Friday, February 12, 7-9pm EST
15 students max; Online
$75
Enroll for this class.
(Enroll now to secure your spot; payment not due till January, 2027.)
If you’ve always wanted to write a novel, or if you’ve been struggling with a draft of one, this craft talk will get you moving.
The bottom line? There is no one right way to write a novel. The tricky part of writing anything, but especially a novel, is learning what your process is for the particular novel you’re writing. You may have an idea of what writing a novel should be, and perhaps it’s not working or you’re not sure how to make it work — this class might help you find a better way forward.
During class we will discuss different approaches to starting your novel, getting to know your characters, and allowing yourself to be messy. There will be a short lecture, during which I’ll share advice on characterization, and writing scenes, as well as dispell misconceptions about novel writing, drawn not only from my own experience but from writers like Matt Bell and Laura van den Berg. I’ll share generative prompts on topids like character, building tension, setting, and shaking things up, and together we’ll do some in-class writing. Finally, there will be a question and answer portion for anyone who has specific questions about issues they've faced while trying to complete their novel draft. Students will leave with a renewed energy for their nascent novel projects, and some tools for getting unstuck.
Enroll for this class.
About the Instructor
Richard Mirabella is a writer and civil servant living in upstate New York. His short stories have appeared in Story Magazine, swamp pink, American Short Fiction, wigleaf, and elsewhere. His first novel, Brother & Sister Enter the Forest was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, named a best book of the year by Harper’s Bazaar, and nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.
Testimonials from Richard’s “What We Found in the Forest” Class
“Instructive and inspiring. Richard uses advice from authors who he respects and admires, along with his own well-earned knowledge in discussing narrative form, character, and symbolism in fiction. He led the class in a wonderful talk about our favorite fairy tales and how we are drawn to them, and what elements of those tales we can use for our own writing. Using that as a prompt, he gave us time to write, and then share the actual written pieces or just talk about our story ideas. He wrote along with us, and shared his piece - it was great that he connected with us as a peer as well as being an instructor.” — Linda H.
“Richard Mirabella is a thoughtful, generous instructor, with a deep knowledge of his subject. I got so much out of his workshop–from the readings and handout, his lecture, discussion among workshop participants, and the prompts for in-class, generative writing. I left the session feeling energized and inspired.” — Nora M.
“I loved the combination of structured instruction, that taught me a lot about the fairy tale form, and generative writing.” — Jane Y.
Testimonials from Richard’s “Finding the Strange” Class
“Richard did a great job focusing on getting out of our heads and getting into the creative by embracing the doubt and diving right in. I very much enjoyed this workshop!” — Meghan C.
“Richard was a great teacher, with lots of plans for the class really well executed. Lots of thoughtful breadcrumbs about both the practice of writing and freeing our writing from the usual constraints. Very thoughtful. Great prompts for the writing exercise, and for once a lot of time to write after interesting discussion. Thank you, Richard!” — Lydia K.
“Fabulous. Took away A LOT. Richard was wonderful.” — Michael D.