Novel Incubator

No, this class is about as far from the Iowa-style fishbowl workshop as you can get! We focus on craft by focusing on fear and resistance to the idea that our projects can and will get written – feelings that have notoriously not been helped by the formal workshop setting! Instead of workshopping, we’ll focus on craft through process writings, problem-solving, and connecting with other like-minded writers. 

A process writing is like a journal entry where you write about your writing. Another way of thinking about it is like an interview question about your body of work: What are the themes that preoccupy you most right now? You say the character you’re writing is an “upside-down version” of yourself – what does that mean? What sort of essay do you think millennial readers most need to read right now? In your opinion, where does the “hot take” end and real criticism begin? These are all questions we may have answers to, but don’t trust ourselves to answer because we think we lack the credentials to be “experts.” But the plain fact is that we’re all experts on our own work, and treating ourselves that way is how it gets written!

None whatsoever! You can write realism or sci-fi in the novel incubator! You can write journalism, hybrid criticism, or memoir in the essay incubator! You can incorporate other mediums like original art or photography into your work! You can write about topics heavy, light, controversial, uncontroversial, and everything in between. All is welcome; nothing is recoiled at.

By this I mean that the only expectations for entry into this class are that you have a project in mind and a sense of what you’d like to do with it. I want to write film criticism, and I want to eventually collect six of my essays into a book, or I want to write a dystopian romance novel and pitch it to my favorite small press. This class will help you break your goal(s) down into manageable, actionable steps and make real headway towards their achievement! 

I would love that! I often have classes end and students ask to opt into coaching modules and manuscript evaluations. If you become a Founding Member at my Substack this year, you’ll get half-off all my services – classes, coaching, manuscript evaluations – plus your first two coaching sessions free!