Summer 2009
Novel II
Advanced Novel Writing Workshop
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR NOVELS--AND HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!
-- MSW
A Few Good Novelists... Do you know their work?
Pat Barker Kasuo Ishiguro Howard Fast Octavia ButlerNYU X32.9357
New York University Summer 2009
School of Continuing and Professional Studies
145 Fourth Avenue – Room 207 (Between 13th & 14th Streets)
Wednesdays: 6:00 PM - 8:55 PM June 3, 2009 - July 22, 2009
Instructor: Meredith Sue Willis
E-mail: MeredithSueWillis@gmail.com
Instructor's homepage: Meredith Sue WilisUpdated 7-23-09
List of Presenters and dates
Updates on current assignment
Novels recommended for reading/study by students.
Notes on Point of View
Proof reader's marks
Some quotations about writing
Marketing Information
Novel II - Advanced Novel Writing Workshop
Syllabus--Schedule of Classes
This syllabus will be updated regularly online. Please check here at least once a week for changes.
The text for this course is the writing students produce and present to one another plus occasional hand-outs and online readings.
The week before you are scheduled to present, please provide copies of @ 10 pages from your novel for each member of the class and the teacher. A page is considered to be 250-300 words, one inch margins, double-spaced, one side only, using a font comparable to Times New Roman 12 point. Please use conventional paragraphing, fonts, and layout unless you have some good artistic reason to do otherwise. Also be prepared to discuss the work of classmates when they present.
The weekly short assignments are optional and only for the teacher. They should be two to three pages long). Everything counts toward the total of 50 pages to be reviewed during the course of the semester. All writing and presentations should be from the novel you’re working on
Homework Assignments are optional; feel free to substitute-- as long as it's something from your novel. Keep count of pages you are submitting: up to 50 pages for the semester.
1. 6-3-09 Assignment due: Bring a 1 page overview (introduction, summary, anything that would help us read your selections) plus a 1 page writing sample (the opening would be a good choice) with enough copies for everyone in the class-- 12 copies total. DISCUSSION: Structure of the course and structure of the novel. Common vocabulary for talking about novels: show & tell, when to dramatize, process and product, scene and summary; discourse, pacing, etc. The essential importance of Point of View in novels. How do we judge fiction What do we read? What kind of feedback do you find most useful? Essential importance of Point of View in novels.
SCHEDULE PRESENTATIONS.
2. 6-10 Assignment due: A short scene from your novel with an important subtext in it. More discussion of point of view, scene, and tense. See Point of view , Point of view samples , Notes on Scene , and Pros and Cons of the Present Tense. Optional: Read an article in the New York Times about the future of book publishing. Also read the New York Times list of the best novels in the last 25 years.
DISCUSSION: The Scene.
If you haven’t done it yet, please provide each member of the class (12 total) with a 1 page overview and a 1-2 page sample of your novel. One good choice would be the opening.
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS. (See schedule below).
3. 6-17 Assignment due: A scene with a lot of Dialogue in it. Take a look at the material on dialogue at: Dialogue Tags ; Types of Discourse ; and " Dialogue: The Spine of Fiction." (article by MSW about dialogue online at http://www.nycbigcitylit.com/contents/ArticleWillisPanel.html)
DISCUSSION: Structuring dialogue and scene. I
NDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS (See schedule below).
4. 6-24 Assignment due: A group scene from your novel. This might be a party, a family event, a church supper, a crowded subway. If you are drafting new material, use the people as part of the setting-- colorful clothes or a mass of unfamiliar faces, perhaps. If you are working on something already drafted, consider how the scene is told. Is the teller in the midst of the action or seeing it from a great distance? Is it experienced as a long shot or close up? What mood or sensation are you conveying? Reading: Read the notes on Grounding and the logistics of Crowd Control. Also, if you haven't read them yet, read the materials for sessions above, particularly the Notes on Scene.
DISCUSSION: Speed of narrative-- ellipsis, summary, scene, stretch, pause.
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS
5. 7-1 Assignment due : Write a scene in which a minor character has a monologue. Since it is unlikely that your novel is actually in this minor character's head, try having the monologue be spoken aloud or expressed in some other way that fits into your novel: a letter? an e-mail message? an acceptance speech at an awards ceremony?.Reading: Excerpt from Trespassers. and brief notes on minor characters if you haven't read them yet. Also see these sample descriptions of minor characters
DISCUSSION: Logistics, minor characters.
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.
6. 7-8 Take a look at useful film terms and Closeup-longshot. Assignment due: Write a scene that uses a technique that film also uses (establishing shot, jump cut, etc.) but also includes a technique that is especially novelistic (memory, word play, flashback, interior monologue, etc.) Also, take a look at notes on various kinds of publishing at Publishing Types and Print on Demand. Also take a look at the discussion of Memoir and Fiction by Keith Maillard and Carole Rosenthal in Books For Readers Issue #80.
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION
7. 7-15 Assignment: Turn in something you have revised based on comments in this class. Include notes from teacher or others.
DISCUSSION: How we revise novels.
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.
No homework will be accepted after this date.8. 7-22 INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS.
Optional Readings:
Information on Marketing: Go to the resources page, and in particular to the links in the left hand column for: Agents, Articles of interest to writers, online places to submit fiction, Book Doctors & Private Editors, Book Publishers (small), Copyright , Literary Agents, Markets for Literary Fiction, Printers: Recommended book producers (not publishers), Publicizing Your Book , and more online resources for writers.
Virginia Woolf from "Killing the Angel"
Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules for writers. You don't have to agree to be amused.
Discussion of Memoir and Fiction by Keith Maillard and Carole Rosenthal in Books For Readers Issue #80.
Phillip Roth and RIchard Wright on writing.
Article on publishing in Salon: "20 percent of a [book's] budget... pays for paper, printing and binding..."
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.
Notes on various kinds of publishing at Publishing Types and Print on Demand.
Work by Meredith Sue Willis Available Online:
"My Most Embarrassing" short short at Two Hawks Quarterly
"Tara White" as published in Bloodroot Literary Magazine 2009
"Tales of the Abstract Expressionists" as published at Tatlin's Tower;
"Recessional" as published at Coelecanth Magazine
"Scheherezade and Dunzyad" in The Pedestal Magazine
MSW's Nonfiction available online:
"The Business of Books, by André Schiffrin," reviewed by Meredith Sue Willis (the status of publishing)
"On Cutting," (article by MSW about editing and revising)
" Dialogue: The Spine of Fiction," (article by MSW about dialogue)
Notes on Pros & Cons of Present Tense in Fiction
Short Bibliography of How-to-Write Books
For proofreader's marks, go to Accurate.
For Information on Agents.
Notes on types of publishing
Notes on Print-on-Demand
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"
Killing the Angel in the House
It was she who used to come between me and my paper when I was writing reviews. It was she who bothered me and wasted my time and so tormented me that at last I killed her. You who come of a younger and happier generation may not have heard of her– you may not know what I mean by the Angel in the House. I will describe her as shortly as I can. She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily. If there was chicken, she took the leg; if there was a draught she sat in it–in short she was so constituted that she never had a mind or wish of her own, but preferred to sympathize always with the minds or wishes of others. Above all– I need not say it– she was pure...And when I came to write I encountered her with the very first words. The shadow of her wings fell on my page; I heard the rustling of her skirts in the room. Directly, that is to say, I took my pen in hand to review that novel by a famous man, she slipped behind me and whispered: "my dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all, be pure." And she made as if to guide my pen. I now record the one act for which I take some credit to myself, though the credit right belongs to some excellent ancestors of mine who left me a certain sum of money–shall we say five hundred pounds a year?– so that it was not necessary for me to depend solely on charm for my living. I turned upon her and caught her by the throat. I did my best to kill her. My excuse, if I were to be had up in a court of law, would be that I acted in self-defence. Had I not killed her she would have killed me. She would have plucked the heart out of my writing.
-- Virginia Woolf, From "Professions for Women," in The Death of the Moth and Other Essays, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970) 236-239.
Don't forget: if you are reading one week, bring copies for the class the week before.
6-10 Ron Ford, Larry Gottschamer, Rebecca Jones
6-17 Hara Person, Christina Powell, Sunny Carmell [Bring copies to distribute 6-10]
6-24 Debbie Carter.Ron Ford, Hara Person, [Bring copies to distribute 6-17]
7-1 Larry Gottschamer, Sunny Carmell, Rebecca Jones, Christina Powell
[Bring copies to distribure 6-24]7-8 Hara Person, Debbie Carter, Ron Ford [Bring copies to distribure 7-1]
7-15 Larry Gottschamer, Christina Powell, Sunny Carmell, Rebecca Jones, [Bring copies 7-8]
7-22 Debbie Carter, Ron Ford, Hara Person [Bring copies 7-15]
Novels Recommended by Novel II Classes:
(For books about writing, see http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/resources.html#bibliography)
Cat’s Eye
Margaret AtwoodDistant Star
Roberto BolañoExiles in America (" Great psychological drama– different points of view")
Christopher BramJane Eyre ( “Just perfect.”)
Charlotte BronteThank You for Smoking (" Satire")
Christopher BuckleyPossession
A.S. ByattThe Emperor of Ocean Park
Stephen CarterThe Brass Verdict
Michael ConnollyBilly Bathgate
E.L. DoctorowDrown
Junot DiazThe Alchemist ("Different reinforcing messages over time")
Paulo CoelhoThe Eyre Affair ( "This is just for fun if you love Jane Eyre")
Jasper FfordA Place of Hiding
Elizabeth GeorgeLord of the Flies
William GoldingThree Junes
Julia Glass
Love the One You're With
Emily GriffinThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (" Great consistent voice")
Mark HaddonThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicle ( " Freedom to be Imaginative.")
Murakami HarukiWhat I loved ( "Innovative book of ideas")
Siri HustvedtNever Let Me Go ( "Exquisitely sad alternative world story." )
Kazuo IchiguroThe World According to Garp
John Irving
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara KingsolverWoman Warrior
Maxine Hong Kingston100 Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia MarquezA Game of Thrones
George R.R. MartinThe Road
Cormac McCarthyAtonement
Ian McEwanThe Senator's Wife
Sue MillerBlack Swan Green
David MitchellThe Time Travelers’s Wife ( " Brilliant handling of flashforward and back")
Audrey NiffeneggerComing Up for Air
George OrwellInvisible Monsters
Chuck PalahniukMy Name is Red
Orhan PamukDoctor Zhivago
Boris PasternakVernon God Little
D.B.C. PierreSpecial Topics in Calamity Physics ( "Clever literary murder mystery")
Marsha PelilsLush Life
Richard PriceHarry Potter books
J.K. RowlingNine Stories
J.D. Salinger " Simplicity in setting up complex Characters"Blindness
Jose SaramagoKing Kong on East 4th St.
Jagna Wojcicka Sharff "Social study Lower East Side in 80's/70's"On the Waterfront (Shooting Script)
Budd SchulbergThe Secret History
Donna TarttThe Glass Castle (memoir)
Jeanette Walls "Powerful memoir."Oranges Aren't the Only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson
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