Full course description
Make a Good Novel Great
About the Course
Do you have the rough draft of a novel? Do you know it needs more work, but are unsure what to do next?
The trend in global publishing is toward outsourcing the editorial process. More and more, publishers are looking for that elusive "finished" draft, placing the burden on writers to take their work to that next level. This course will help you get there. Created by UBC Creative Writing professors Annabel Lyon and Nancy Lee, we guide you through a rigorous self-editing and revision process. Learn the necessary skills to polish your novel and better position you in today's highly competitive and fast-moving publishing marketplace.
We'll explore the editorial process from macro to micro. From a far-reaching analysis of the three journeys every novel must take (internal, external, aesthetic) to a tight focus on the rigorous choices associated with prose style, learners will hone critical skills and develop a rewriting plan tailored to the needs of their individual projects.
Through self-evaluation and discussion with fellow writers, learners will build an autonomous writing practice and discover a community of peers familiar with the challenges and aspirations of novel writing. This course is recommended for professional and aspiring writers who have completed or almost completed a rough draft of a novel, especially those who have taken our previous courses: How to Write a Novel: Structure & Outline and How to Write a Novel: Writing the Draft.
During the course, you'll work intensively on your own creative project and discuss the assignments and your own process with your fellow writers. Faculty will be available to answer learner questions during a regular Q&A podcast.
What You'll Learn
- Tackling the revision process from macro to micro
- Troubleshooting common problems
- How to create a revision plan
- How to choose your trusted readers
- How to work with feedback
- The key steps in the editorial process
- How to prepare for submissions to agents and editors
- What agents and editors look for in submitted work
Format
This course is 100% online, asynchronous, and not for credit. Each week for six weeks, we'll release a new module of material full of insightful lectures, assignments, and video interviews with working writers, agents and editors. You'll have the chance to discuss the assignments with your fellow students, but we won't be grading or giving feedback on your writing - this course is all about learning craft: everything is designed to give you the tools to continue on your own, long after the course ends.
We'll have a TA helping out in the discussions, and the instructors will answer your questions during the course in a lively Q&A podcast format.
Length: 6 weeks | 4-6 hours per week
Instructors: Nancy Lee and Annabel Lyon
Genre: Fiction
Level: Beginner to intermediate. Open to anyone in the world - no university registration required.
Prerequisite: Students should have a completed rough draft of a novel or novella. We recommend you take the three courses in this series in order: Stucture & Outline, then Writing the Draft, and finishing with Edit & Revise. However, it's not a requirement.
Syllabus
How to Write a Novel: Edit and Revise - Course Syllabus (PDF)
""Before doing the course I had a manuscript that I had worked on for years. It had no structure and I had paid to have it edited, yet it was going nowhere. It was a disaster and an expensive one at that! After the three courses I found myself with a decent manuscript that was well edited and elicited a publishing offer."
— JANE RYAN, Author of Forty-Seven Seconds
About the Instructors
Nancy Lee is the award-winning author of two works of fiction, Dead Girls and The Age, and a poetry collection, What Hurts Going Down (McClelland & Stewart, 2020). Her books have been published in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, and her work most recently appeared in Ploughshares, The Adroit Journal, The Puritan and Arc Poetry Magazine. Nancy has served as Writer-in-Residence for Historic Joy Kogawa House, the city of Richmond, and the city of Vincennes, France.
Annabel Lyon's first novel, The Golden Mean, was published in 2009 and won the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize. It was a Canadian bestseller and was published in multiple countries and languages. Her second novel, The Sweet Girl, a companion to The Golden Mean, was published in 2012. Imagining Ancient Women, the text of her Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture, was published the same year. She won the Engel-Findley award for a body of work in 2015. Her latest novel, Consent, was published in 2020.
Questions?
You can contact us at: crwr.noncredit@ubc.ca
Some frequent questions:
Do I need to complete your previous courses to take this course?
No. As long as you have completed the first draft of a novel and are ready to rewrite, this course will be valuable to you. Of course, we strongly recommend our other courses, as they will help you get the most out of this one by leading you through the process of outlining and finishing your draft, but they are not required.
Is this course related to an existing for-credit UBC writing class?This is an entirely new course, designed for a wide audience of writers. Nancy and Annabel have years of experience teaching the art of fiction writing to undergraduate and graduate university students and created this course as the novel writing series they'd always wanted to take themselves.
How often is this course offered?
This course is normally offered once per year, in January. You can find the schedule of upcoming courses on the main Creative Writing page on this site.
What are the other courses in the series?
How to Write a Novel: Structure and Outline explores the core elements of fiction writing necessary to build an outline: a blueprint for a successful draft of your novel. How to Write a Novel: Writing the Draft takes you from your outline through the process of getting your first draft completed.
How long will I have access to the course materials?
You should have indefinite access to your section of the course. Indefinite is a hard-to-define word; assume at least several months after the course ends, and most likely longer. We also provide downloadable transcripts of all videos and you're free to save these for future reference.
