8 Weeks to Writing a Commercially Successful Novel

Fiction writers need to go beyond the obvious: compelling characters, masterful writing that nails genre, scenes that “show, don’t tell,” an engaging (preferably riveting) story, and meaningful conflict that creates tension. Hugely successful books have specific elements that set them apart and cause them to rise to the top of the pile and get readers enthusiastically telling their friends to read them.

While there are plenty more elements that novelists must master—a cast of great characters, masterful plot and structure, for example—the 8 specific elements we are going to dive deep into are often ignored or minimized. Yet, if writers nail these brilliantly, their novel will stand high above the masses published every day.

The focus of this 8-week course is on scene structure because scenes make or break your novel. Though we will be discussing the big picture of your novel’s structure, this is not a course centered on teaching you how to plot a story.

During these 8 weeks you will learn what it takes to write purposeful scenes that are carefully constructed to accomplish the important work of advancing your plot, creating and building meaningful tension, revealing crucial character bits, and manipulating your readers’ emotions so they will feel what you want them to feel.

You will also see how to use these 8 elements to revise your scenes in a targeted way, as well as critique others’ scenes using the same lenses. These techniques will save you time and eliminate guesswork, and help you identify what is missing in your scenes and others’.

How This Course Works:

• Students will meet weekly on Zoom, where you'll get instruction on the 8 essentials for commercial success. Sample scenes from best-selling novels will be shared and dissected and serve as teaching examples, focusing on fiction-writing elements writers struggle with. If you can't make the meeting, no worries—all lectures will be recorded and uploaded to the week's module.
• Each week, you'll have assignments—scenes to study and mark up and handouts to read.
• Writers will be put in small critique pods of no more than 8 people, grouped based on experience and genre (where possible).
• Each week, you'll submit one scene to be critiqued by two writers in your pod (up to 15 pages, or two shorter consecutive scenes totaling no more than 15 pages). You will critique two other writers' scenes each week.
• Dozens of handouts, worksheets, and charts will be posted on the Resource pages for lifetime access
• Critiques will be done in rotation within the group so that every writer will have different critiquers each week. This helps give a wide range of helpful feedback.
• Weekly forum discussions will be held via Disqus on each week's module. Any questions you want to ask your group or the instructor about the weekly discussions or issues pertaining to your manuscript can be voiced in the discussion threads.

While all participants in the group are expected to work diligently on their own books and aim to achieve the milestones they set for themselves, they are also expected to be a support for all the others in the group.

The techniques you will learn will help you tremendously not only in writing a great novel but to effectively revise in a targeted way. Instead of guessing what isn't working in your scenes, by using these 8 lenses for commercial success, you'll know exactly what needs to be fixed in your scenes (and others') to make them effective and advance your plot.

This course is not about learning how to write and structure a novel. If you aren't informed about novel structure, it's recommended you first do some studying! Read books like Layer Your Novel and The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction so you'll understand where your key scenes fit into your story.