How to Finish Your Novel

with Jing-Jing Lee

Have you started a novel but found yourself running into a wall? This course will lead you through starting and finishing a manuscript, and give pointers on finding the right audience for your work.

Unfortunately, we are full!

Registrations for this course are now closed but do join our mailing list here to be updated on future courses like this.

Summary

Course code: JL1 & JL2A

8 Online Workshops of 2 hours each

For Intermediate to Advanced Writers

Limited places available

Selective entry – we’ll offer places to writers who show promise

Dates

8 sessions from 4 to 6pm SG time on:

20 & 27 March 2021
3, 10, 17 & 24 April 2021
1 & 8 May 2021

No partial sessions accepted

Venue

Workshops will take place online via Zoom

Successful participants will receive a private link to the workshops

A follow up workshop will be held in Singapore during July or August 2021 once Jing arrives in Singapore

Overview

Week 1: Getting Started: Ways to begin.

Week 2: Point of View: Who’s telling your story?

Week 3: Description: Setting the scene

Week 4: Character and Dialogue: Bringing your characters to life

Week 5: Plot: The shape of a story

Week 6: Editing: Writing is rewriting

Week 7: Troubleshooting

Week 8: Getting Published: The business side of things

Learning Outcomes

After completion of the workshop series, participants will:

develop their ability, skills & techniques in generating, writing, editing and developing long form fiction in the novel form
have their manuscripts improved through sharing their texts for peer critique and presenter guidance during the workshops
come away with a manuscript that they feel confident about finishing on their own, as well as know what to do in order to prepare it for submission to agents and publishers.

Please note particiants are required to attend all the 8 online sessions.

Who should register?

Fiction writers including:

Intermediate Writers — Writers who have chosen to pursue writing as a full time or part time career with a serious, professional intent but who are not yet published with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher, or
Advanced Writers — Writers who have published at least one book with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher, and/or published in at least one literary journal and/or anthology

This course is especially targetted at writers working on an existing novel manuscript.

Participants will be selected by the Visiting Writer with assistance from the Asia Creative Writing programme. A waiting list will be maintained.

Course Prerequisites

To participate please email the following to soh-ACWP@ntu.edu.sg:

A 500 word writing sample
A short summary of your writing project of ~100 words
A short biography of ~100 words

Registration and Pricing

Please register here via NTU weblink
For 8 online workshops of 2 hours each:
- $200 for adults
- $80 for students, unemployed, low income migrant workers
- Free for undergraduates from Singapore teritiary institutions
Non refundable if cancellation after 1 March 2021
Please email us if financial assistance is needed

Born and raised in Singapore, Jing-Jing Lee’s first novel, How We Disappeared, was published by Oneworld in 2019. It has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Singapore Literature Prize and the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford and currently lives in Amsterdam with her husband and son.