Novel Support: Weekly Check-In
Are you writing a novel? Do you want company? Writing a novel is an intensive and often lonely experience. This course brings novel writers at all stages of the process together to support each other for 8 weeks. From first draft through revision, this course is a weekly check in, a community gathering, a discussion group, an accountability buddy, a toolkit, a troubleshooting session, and a place for us to talk about our novels and writing processes as much as we need to without boring anyone. Each week, we’ll spend time checking in about our novels, discussing issues and breakthroughs, and providing feedback on each other’s work. To best suit the needs of the group, course instruction will be specifically tailored to the questions that arise during class. Participants will receive peer and instructor feedback on a small section (up to 3,000 words) of their work.
Coure Outcomes:
• Participants will set their own goals for their novel writing and check in on them each week
• Participants will reflect on their own processes for writing a novel and learn about the processes of fellow writers.
•Participants will learn about a variety of resources for novelists (books, websites, organizations, etc.)
•Participants will be given specific novel writing tools, instruction, and advice on issues, questions, and curiosities that arise from class discussions.
•Participants will provide feedback on each other’s work and receive both peer and instructor feedback.
Weekly Schedule: Each week participants will check in about their novels, set goals for the following week, and discuss questions and issues that have come up for them. After the first week, a part of each session will be dedicated to workshopping sections from participants’ novels.. A part of each session will also be dedicated to instruction tailored to issues that have come up in participants’ writing and/or questions that have arisen in class. Instruction topics might include outlining, novel revision, character development, plotting a novel, deepening setting, evolving a symbolscape, hybridity and genre-bending novels, how to talk about your novel, querying and submitting your novel, working with an editor and other issues.
Access Program
We want our writing classes and seminars to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class and seminar tuitions at a reduced rate. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available.
Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you have questions.
Liaison position
Every in-person class and seminar at Literary Arts has one liaison position. Liaisons perform specific duties for each class meeting. If you are a liaison for a class or seminar, the full amount of your tuition is covered by Literary Arts.
Apply here for the liaison position.
Miranda Schmidt
Miranda Schmidt is the author of the novel Leafskin (Stillhouse Press 2025). Their writing circles folklore, ecology, and queer magic and has appeared in Triquarterly, Orion, Electric Literature, Catapult, and more. With an MFA from the University of Washington and PhD from Bath Spa University, they have taught creative writing at Portland Community College, University of Washington, the Loft, and the Portland Book Festival. Their newsletter and teaching project, Writing Toward Nature, explores methods for bringing the more-than-human more deeply into our writing craft. Miranda lives in Portland, Oregon.
