Aims
This course aims to:
• explore the attraction and challenges of writing long fiction
• through reading and exercises introduce writers to a range of relevant technical skills
• strengthen confidence and to provide ways in which a routine is established so that work moves forward even in face of difficulties
Content
Nobody writes a novel or novella in a week, but the course will send you home with the inspiration and technical tools to start assembling a work of long fiction. It will also equip you to keep writing through moments of despair, the seductions of the internet or just times when the book gets stuck and ideas in your brain won’t translate to the page.
Storytelling continues in many traditions and increasing numbers listen to recorded stories on radio or podcasts, but published novels and novellas have long been central to the literary world. The conventions of fiction evolve constantly as do the publication possibilities for the would-be author. We’ll look, briefly, at the historical events that led to the novel becoming a popular, and arguably most respected, form of fiction. What different ways might we choose to develop an initial idea into long fiction and what professional tricks and techniques can make it compelling? Is there a line between literary and commercial fiction?
Presentation of the course
The course will be taught through a mixture of mini-lectures, extracts from fiction and thinking about the influence of film and images. We’ll have discussions, class exercises, and afternoon workshop sessions where we’ll give constructive feedback on each other’s work. This can seem nerve-wracking but is invaluable and fun. We’ll also look at what motivates anyone to take on a major project and to stay the course.
Course sessions
1&2. Why write?
How did the novel become a major form of story? What different ways might we choose to develop a fictional idea? What are chapters for? What’s the difference between a novel and a novella?
Some feel they have a story to tell. Some want to entertain. Some, having written short stories, want to face the considerable challenge of starting and finishing a 25,000 - 40,000 novella or a 90,000 novel. Some have always lived in a landscape of words and want to create new worlds. Some hope to publish and extreme optimists hope to become rich.
An exercise in inspiration.
3&4. What kind of writer are you?
There are planners and plotters who work out whole narratives in advance and those who set out with an idea and a rough plot and see where it takes them. What are the pros and cons of each approach? What techniques will help the first-time novelist? How do you start? What must be achieved by the end?
An exercise in methods of plotting.
5&6. Characters
Most successful novels depend on plausible characters readers can engage with, whether they are realistic, vulnerable, brave, flawed or an outright villain. The fortunes of main characters, their desires and the jeopardy that may thwart their intentions are what drives a story on. Whose story is it? Whose point of view will make your novel come alive?
An exercise in constructing characters a reader will engage with.
7&8. A sense of place
In some novels the sense of place may almost be a character itself, and often it can shape a crucial event in the story. We’ll look at a few examples and discuss what purpose background might serve in your novel and how to create a powerful sense of place while avoiding clichés.
An exercise in descriptive writing.
9&10. The way ahead
Outlining the narrative arc of your novel in a form that you can take away and use as a guide to check your progress against.
Learning outcomes
From this series of classroom sessions You are expected to gain a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
• to start a new novel or novella or to continue with an existing work
• gain an understanding of what a novella or novel can achieve and the different possibilities in structure, style, plot, and mood
• to increase confidence in your idea and the imagination and ability to keep several different threads or sub-stories woven into a single work
Daily Writing Assignments
Written assignments as part of the course (all students).
Writing will play a major part in this International Summer Programme. You are given the opportunity to produce up to four 350 - 400-word creative pieces through the week to be submitted for discussion by the class. Pieces should be submitted electronically to your course Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) forum space no later than 6.15pm each evening on the following days:
Monday (for the workshop session on Tuesday)
Tuesday (for the workshop session on Wednesday)
Wednesday (for the workshop session on Thursday)
Thursday (for the workshop session on Friday)
You should aim to read your fellow participants’ work before the afternoon session each day, so that pieces can be discussed during the workshops.
The aim of these courses is to create, for their duration, a community of writers – a group of practitioners naturally interested in developing their own work, but also sensitive to the needs of their fellow-students. Please be mindful that the daily writing submissions will be shared across the whole group, so share only that personal information in your writings that you are comfortable disclosing. The classroom discussion of others’ writing needs to be simultaneously stringent and supportive; and it should be remembered that each participant can learn as much from a full engagement in the discussion of the work of others as from that part of the discussion that focuses on their own writing.
Reading list
A broad familiarity with the items on this list will greatly enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the classes and good preparation by all students will contribute significantly to the success of the course.
I hope that you will be able to obtain the majority of items on the resource list. If you cannot find books in the editions specified, use alternative editions or even, if necessary, translations.
Information on library access will be given to you when you arrive.
It is not necessary to bring all of the books with you to Cambridge.
A passion for reading goes hand in hand with a longing to write. I hope anyone exploring novel-writing will have broad tastes in fiction. These titles are just suggestions, but I shall refer to them in class so please try and read at least one or (preferably) more and be able to discuss them. There are no compulsory readings for this course but it is strongly recommended that those with an asterisk are read before the course starts.
Novel:
*Lynch, Paul, Prophet Song, (2023)
Sahota, Sunjeev, The China Room, (2021)
Saunders, George, Lincoln in the Bardo, (2017)
Shafak, Elif, The Island of Missing Trees, (Penguin 2022)
*Strout, Elizabeth, Olive Kitteridge, (Simon & Schuster 2008)
Novellas:
Barrico, Alessandro, Silk, (Canongate, 2019)
Carr, J, L, A Month in the Country, (Penguin Modern Classics, 2000)
*Ingalls, Rachel, Mrs Caliban, (Faber and Faber, 2021)
*Keegan, Claire, Foster, (Faber and Faber, 2010)
Taylor, Elizabeth, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, (Virago 2006, new edition)
Theory of writing fiction (excellent):
Maas, Donald, The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface, (Penguin, 2016)
Yorke, John, Into the Woods: how stories work and why we tell them, (Penguin, 2014)
