Fall (Back) in Love with Your Manuscript
with Paz Pardo
August 12, 2026
Length: 8 weeks
Open to AllText and Live Video
Zoom calls Thursdays from 8-10 PM Eastern.
Original price was: $545.00.$465.00Current price is: $465.00.
Original price was: $545.00.$465.00Current price is: $465.00.Enroll Now
Putting together a book-length manuscript—whether that’s writing a novel or assembling a collection of short stories—is a long and lonesome road, and many a writer finds themselves at a crossroads somewhere along the way: unable to find joy in the writing they’ve already done, tired of plodding towards a seemingly ever-receding goal, wondering if it would make more sense to simply turn off toward some shiny new idea.
This eight-week course is an antidote to the ennui that can come mid-project, helping you shake up your process, rediscover the flame that set you on this path in the first place, and find your way back toward finishing the manuscript you once felt called to write. Through readings and workshops, we will tackle every aspect of writing—from the micro (sentence structure, dialogue, and scenecraft) to the macro (chronology, point of view, and story structure).
Each week, you’ll be encouraged to think of your book in a new way, expanding your understanding of its possibilities. Through readings and writing exercises, we will focus on playfully engaging with the material you have and joyfully generating new work, freeing your imagination from any constraints you may have unconsciously placed on it.
During our Zoom meetings, we’ll discuss the craft tools we’re exploring, and find companionship on our creative journeys. In targeted weekly exercises based around your project, you’ll have the chance to interrogate the choices you’ve already made and reconsider what the work could be. I’ll give you written feedback on every assignment, and you’ll receive either in-class or online feedback from your classmates. By the end of the class, you’ll have assembled the tools you need to confidently walk around your book, fall back in love with it, and keep moving toward the finish.
Who This Course is For
For writers working to complete or revise a book-length manuscript. Whether it’s your first novel or eighth collection, writers of all levels are welcome.
Direction and Feedback
Every weekly assignment will receive written feedback from the instructor, and either in-class or written feedback from fellow students.
Zoom Schedule
We will meet each week on Zoom on Thursdays from 8:00-10:00 PM Eastern.
Learning Goals & Writing Goals
Learning Goals
- Discover how to analyze your choices through play, opening new possibilities for future writing.
- Learn to shift perspectives to see your work more clearly
- Understand how craft choices affect the reading and writing experience
Writing Goals
- Develop a writing practice that will allow you to joyfully continue work on your project
- Test out new styles and structures for your book
- Explore new approaches for revision
Weekly Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction
This week, we’ll introduce ourselves and our projects to each other. You’ll write a bird’s-eye view outline of your work as it stands, a snapshot of where you are at the beginning of the course.
Week 2: Time
How does a story change if you tell it backwards? If you start in the middle? This week, we’ll reimagine our stories with different chronologies: you’ll write condensed outlines imagining your narrative three ways.
Week 3: Suspense, Surprise, and Reveals
How do you feed information to your reader? What are you hinting at and making them wait for, and what are you hiding to blindside them with? This week, you’ll reimagine a reveal you’ve already planned using different techniques to stretch your craft muscles.
Week 4: Dialogue
What do your characters say to each other? What is implied, and what is hidden? What makes it onto the page directly, and what is just reported? This week, you’ll write a scene between two characters two ways: entirely in dialogue and entirely reported.
Week 5: Voice
What is the voice of a story? How does it teach the reader to read it? What would happen if it changed? This week, you’ll reimagine the voice of your narration.
Week 6: Rhythm
How does sentence structure build the reader’s experience of prose? What happens when it shifts? This week, you’ll set out a rhythmic goal and write a scene to meet it.
Week 7: Point of View
What happens when you think through your story from another place? What happens if another character tells it? This week, you’ll write a scene switching up the point of view.
Week 8: First, Second, Third
How does which person you write from shape the story you’re creating? This week, you’ll try writing from a new person, seeing what panoramas it opens up and which it shuts down.
Original price was: $545.00.$465.00Current price is: $465.00.Enroll Now
Student Feedback for Paz Pardo:
August 12, 2026
Length: 8 weeks
Open to AllText and Live Video
Zoom calls Thursdays from 8-10 PM Eastern.
Original price was: $545.00.$465.00Current price is: $465.00.
Original price was: $545.00.$465.00Current price is: $465.00.Enroll Now
