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  • Berkeley Global

Developing the Novel

ENGLISH X407

6641693
Delivery Options Online
Explore the craft of longer fiction and how to meet its creative challenges. Each session includes a lecture on craft, supported by discussion of assigned readings and exercises to unlock the potential of your ideas. Learn how to develop characters, language, voice, pace, tone, theme and setting, and participate in a group critique of student work. Enrollment is limited.

Course Outline

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Course Objectives

  • Gain a brief historical and structural overview of the novel.
  • Produce an outline and four chapters of a novel.
  • Develop the discipline of regular writing.
  • Understand the importance of revision and develop the ability to revise based on feedback on your work.
  • Develop critical skills for giving feedback to others so they can then apply it to their own work.
  • Gain a strong sense of future direction for your writing.

What You Learn

  • Finding your writing time and place
  • Developing your novel's outline
  • Defining your genre, novel's purpose, characters and their roles
  • Setting, voice and point of view
  • Plot and scenes
  • Novel openings
  • Building conflict, suspense and surprises
  • Character arc and raising the stakes
  • Climax and the final crisis
  • Revising your draft
  • Publication of your novel, including the marketplace, how to research potential agents or publishers for your novel and how to write a query letter targeted to a specific agent or publisher

How You Learn

  • Reading assignments
  • Lectures/modules
  • Online classroom discussions
  • Writing exercises
  • Novel submissions (outline, first drafts and revision)
  • Student critiques
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Sections

Section 021

Mar 02, 2021 to May 25, 2021 Online

Course Fee(s)

Course Fee credit (2 units)

$675.00


Type Online, Fixed Date

Enroll in this course by its start date and complete it by its specified end date. There are no live sessions, but plenty of opportunities to collaborate with your classmates and instructor.

Dates

Mar 02, 2021 to May 25, 2021

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Instructors

  • Marc Schiffman

Section Materials

  • Textbook (Mandatory) Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose © 2006 Harper Perennial ISBN 0060777052 Textbook ISBN: 9780060777050
  • Textbook (Mandatory) Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Ned Stuckey-French © 2015 Longman 9th edition ISBN 0321923162 Textbook ISBN: 9780321923165

This course applies to the following programs:

Interdisciplinary Writing Program

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Individualized Study Plan

  • Effective Writing in the Workplace
  • Writing for Social Media: Prose That Works for Web 2.0
  • Grammar, Mechanics and Usage for Editors
  • Journalism Workshop
  • Science Writing
  • Writing the Feature Story
  • Introduction to Public Relations Writing
  • Writing and Editing Internship Program
  • Editorial Workshop I: Introduction to Copyediting
  • Writing Skills Workshop
  • Writing Creative Nonfiction
  • Creative Nonfiction Workshop
  • Developing the Memoir
  • Developing the Memoir II
  • The Craft of Reading
  • The Craft of Writing
  • Exploring Creative Writing
  • Introduction to Writing Fiction
  • Intermediate Fiction Writing
  • Advanced Fiction Writing
  • Developing the Novel
  • Screenwriting: The Art of Visual Storytelling
  • Poetry Workshop
  • Poets Studied and in Conversation
  • American Fiction
  • The English Novel
  • Great Novels You Always Meant to Read
  • Mystery Fiction
  • Shakespeare

Learn More About this Program

Certificate Program in Writing

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Required Courses

  • The Craft of Reading
  • The Craft of Writing
  • Writing Skills Workshop

Electives (Literature)

  • American Fiction
  • Contemporary Voices: Speaking From the Margins
  • The English Novel
  • Fact or Fiction: Reading and Writing the Personal Essay
  • Great Novels You Always Meant to Read
  • Great Writers Steal: How the Work of Other Writers Can Inform and Inspire You
  • Mystery Fiction
  • Shakespeare
  • Short-Story Masterpieces
  • Meet the Writer: Guided Study and Discussion With Fiction Writers
  • Ursa Minor Production Class

Electives (Writing Workshop)

  • Exploring Creative Writing
  • Introduction to Writing Fiction
  • Intermediate Fiction Writing
  • Advanced Fiction Writing
  • Writing Genre Fiction: Science Fiction, Mystery, Romance and More
  • Mystery Writing
  • Developing the Novel
  • Screenwriting: The Art of Visual Storytelling
  • Screenwriting Workshop
  • How to Write a Story
  • Writing and Appreciating Poetry
  • Poetry Workshop
  • Poets Studied and in Conversation
  • Writing Creative Nonfiction
  • Creative Nonfiction Workshop
  • Developing the Memoir
  • Developing the Memoir II
  • Journalism Workshop
  • Science Writing
  • Writing the Feature Story
  • Writing and Editing Internship Program

Courses of Related Interest

  • Children's Picture Book Writing Workshop
  • Story Lab
  • Writing the First-Person Essay

Learn More About this Program

Notes

Departmental contact: extension-letters@berkeley.edu | (510) 643-1110

Prerequisites

We recommend you have some previous creative writing experience and an idea for a novel.

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Course Fee

Online

Marc Schiffman

Marc Schiffman, M.F.A. (Ph.D. equivalent), has taught a variety of writing and literature courses over the years for the University of Maryland. He also has published short stories and articles in many literary journals, and his novel The Man Who Controls the Earth was published in 2012 and Men and Angels was published in 2016. His most recent short story was published by the Chicago Review of Books online literary magazine Arcturus.

Read Schiffman's take on teaching online.

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