Craft Seminar: Roadmap to Revising a Novel with Laura van den Berg
Craft Seminar: Roadmap to Revising a Novel with Laura van den Berg
2 Sessions: Saturday+Sunday, May 18+19
12:00-3:00pm ET
Laura van den Berg
This craft seminar will be led by Laura van den Berg, the author of six works of fiction, including three novels (her most recent novel, State of Paradise, will be published in July). She is the recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her goal is for each writer to leave the seminar with a clearer, more concrete understanding of how to approach their own revision work.
Have you ever finished a draft of a novel only to realize you have no idea what to do next? Or attempted to comprehensively revise a longform project but struggled to make real progress? Are you searching for a roadmap? This seminar will focus on the art and craft of novel revision, with the aim of making the process less overwhelming and more approachable. After all, revision can be every bit as creative and exhilarating as getting the first draft down—and time spent re-imagining our early drafts is the ultimate show of faith in our work. Together we will explore a variety of revision tools and processes; discuss strategies for sustaining momentum; and complete revision exercises designed to clarify intentions and identify roadblocks. My goal is for each writer to leave the seminar with a clearer, more concrete understanding of how to approach their own revision work.
Workshop Highlights:
Seminar will include the study of craft essays & other writings on revision; offer different frameworks and roadmaps for writers to experiments with; and provide revision-oriented writing exercises.
Craft essays will include work from Peter Ho Davies, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jeff VanderMeer, Zadie Smith, and Alexander Chee.
The first session will focus on the craft of novel revision (tools & techniques, how to find a roadmap, things I wish I'd known when I was revising my first book). The second session will focus on revision-salient writing exercises, process discussion (how to navigate roadblocks & sustain momentum), & Q & A.
1 full and 1 partial scholarship available. For information, please contact Kate Mabus, kate@theshipmanagency.com
Laura van den Berg’s most recent book is the widely praised short story collection, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears (FSG, 2020) , which NPR called “exquisite.” Her next novel is State of Paradise, which will be published by FSG in Summer 2024. Other books include the novel The Third Hotel (FSG, 2018), a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and two other collections of stories, The Isle ofYouth (FSG, 2013), and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009), as well as the novel Find Me (FSG, 2015).
