Executive Summary
This course will teach you the art of storytelling. The faculty will discuss finding your overwhelming idea and the genesis of your novel. Point of view, revelation, the precipitating event, scene, dramatic narrative, and the opening sentence will be discussed to help you plot your novel. Attendees are encouraged to bring excerpts of their work for reading aloud, comment, and critique. Questions will be welcomed.
Faculty
John Hough, Jr.
is the author of the novels A Two Car Funeral, The Guardian, The Conduct of the Game, The Last Summer and Seen The Glory: A Novel Of The Battle Of Gettysburg. He is also the author the non-fiction works A Peck of Salt, A Dream Season, and A Player For a Moment. He is a former speech writer for United States Senator Charles Mathias and a former writer for the New York Times while serving as the assistant to James Reston. John is an experienced writing teacher and coach. He resides on Martha's Vineyard.
Tuition
The $495.00 tuition includes a continental breakfast, breaks, lunch with faculty, a detailed manual which can be retained as a bookshelf reference, and a dynamic learning experience.
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Schedule
Friday, October 23, 2009
7:00-8:00Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:00-9:00Where Stories Begin: The Overwhelming Idea
Eudora Welty used this term, and it is as good as any to describe the genesis of a novel. "Where do you get your ideas?" is a question novelists hear often, but the truth is the opposite: the idea finds and takes hold of us, and only when we're lucky.
9:00-10:00Point of View: The Observer and the Observed
Your narrative voice, even when you are writing in the third person, depends on whose point of view you're writing. Point of view, by definition, is subjective. It colors not only your prose, but the way in which the world of your novel is viewed and presented. In high school we learn about the "omniscient point of view," but how often in fiction is point of view truly omniscient?
10:00-10:15BREAK & NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY
10:15-11:00Revelation: What Does the Reader Need to Know, and When?
Fiction is revelation, and timing is everything. This is an obvious truth in genre fiction, but it is true in all fiction. The novelist's job is to tell a story, and to provide only such information as is necessary to the reader's understanding. When will revelation have maximum impact? When is it gratuitous, and when relevant? It all comes down to timing.
11:00-12:00One Little Shot During a Card Game in Arkansas: The Precipitating Event
"One little shot during a card game in Arkansas," muses Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove, "had started things happening; things he couldn't see the end of." A story has to begin somewhere. This precipitating event can be random, an accident, an act of God, but then an inexorable logic takes over, event leading to event, on and on to the end of the story. No event should seem random or gratuitous. Every action should have its consequence.
12:00-1:00LUNCH PROVIDED WITH FACULTY
1:00-2:00Scene: Story in Microcosm
There is no rule as to the length of a scene. It can be half a page long, it can be 20 pages long, but whatever its length, a scene must somehow move your story forward. Something has to happen, small or large. There should be tension in every scene, and we'll discuss this, and what, exactly, comprises the tension in fiction.
2:00-3:00Dramatic Narrative: What the Movies Can Teach Us
Sustained, uninterrupted narrative is the novelist's most basic tool. You should never forget that you're a storyteller, and story often must be allowed to take over completely; to propel itself forward without pause. This means no flashbacks, and very minimal exposition. This basic, essential tool is less easy to master than it sounds.
3:00-3:15BREAK & NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY
3:15-4:15Scene, and the Opening Sentence: Throw Your Fastball
The first sentence in a novel is obviously important, but so is the first sentence of a scene--every scene. Think of yourself as the pitcher in a baseball game, and each new scene a new inning. The first sentence is your first pitch of the inning: don't waste it. Throw your fastball. Write a strong sentence that not only informs the reader but engages him emotionally.