Where: Trinity Center for Urban Life (French Room), 22nd & Spruce Streets, Philadelphia
When: Saturday, April 16, 9 - 5
Fee: $75 includes all-day workshop and lunch (max. 20 participants); $65 for students, seniors.
Writing a novel requires more than just endurance-it requires using familiar tools in an unfamiliar way to solve narrative problems. Bring your complete, in-progress, or long-abandoned novel to this daylong trouble-shooting workshop. We’ll tackle the mental blocks that keep us fixed instead of finished, and practice new strategies for planning, plotting, and pacing a novel-length work.
You will be asked to submit the first and last pages of your novel draft, plus a 1-page (250-word) synopsis before the workshop. You will be asked to bring a paper or electronic copy of your novel draft to the workshop for your reference during our series of hands-on exercises.
Who should take the workshop? This workshop will help the writer who has completed the first or second draft of a novel, and who is ready to “re-see” the work in order to find the best, most compelling way to tell the story.
The workshop will teach:
* How divergent thinking aids the process of revision.
* Using your novel synopsis as a writing tool.
* Establishing authority and fulfilling promises in your opening and closing chapters.
* Clarifying character and conflict.
* Effective plotting of key scenes.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Elizabeth MosierElizabeth Mosier is the author of the novel, My Life as a Girl (Random House), and numerous short stories and essays published in magazines including Seventeen, Child, and Poets and Writers. A graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, she teaches writing in a variety of settings, including Bryn Mawr College.
To learn more about registering, please email christine@philadelphiastories.org. NOTE: We are only accepting 20 students for this workshop on a first-come, first-serve basis.
When will you teach another writing course for adults?
I have 250 pages, but haven't reached the end yet. Can I still participate in the Novel workshop? I could do a rough sketch through to the end if that would help (except I'm still trying to remain open to where it goe, because I do my best writing when it's unexpected)
Dear Ann,
Yes! As long as you have a sense of how your novel will end -- enough to write a 250-word synopsis that includes the major characters, conflict, and the resolution of the conflict -- the workshop should be very helpful to you. I've asked participants to send me a their first and last pages (in addition to this synopsis), but you might send me, instead, a description of how you envision your ending.
I hope this is helpful -- and that I'll have the chance to work with you!
Elizabeth Mosier
Hello,
Will you be conducting any writing workshops this summer for children in middle school? Thank you.
Dear Mary,
I'm not sure if you heard back from our co-editors, but just in case you didn't, I'm replying here. The workshops I do for elementary and middle school students are coordinated through the Young Writers Day program, and take place only during the school year. I'll let you know if I ever do any independent workshops, though!
Elizabeth Mosier
I am interested in attending this workshop.
I can be reqched thru this E address or by 267-258-7903
Thank you,
Paul
Sorry to say this workshop is closed, but we hope to do another next year.
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