Short classes for big ambitions
Plus, opening my books for coaching and personal statements!
Hi there!
If, like me, you subscribe to the concept that your entire life will be fixed in the fall, aka September is the real new year, then do I have some exciting offerings for you this October! If you’re looking for support on process, to get some applications out the door, or are starting to dream big with your work, read on.
My Books Are Open!
Starting October 1st, I’m open for new coaching clients, with limited scheduling.
What is coaching, you ask?
Writing coaching is a conversation-based approach to shifting you into the right mindset for working on your work. My coaching style is firm but gentle, structured, yet designed to meet you where you are in your arc as a writer and show you how far you can go. More information about my coaching services are here.
Coaching is available in single sessions or as a discounted three-session package, which you might use to take a course of mine you’ve missed, privately. Currently on offer as a 3-session package: Reverse Outlining for Fiction, Creating a Sustainable Writing Practice, Essential Processes for Your Writing Practice, or Generative Writing. You’ll get my undivided attention in addition to all the regular course materials.
Applying for something this fall? An MFA program, a fellowship, graduate school? Do you dread the part of the application that asks you to describe yourself, your work, your plans, and where the three overlap? I love this work, and can help you through. This year, I’m offering packages for personal statements.
Manuscript reads, including those for MFA applications, will remain closed till at least the end of the year, and likely through early 2025. I’ve found I am better at solving problems in my own manuscripts when I’m not doing the same task for others, but I hope to be able to return to this work in the future. I always have editor recommendations if you need feedback right now.
Classes
I’ve been thinking about these two classes as little classes for big ambitions. They’re both about taking big steps in your projects as a writer, whether you’re working on stories or a novel, and they’re a lot of fun to teach.
Over at Writing Co-Lab, I’m launching a new 2-hour seminar, Envisioning Your Story Collection: A Practical Seminar on Assembling and Publishing
When: October 10th, 7-9pm EST
Where: Zoom (aka wherever you are)
How Much: $85
The Details: Ever wonder if your numerous short stories are a collection, and what to do with them if you think they could be with a little (or a lot of) effort? How do you know if stories belong together, what might be missing to unify them, or how to order, talk about, and ultimately sell them as a cohesive book?
In this two-hour seminar, I’ll walk you through the experience of conceptualizing and completing a short story collection that’s ready for agents and editors. We’ll discuss basics like how many stories make a collection, if you really need to publish in literary magazines before you get an agent, and not-so-basics like discovering and strengthening thematic connections between stories, and the uncomfortable question of whether or not story collections sell.
Writers in this course will complete some brief assessments of their existing material and leave with a clear sense of the practical steps and creative process involved in making a dream of a story collection into a marketable manuscript ready for agents and editors. There will be ample time for q&a at the end of the session, which will be recorded and available asynchronously for a month after the session.
ENROLL IN ENVISIONING YOUR STORY COLLECTION HERE
In novel writing mode? Want to learn how to write a better novel opening in just two weekends? I’m once again running Crafting Your Novel's Opening, also via Writing Co-Lab.
When: 2 sessions, Saturday, November 9th and 16th, 11am-2pm EST
Where: Zoom (aka wherever you are)
How Much: $275
The Details: In this two-day intensive, we’ll look at the openings of novels, both published works and the writer’s own in progress, to see what they say to the reader about the experience of what’s ahead. How do you hook a reader as well as teach them the way to read your book without giving it all away or not giving enough? How do you use what you know about what happens later to inform where a reader begins?
Week one will consist of discussing excerpts of published work, looking closely at how authors use voice, pacing, characters, and other tools of craft to give just the right amount of intimations of what’s ahead for the reader. In our examinations, we’ll also consider what isn’t yet revealed, and the plethora of choices a writer has at their disposal for the novel overall; looking at a book’s beginning necessitates talking about the structure of the project as a whole, and this will be part of our work. In the second week of the intensive, we’ll look at how to apply what we’ve observed to our own work in workshop of pages-in-progress.
Writers are expected to have 20-30 pages of a novel opening to share with the group, and to read multiple excerpts of this length, both from their peers and of published work. For workshop I’ll give detailed instructions for a lighter, more focused, and ideally useful method of feedback to best serve this task. Writers will work in small groups.
ENROLL IN CRAFTING YOUR NOVEL’S OPENING HERE
That’s it for now, and perhaps for a while, as I am indeed buckling down to get my novel draft done, and won’t be offering classes in the traditional way till that is complete. Sending best wishes for your work from my desk to yours.
Talk Soon,
Danielle