Book Length Fiction Workshop Meet Bi-weekly on Wednesdays on Zoom

Burlington Writers Workshop group launched to read and discuss book-length fiction bi-weekly on Wednesdays .

Have you been hungering for helpful feedback about a novella or novel (of any genre) that you have begun writing, have completed, or are on the nth revision of? Please join us at this initial meeting of the Book Length Fiction Workshop. There are many elements of book-length (20,000 words or more) fiction that differ from short fiction. This workshop is designed to help you improve your book and your writing in ways that short fiction workshops may not. Come to the initial planning session at the Burlington studio and help us create this together.

After the first meeting, we’ll meet on alternate Wednesday evenings in Burlington, from 6:30-8:30 pm. We hope to explore fiction that falls anywhere within Orson Scott Card’s MICE Quotient:

• MILIEU: A milieu story concerns the world surrounding the characters you create.
• IDEA: An idea story concerns the information you intend the reader to uncover or learn as they read your story.
• CHARACTER: A character story concerns the nature of at least one of the characters in your story. Specifically, what this character does and why they do it.
• EVENT: An event story concerns what happens and why it happens.

Your book doesn’t have to be a romantic or popular style novel. It might be fantasy, noir, horror, science fiction, humor, or whatever. Not interested in reading any of those? We’ll focus on how to read, analyze, and provide helpful feedback to our fellow authors even if we “have never read” and are “not interested in” their genre.

Why? Because by improving our ability to read and recognize good writing, will help each of us discover features of our own writing that we can improve. A key goal will be to develop our ability to provide intelligent and valuable feedback to each other (and thus learn how to write more powerfully ourselves).

At this initial meeting, we’ll decide on which of several different approaches we’ll take. We might take turns reading 30,000 word sections of each other’s books. We might break into reading subgroups to be able to get to each writer’s work sooner. We might decide to read entire books for each workshop, perhaps spaced out more. We might focus sequentially on specific craft elements of our own writing; for example, openings, pacing, scene, character, etc. We will sometimes offer an educational element about the craft of writing. Workshop members will be invited to research and present some of them.

Feel free to email host dickmatheson@myfairpoint.net with questions and suggestions. If more than 12 people respond to Saturday’s planning meeting, we’ll include everyone on the wait list to join us as well. All skill levels are welcome. Respect for each other is a must.