OWC 304 A — Novel II: Plot and Structure
Spring
Date(s)
Mar 28—Jun 3
10 weeks
Drop By
Mar 31
3 Units
Fees
$945
Open
This course is not open to the public, but rather by admission only. For more information on the Online Writing Certificate Program and its application process, please click here.
In this course, students will focus on how to create and sustain the “long middle” of their novels, continuing their journey toward the completion of their manuscript. The long middle is the area where plot and structure of the novel are most important, because we may have lost that burst of energy that propelled our beginnings, but the end is not yet in sight. This course will teach students how to continue building suspense and intensity past the inciting incident by alternating between different subplots and points of view, to ensure modulation; and framing scenes and chapters for maximum tension, to keep readers turning pages.
In this course, students will focus on how to create and sustain the “long middle” of their novels, continuing their journey toward the completion of their manuscript. The long middle is the area where plot and structure of the novel are most important, because we may have lost that burst of energy that propelled our beginnings, but the end is not yet in sight. This course will teach students how to continue building suspense and intensity past the inciting incident by alternating between different subplots and points of view, to ensure modulation; and framing scenes and chapters for maximum tension, to keep readers turning pages.
Angela Pneuman, Former Stegner Fellow, Stanford
Angela Pneuman is the author of the novel Lay It on My Heart and the short story collection Home Remedies. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Iowa Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, and the Los Angeles Review. She is a contributor to Salon, The Believer, and The Rumpus. She received an MFA in writing from Indiana University and a PhD in English from the State University of New York at Albany.Textbooks for this course:
(Required) J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace (ISBN 0143115286)
(Required) Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic (ISBN 0307744426)
(Required) Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (ISBN 0375755586)
(Required) Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic (ISBN 0307744426)
(Required) Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (ISBN 0375755586)