The Year-Long Novel Intensive with Omer Friedlander

Note: Please apply before purchasing this course. After approval of your application, you’ll receive confirmation to complete your purchase. For information about payment plans, please contact Zenzelé Clark, Programs Assistant, at [email protected].

This year-long writing course, held online, is your opportunity to finally finish your novel. During the intensive, you will focus on all aspects of novel writing, from drafting to revision, and finally publication. The class combines a rigorous and intimate workshop experience with generative writing prompts tailored to your individual project, close reading of short stories and novel extracts by masters of the craft, and advice about the best writing habits and routines to support a long-term project, with the goal of completing—or being well on your way to completing—a full manuscript.

The course is designed to meet different writers’ needs: If you’ve started a novel recently or have a detailed idea for one and need the time and focus to get the words down, this workshop will provide the space for that. If you have been writing your novel for years but feel “stuck,” the class will help you identify possible breakthroughs. If you feel you made a wrong turn along the way but can’t figure out exactly where (something almost all novelists encounter!), your fellow participants and I will help you retrace your steps and find your direction.

Our time together will conclude with a hybrid (in-person and online) reading at The Center for Fiction with participants’ friends and family invited to attend.

Participation in this course requires a writing sample and an application. Applications will be read in the order they are received. Writers of all levels are encouraged to apply. Click here to apply.

Course Outline:

• Phase 1: Exploring the Fundamentals of Novel-Writing
  September–November 2026; 6 meetings
  • Initial workshops focused on identifying the strengths of participants’ drafts as well as areas for revision.
  • Craft lessons on fundamental aspects of novel-writing, including characterization, point of view, and voice
  • Readings of published work by George Saunders, Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith, and more. Close reading of stories and novel extracts in order to understand how they work.
  • Discussion of the routines and habits of published writers. Tips on getting over initial writer’s block and fear of the blank page.
  • A series of generative prompts to help encourage creativity, experimentation, and exploration in this initial phase of novel writing.
  • Individual meetings with Omer to discuss your novel, the writing process, and any questions after your workshop.
• Phase 2: Building Your Novel
  December 2026–February 2027; 6 meetings
  • This second series of workshops will focus on the larger, structural questions of writing a novel. The focus will be on plot, structure, and shape.
  • Readings will focus on structure and shape, including craft essays by Charles Baxter and Jane Alison. Discussion of traditional story structure as well as alternative, experimental shapes for novels.
  • Craft lessons will focus on novel structure, plot, and pacing. Reading of published work by Joyce Carol Oates, Claire Keegan, Colm Tóibín, and James Baldwin.
  • Generative prompts that will help address the “middle-of-the-novel block.” These prompts will focus on keeping your writing momentum going.
  • Individual meetings with Omer to discuss the progress of the novel and your workshop.
• Phase 3: Bringing the Novel to Life on the Page
  March–May 2027; 6 meetings
  • Workshop will be devoted to identifying places that slow the reader down or take away tension in the novel, and exploring ways of creating narrative urgency.
  • Craft classes will focus on setting the scene and immersing the reader in the world of your novel. Discussion of scene vs summary, narrative time, conflict, and tension.
  • Generative prompts that will help you stay in-scene, immerse the reader, and be specific and precise with a focus on setting and place.
  • Individual meetings with Omer to discuss your novel and plans for revision.
• Phase 4: Revision on the Sentence Level
  June—August 2027; 6 meetings
  • Workshop will focus on prose style, editing, and polishing your work.
  • Live edit sessions focusing on revision at the sentence level. Close reading of your work to solve prose problems. A focus on dialogue, description, and detail.
  • A special revision class devoted to reading early drafts of writers like Nabokov, Carver, and Joyce and comparing them to their later drafts.
  • Individual meetings with Omer focused on revision, work on the sentence level, and next steps.
• Phase 5: Polishing and Publishing
  September 2027; 1 meeting
  • Individual meetings with Omer about polishing your manuscript to get it ready to send out, querying agents, and the publishing world.
  • Publishing Q&A with Omer: querying agents, attending writing residencies and conferences, publishing in literary magazines.

Course Readings:

Excerpts will be provided by the instructor. Readings will include:

• “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri
• “Crazy They Call Me” by Zadie Smith
• “Mastiff” by Joyce Carol Oates
• “The Other One” by Tessa Hadley
• “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie
• “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro
• “Edgemont Drive” by E. L. Doctorow
• Foster by Claire Keegan
• “A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease” by Jonathan Safran Foer
• “Found Objects” by Jennifer Egan
• “Unzipping” by Etgar Keret
• “Axolotl” by Julio Cortázar
• Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
• Your Duck Is My Duck by Deborah Eisenberg
• “Career Move” by Martin Amis
• Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
• A Feather on the Breath of God by Sigrid Nunez

Participant Takeaways:

• Four 30-minute 1:1 meetings with the instructor throughout the year
• Four workshop opportunities to receive peer and instructor feedback (submissions in the 25-50 page range)
• Two live edit sessions that will focus on revision at the sentence level
• A supportive community of dedicated fiction writers
• Writing tools, strategies, and many generative prompts to help you keep writing
• Craft lessons with detailed handouts on different aspects of novel writing from the instructor
• Substantial progress toward a complete, revised, and polished novel manuscript

This course is held online via Zoom.