This 10-week workshop incorporates lectures, writing exercises, and peer critique of student work. This course suits beginners and anyone looking to strengthen their grasp of fundamental fiction techniques. A detailed course syllabus is available below.
You may also want to explore Gotham's premium Zoetrope Fiction Writing options: Zoetrope Fiction I or Zoetrope Fiction II.
Fiction is a remarkable act of imagination and creation. Using only words and the reader's creative mind, fiction can transport readers across oceans in pursuit of a whale, send them traveling through time to other dimensions, or focus intimately on minutes in line at a bank, drawing them into a constructed world that feels genuinely real.
Achieving this requires a combination of technical skill, creative courage, and a deep understanding of human behavior and motivation. In this course, you will master time-tested elements of fiction craft and learn effective strategies for marketing your finished work.
Whether your goal is writing short stories or novels, whether you want to create commercial, literary, or genre fiction, whether your tone is comic or tragic, you will learn how to transform your ideas into believable, captivating narratives.
Important Notes
- Fiction I covers both short stories and novels. Upon completing Level I, you can choose between Short Fiction Writing II (emphasizing short stories), or Novel II Critique or Novel II First Draft (emphasizing novel-length work).
- If you are writing genre fiction, you may enroll in either a Fiction or Novel course, or choose one of our specialized genre courses: Science Fiction and Fantasy, Romance, or Mystery.
- If you are developing a Young Adult novel, you have several options: enroll in a Fiction or Novel course, take a genre course, or explore our Children's Book course, which covers the full spectrum of children's literature.
This course provides a solid foundation in fiction craft fundamentals and guides you through writing one or more short stories or a novel. Course components include:
- Lectures
- Writing exercises
- Workshopping of student projects, with each student presenting work twice
Weekly Schedule
- Week 1: Introduction to Fiction. Exploring the different types and forms of fiction, finding inspiration and ideas, and understanding the importance of craft.
- Week 2: Character. Finding compelling characters, developing dimensional characters through desire and internal conflicts, creating character profiles, mastering showing versus telling, and learning various techniques for revealing character.
- Week 3: Plot. Discovering your story's central dramatic question, structuring a compelling beginning, middle, and end, understanding plot differences between short stories and novels, and exploring the advantages and disadvantages of outlining.
- Week 4: Point of View. Defining point of view and exploring the many perspectives available to fiction writers.
- Week 5: Description. Using sensory details effectively, employing specificity and creative techniques, selecting precise language, and integrating description with your chosen point of view.
- Week 6: Dialogue. Understanding the importance of scene, creating dialogue that sounds authentic, mastering quotation marks and tags, using stage directions effectively, employing summarized dialogue, building characterization through speech, understanding subtext, and working with dialect.
- Week 7: Setting and Pacing. Working with time, place, and weather, describing the setting vividly, merging character with setting, manipulating time through pacing techniques, and effectively using flashbacks.
- Week 8: Voice. Understanding voice, exploring various voice types, developing your unique voice, and learning how style components like syntax, word choice, and paragraph structure contribute to voice.
- Week 9: Theme and Revision. Defining theme and identifying theme types, weaving theme naturally into narrative, and exploring the various stages of the revision process.
- Week 10: The Business. Learning proper manuscript formatting, targeting publishing houses, literary magazines, and literary agents, and mastering the query letter.
Note: Content may vary by individual course section.
About Online Classes:
- Online classes connect students from around the world with Gotham, New York City's most respected writing school.
- Classes operate asynchronously, not in real time. You can participate whenever suits your schedule, day or night, though classes advance week by week with designated weekly tasks and milestones.
- Online writing classes can be taken from any location with internet access. While our online student population is primarily located in the United States, we attract participants from nearly every country on Earth.
- Technical support will be provided throughout the course.
- Beyond the convenience of flexible timing and location, you have access to a complete record of all class materials that you can print and keep for your reference. Materials are presented in text and image formats rather than video.
