The Elements of Fiction

with Jessie Roy

elements-of-fiction

June 19, 2024
8 Weeks

Original price was: $545.00.Current price is: $465.00.

Real life, made up.

In this course, you’ll immerse yourself in the nuts and bolts of fiction writing and gain new levels of control over your creative process, all while you produce multiple short stories or several chapters of a novel.

Writing fiction can be a lot like juggling—we’re building rich complex characters, developing plot and conflict toward a resolution, all while managing points of view, keeping settings clear and immersive, sketching realistic dialogue, and trying to make our sentences beautiful and pleasurable to read.  Together, our class community will focus on one or two elements of fiction at a time, deepening our understanding as we go, to help you build the muscles and instincts of a great literary juggler.  By the end of the course, you’ll find yourself writing more agile, complex, and confident prose, and feel ready to tackle bigger goals in your fiction—long forms like the novel, more sophisticated story structures, or new genres you’ve never tried before.

If you’re starting from scratch, this course will support you through the process of generating a new piece of fiction writing; if you’re already working on a larger project like a novel, we’ll jump in with you and help you develop it.  In my lectures, which you can watch at your own pace throughout the week, I’ll talk you through my approach to each element of fiction with examples from great published work.  Each week, you’ll submit portions of a story or novel chapter and receive feedback from me and your peers on what you’ve written, with full drafts due in weeks 4 and 8.  And at the end of the course, you’ll select one story or chapter that you plan to revise and I’ll write you a personal revision letter to guide you through that process, so you can take the support of our class community with you even after the course is finished.

Learning & Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will:

  • Gain a deep understanding of the building blocks of fiction writing and get personal guidance as you put them into practice.
  • Pivot from thinking like a reader to thinking like a writer.
  • Participate in a writing community, giving and receiving specific, generous feedback.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will:

  • Build a consistent weekly writing practice, layering on new tools and skills as you go.
  • Write two short stories or several chapters of a novel.
  • Walk away with a targeted revision letter from me to support you in revising one of your submissions.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: How Fiction Works

The basics of character and plot, thinking like a reader vs. thinking like a writer, how to give great feedback.

Assignment: Submit the first 3-5 pages of your first story or chapter.

Week 2: Who’s Telling This Story Anyway?: Narrators and Point of View

Characterization through description, POV, and narrators.

Assignment: Refine or reconsider the point of view for your first story or chapter, and add another 3-5 pages.

Week 3: Setting the Scene

What is a scene, scene vs. summary, imagining immersive settings.

Assignment: Submit another 3-5 pages of your first story or chapter, with special attention to immersion in the details of setting and the micro-actions that propel a scene forward.

Week 4: Real People with Real Problems

A deeper look at character and plot.

Assignment: Full Draft of Story or Chapter #1 Due.

Week 5: Letting Your Characters Speak For Themselves

Dialogue, or, people never say what they really mean.

Assignment: Submit 3-5 pages of your second story or chapter, including at least one scene in which two or more people start out very much not on the same page and come to understand each other (imperfectly) through dialogue.

Week 6: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends

The arc of a story, another angle on plot.

Assignment: Answer the questions in the prompt to brainstorm possible ways to introduce complications and ratchet up the tension in your work.  Then write and submit another 3-5 pages.

Week 7: Flights of Poetic Fancy

What is style, how do sentences work, playing with language, and what we can learn from poets.

Assignment: Write your way toward the end of the story or chapter, generating at least another 3-5 pages, with special attention to moments of high intensity which can be deepened in significance with heightened, poetic language.

Week 8: Revision

Finding the story inside your story.

Assignment: Full Draft of Story or Chapter #2 Due.

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Student Feedback for Jessie Roy:

Exactly what I was hoping for—targeted immersion into a specific writer’s tool backed by discussion and in-class exercises. Jesse picked a good slice of a broader topic to focus on for the one-day course and provided excellent exercises to bring her points home. She was friendly and supportive to everyone in the class. Great learning environment! Mimi Zhou

I’ve taken a few courses on Writers.com in the past and I have to say this has been the best one for me. Jessie’s feedback was detailed and specific, and really gave me insight on how to improve my writing. The group was very engaged and gave solid feedback each week as well. I really believe I’m a better writer thanks to this course. Keith Murphy

Jessie was amazing. I was impressed from the first feedback I received from her. She opened my eyes to the enormity of writing really good fiction while also showing me that its creation is still possible. Angela Scannell

June 19, 2024
8 Weeks

Original price was: $545.00.Current price is: $465.00.

jessie roy headshot

About

Jessie Roy is a fiction writer, teacher, and editor whose work has appeared in American Literary ReviewThe Journal, and Cream City Review. She holds two advanced degrees in creative writing: an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Among many other awards and honors, Jessie has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and her novel Brides took second place in the 2020 James Jones First Novel Fellowship. In between teaching and studying creative writing, she has also worked in libraries, archaeological museums, fashion retail, and various parts of the bridal industry. Jessie grew up in Kentucky and now lives in New York City with her spouse. You can find her online at https://jessie-roy.com/.