Karen Bjorneby: Writing a Novel – Filling in the Frame

Writing a successful novel demands a lot of a writer: from creating compelling dialogue and description, to crafting a gripping plot. Novelists need to develop convincing characters, create settings that make their story vivid, and write in a voice that makes their work unique.

The Writing Salon is offering two five-week classes on novel writing. These will help newbie novelists make their first steps in the genre and provide guidance to those who may have already started their book.

Once you have a rough outline and a feel for your characters, you have to write the novel, scene by scene. This class will focus on how to build fully grounded, richly textured dramatic scenes that keep the plot moving forward while deepening character. Topics will include point of view and narrative distance; dialogue; capturing emotion on the page; the use of flashbacks and backstory; and building suspense.

Through class discussion, handouts, and writing exercises, students will learn to craft scenes that both move the plot forward and deepen character. Each student will receive feedback on weekly homework assignments. “My expectation,” says instructor Karen Bjorneby, “is that by the end of the class you’ll have written the first 30-35 pages of your novel, roughly carrying you to the first plot turn. You will also leave class with methods to keep going through the long haul of writing a book.”

Karen Bjorneby is the author of Hurricane Season, which received Foreword’s Honorable Mention as best independent/university press short fiction collection of the year. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in over two dozen publications including The Threepenny Review, The Sun, North American Review, StoryQuarterly, and online at Poetry Daily and Able Muse. She’s received a Pushcart Special Mention citation, two other Pushcart nominations, a National Magazine Award nomination, and she was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference. She recently secured representation for her novel Naked, Shining, and Alive.