If you find yourself getting bogged down in your novel, you can usually get back on course by taking a deeper look at individual scenes, reworking them on their own as well as seeing how they fit into the whole. Using techniques developed by the instructor as well as techniques and suggestions from agent Donald Maass’s books The Fire in Fiction and Writing the 21st Century Novel, you’ll work on one scene from your book, approaching it from the perspective of character, tension, and purpose. 

Most of the day will consist of workshopping and brainstorming your scene in a small group—both before and after revision—so please bring FIVE stapled copies of a scene that you want to work on (2,000 words or less). Feel free to bring paper or your laptop to work on revisions—whichever is more comfortable for you. At the end of the day you can take away the tools you learn here and apply them to other scenes in your novel!