Stories for Adults
Books for Teens and Children
Books about Writing
Buy via Bookshop.org--the online bookstore that splits proceeds with brick-and-mortar stores!
E-book Versions of MSW books
(To buy any of these books as e-books, click on the image. They are also available at the
Kindle Store and at the Nook Store as well as the iBook store and other e-book stores.)
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