Build Your Book in 12 Weeks
with Jeff Lyons
July 15, 2026
Length: 12 Weeks
Open to AllText and Live Video
Zoom calls Mondays at 2:00 PM Eastern time.
Original price was: $795.00.$680.00Current price is: $680.00.
Original price was: $795.00.$680.00Current price is: $680.00.Enroll Now
Build Your Book is an intense, twelve-week deep dive into breaking out your novel or work of creative nonfiction into chapters and scenes. It’s designed to get you ready to write actual manuscript pages in record time—with a structure you can trust.
Your book lives or dies on the story it tells—so don’t leave that to chance. Many writers discover too late that something isn’t working, and end up rewriting large sections or losing momentum altogether.
This course is built to ensure your book has a clear and compelling story structure that resonates with readers. You’ll design your book at the structural level first, so as you can move forward in your draft with clarity and focus, not guesswork, doubt, or confusion.
If you’ve been sitting with a story for a long time, this is where you make it work. We begin by assessing where you are in the overall development process, then shore up the pieces you’re missing or that need work. From there, we move into building out your chapters and developing the key scenes that make each chapter solid and connected.
You’ll complete weekly writing assignments based on a worksheet model, focusing on designing and refining your chapters and scenes rather than submitting full manuscript pages. This unique approach allows you to solve story problems before they cost you time, cause unnecessary rewrites, or create roadblocks as you move through your draft. You’ll receive written feedback from me on each assignment, along with numerous live, one-on-one coaching sessions to work through individual story problems and challenges as they arise. Everyone gets feedback. Everyone gets facetime with the instructor.
Regardless of how many chapters or scenes you complete, you’ll leave with a repeatable, proven process for building chapters and scenes—one you can use not only for this book, but for any future project.
By the end of the twelve weeks, you’ll have the core chapters and scenes needed to begin writing your manuscript pages with confidence—knowing your story is structurally sound and built to work for agents, editors, and readers. You won’t just have a plan: you’ll have a book you can actually finish, that tells the story you’ve been dreaming of writing, and that your readers will love.
Who Is This Course For
This course is for novelists and memoirists who have already spent time developing their story. You should know your characters, have a sense of your structure, and be able to write a basic synopsis with a beginning, middle, and end. If you have about 60% of that in place, you’re ready to begin.
This is not a beginner class or a story development class—it’s a book design class. Many great books are written without this approach, but this course is for writers who want a clear, structured process so they can move forward with confidence and finish their book.
Feedback and Direction
You’ll receive detailed written feedback on every weekly worksheet assignment, focused on strengthening your chapter and scene design. Feedback will address both what’s working and where your structure can be clarified or expanded, helping you build a cohesive, compelling book. You will not receive feedback on manuscript pages.
In addition, you’ll meet one-on-one with me during the course to work through specific challenges and refine your approach. This combination of written feedback and live coaching ensures that your book is not only developed, but built to hold together from beginning to end.
Learning and Writing Goals
Learning Goals:
In this course, you will learn:
- The basic story development process.
- Basic structure of book chapters.
- The proper construction of a dramatic scene.
- How to build scene sequences.
Writing Goals:
- Breakout between 12- and 30-chapter worksheets
- Breakout at least 3 core chapter scenes per chapter
- Assemble a chapter/scene roadmap for writing the first draft
- Develop a next-steps roadmap for writing actual manuscript pages
Zoom Schedule
We will meet on Zoom on Mondays at 2:00 PM Eastern time beginning July 20th.
Weekly Syllabus
Week 1: Initial Self-Assessment: Premise Testing
Material covered: Initial self-assessment of where you are in development and whether your story premise is ready.
Assignment: Self-Assessment Worksheet, Premise Testing Worksheet
Week 2: Self-Assessment: Have You Found Your Story’s Structure?
Material covered: Classic story structure beats.
Assignment: Classic Story Structure Worksheet
Week 3: Self-Assessment: Do You Have a Subplot?
Material covered: What is a subplot, what is your “B” line subplot, what are your other subplots.
Assignment: Subplot Grid Worksheet
Week 4: FINAL Self-Assessment: Unit Testing
Material covered: Analysis of all the previous assessment work to see if development has been improved (if necessary).
Assignment: Self-Assessment Worksheet & Premise Testing Worksheet
Week 5: Chapter Breakout: Page One to Midpoint
Material covered: Story start, world building, character intros, and setting the mainline action in motion.
Assignment: Chapter Design Worksheets
Week 6: Chapter Breakout: Midpoint to Doom Moment
Material covered: Inciting incident, subplot integrations, chapter complications/reversals, midpoint complication.
Assignment: Chapter Design Worksheets
Week 7: Chapter Breakout: Doom Moment to the End/Epilogue
Material covered: Subplot integrations, chapter complications/reversals, doom moment, book resolution and ending.
Assignment: Chapter Design Worksheets
Week 8: Chapter Scenes: Page One to Midpoint
Material covered: Story beats, chapter scenes, scene sequences, 3 core chapter scenes for each chapter to midpoint.
Assignment: Chapter/Scene Design Worksheets
Week 9: Chapter Scenes: Midpoint to Doom Moment
Material covered: Story beats, chapter scenes, scene sequences, 3 core chapter scenes for each chapter to doom moment.
Assignment: Chapter/Scene Design Worksheets
Week 10: Chapter Scenes: : Doom Moment to the End/Epilogue
Material covered: Story beats, chapter scenes, scene sequences, 3 core chapter scenes for each chapter to end of book.
Assignment: Chapter/Scene Design Worksheets
Week 11: Chapter Scenes: Pulling It All Together (optional)
Material covered: How to assemble the roadmap guidebook
Assignment: Build your roadmap process
Week 12: What’s Next: Getting Ready to Write Pages (optional)
Material covered: Cork Board Method
Assignment: Setting up the board and approach
Original price was: $795.00.$680.00Current price is: $680.00.Enroll Now
Student Feedback for Jeff Lyons:
Jeff was very supportive. He challenged us to develop our stories in ways that made them more compelling. We learned something new each week! Michelle Baltazar
Excellent. Advanced my writing, gave me more confidence, the conversations were productive and covered everyone’s work. Sandra Carlin
The course content went beyond my expectations. I learned quite a bit about character development and storytelling which will serve me well as I continue to grow as a fiction writer. I enjoyed and appreciated the more analytic approach the instructor took in teaching the material. Excellent experience. Steven Watson
One of the best writing classes I’ve ever taken. I grew so much as a writer in such a short period of time. Jennifer Gresham
The Anatomy of a Premise Line was the perfect class for me. I am working on a writing project that seemed unwieldy and over my head. Jeff Lyons’ class helped me to articulate and focus on an approach that is working much better. Sharon Ransom
I was amazed how much I learned in just five weeks. Jeff is very involved in meeting directly with students and shepherding them through the story development process. He provides ample feedback that’s directed towards moving you forward instead of just lavishing bland praise. Madeline Miraglia
This was the most amazing workshop. It challenged me from day 1, and, in my opinion, was equivalent to a master’s level course. The quality of this class– instructor, technology, content, participants–was excellent. I learned so much about story and the importance of mapping the structure and how that can guide my writing and, as a result, save me precious time. Alex Pastorino
Jeff is inspiring, challenging, and fair. He does all he can to pull people along into a place of better understanding of the material. Gretchen Boger
Amazing experience for me! I learned so much. Jeff was able to work with different levels of writers with care, a generous amount of time, and compassion. He is intuitive and kind, not to mention talented. Patricia Clyne
Jeff has a real strength as a one-on-one teacher, listening to you stumble through your hazy story ideas and helping you find the gem within. Story structure has always been something I’ve been weak on, if not outright wary of. Jeff is great at connecting character growth with story structure with emotional-dramatic effect so you know you’re not only writing the story you want to tell, but the story that’s going to have the reader turning pages. Nancy Shaffer
Excellent. Very novel and helpful approach to plotting that makes the essentials of powerful storytelling clear. Challenging but very eye opening and helpful. Catherine Proppe
An excellent and concentrated course that brought the gaps in my knowledge about my protagonist into sharp focus, and provided a clear method to fill those gaps and get the plot outline into great shape for moving forward. Jeff Lyons is a generous and clear-thinking teacher. Rowena House
Jeff was available, gave good feedback, and seemed genuinely interested in both how and how much his students learn. By the end of this course, I was streets ahead of where I started, finally getting the hang of what he’s talking about and finding it immensely useful. Nancy Napier
Jeff’s method, course and feedback is amazing. It tests the strength of any story structure and points to its weaknesses. It is excellent at any stage of manuscript writing whether at the planning stage (best time) or after the first draft (also a great time) but also in the middle when one is stuck or to test its viability. Feedback is individually tailored and detailed. Jeff invests a lot of time interacting with participants. Sophie Cayeux
Jeff was a great communicator. His feedback was clear and sorely needed. I also appreciated his one on one availability. It felt like a university course where I could stop in and discuss my work with my professor. Thank you, Jeff! Janice Jackson
I loved this class. Jeff and I have worked a bit together before in his Anatomy of a Premise Line class where he helped me figure out exactly what my story was. After taking this class – How to firm up the “mushy” middle – I learned the steps and story beats that the reader needed to follow along with me to get from Point A to Z. Jeff pushed me like crazy, taught me about the Enneagram-Story Connection, and helped me develop all those beats from Point A to Z. He challenges me like no other, and I love him for it.
I’ve never been so clear about my story, and I truly believe Jeff is the reason behind it. Allison Smith
I have to admit the course caught me off guard. From the title, I was expecting a somewhat superficial “how to” class on writing a premise. I had no idea how profound (not too strong a word) the work would be. It was one of the most valuable experiences I’ve had as a writer—and I’ve been through a 3-year MFA program, with many workshops. Jeff gave it his full attention. He is a challenging teacher and made me work, and I will always appreciate that. It all has to do with how Jeff views what a premise is. I had to think long and hard about my protagonist and realized I didn’t really know him. Also, he sets the bar pretty high, not only for the premise, but for what qualifies as a story. I could go on, but my main recommendation is working on the course description to explain a bit better what students are in for – I guarantee that by writing a premise, before writing a single word of the narrative, or even after a complete draft, your novel or short story will be deepened, and greatly improved… You’ve got the best bang for the buck. I’ve taken courses from both Gotham and Writer’s Digest, and your courses are the best. Charles David Taylor
Having the enneagram as a framework for building out my characters is invaluable. When you are playing God and creating people from scratch it’s incredibly useful to have these kinds of tools. I made enormous progress; the recordings were good and Jeff was always available for one-on-one catchups. Janine Stein
I had a great experience. The content was excellent, the pace was good, the teacher was professional and knowledgeable. Martha McLaughlin
This class, and the instructor in particular, reached into my story and my writing practice and took both to a new and more productive level. Jeff Lyons takes obvious delight in turning ideas and even dog-eared manuscripts into real stories. Nancy Shaffer
I was very happy with the class. Jeff is a great teacher. He makes himself available for guidance. I had read Jeff’s Anatomy of a Premise Line and knew the class would be great. It was. It really helped me to understand how to develop story ideas. I just purchased Jeff’s book for my son who is considering signing up for Jeff’s next class. I will take more of your classes. Thanks for offering this class. Ron Ware
July 15, 2026
Length: 12 Weeks
Open to AllText and Live Video
Zoom calls Mondays at 2:00 PM Eastern time.
Original price was: $795.00.$680.00Current price is: $680.00.
Original price was: $795.00.$680.00Current price is: $680.00.Enroll Now
