A COUPLE OF OPENINGS IN OUR ONLINE NOVEL-WRITING CLASS

Hi folks,

As most of you know, I run an online novel writing class that runs for ten weeks at a time and is in operation year-round. We’re coming up to the end of the current session this week, and then will take a couple of weeks off and then begin the next session on October 29. Most times, we don’t have openings for new class members, but it looks as if we’re going to have a couple of openings this time, so I just want to let folks know in case anyone’s interested. If you are, please send me an email at butchedgerton@comcast.net and let me know. Below, I’ll give an outline of how it works. When new openings occur, first chance to join is given to the adjuncts and after that it’s a first-come, first-served basis. To be able to devote the proper time to each student, the class will be limited to twelve people. An unlimited number of adjuncts are taken.

Me and Joe Lansdale in Indy after a meal...

Auditors

Those interested in auditing the class—which would allow the auditing person to receive and view everything the rest of the class does, but not be able to participate actively, solely as an observer. The fee is substantially less for auditors than participating students at $50. Basically, auditors will sit in on the class as an observer. There can be an unlimited number of auditors. Some in class are uncomfortable with very many observing their work and our exchanges as, to be honest, many of our comments are brutally frank. Students know and welcome this, but to someone not directly participating can see it another way. There won’t be any interaction at all with auditors—they’ll be there simply to use the knowledge they might pick up for their own writing or even their own teaching.

Pertinent info for active class members:

This class will be conducted in a workshop format. What that means is each week participants will send a designated number of pages to both me and the other members of the class. When I receive each person’s work, I’ll provide comments/criticism/suggestions to improve for each student on their work and then send it back to them and the others in class. Each person in class does the same for each other—reading and providing comments on each other’s work and sending that back to the class and me. The class is divided into two groups so each person will need to read and comment on 5-6 people’s work. That doesn’t mean they can’t read work from those in the other group—anyone can read anyone else’s work. This is just to keep each member’s work down to a reasonable level. It’s exactly like being in an “on-ground” workshop. I’ve found over a lifetime of teaching classes—beginning with the UCLA Writer’s Program—that this is the single best method of learning. There is a synergy at work with this model. Many writing classes consist of the student sending work in and the instructor commenting. That’s okay, in a limited way, but when you have ten others plus the instructor or workshop leader commenting, the value of the class increases almost exponentially.

I believe in road maps when embarking on the lengthy journey a novel entails; therefore, I ask each student to submit a 15-20 word outline of their proposed novel. I don’t have the space here to explain how that works, but I send a handout on how to create such an outline before the class begins, and it serves to keep the writer focused on their novel throughout its creation and also helps the workshop leader and his/her classmates see instantly if the writer is focused or meandering. I’m a firm believer in beginning a novel in the proper place and once that is achieved, the remainder of the novel becomes infinitely easier to create. We’ll spend the most time on a writer’s novel beginning than any other part of their novel.

This class will be composed of students who’ve previously taken classes with me along with newcomers. To be able to serve each level of student fairly, students who are well along into their novel and have taken previous classes, will be able to submit up to eight pages per week. New students who haven’t taken my class, will be allowed to submit up to four pages per week until they’ve achieved a publishable opening, and, once they’ve achieved a proper beginning, will then be able to send eight pages each week thereafter. Please know that this may sound like favoritism, but it’s not at all. The beginning of a novel is the single most crucial part of writing a novel, imo, and I spend more time on that than anything else. I’ve learned over many years, that a great many writers have a poor understanding of a novel’s structure and it’s crucial that a sound knowledge of novel structure (particularly beginnings) be achieved before devoting much time to the rest of the novel. I’ll spend as much time on the newer student’s four pages than I will on the more experienced writer’s. Please feel free to query those in class who’ve been with me before as to their opinion and I feel certain they’ll agree with me. I’ll be happy to furnish names and email addresses for those writers should you wish to ask their opinion.

Periodically, I also send handouts to the class on some element of writing, as well as other pertinent info that’s useful.

Be forewarned that this workshop isn’t for the faint of heart! Some have termed it “Les Edgerton’s Bootcamp for Writers.” In “real life” I’m not a mean person, but with writing I’m not going to hold hands nor hand out false praise. That’s what writing groups are for and they do it well. I expect each person to participate fully and comment on each other’s work just as they would want others to do the same for theirs. I don’t tolerate very well, those who keep making the same mistakes week after week. For example, the proper and professional format is explained at the beginning and each class there are always one or two newcomers who keep making the same, easily-fixed mistake. Here’s a common example: One of the format rules is that there is only one space between sentences in computer-generated material. Many older writers, in the typewriter days of yore, were taught to use two spaces. The kernaling in computers is different than typewriters and using two spaces is a sure sign of an amateur who hasn’t kept up with current usages and just another red flag a writer ought to avoid. I understand it’s a hard habit to overcome—I had to do the same myself—but there is an easy way to relearn this which we give, and even if it takes awhile to relearn this, a writer can at least do a final edit before sending work in and correct this. To not do so, indicates to me a writer who doesn’t respect either themselves or their fellow writers or the teacher. Frankly, I don’t want to waste time with this type of writer. I’m not speaking of the writer who makes occasional mistakes, but of the one who continually keeps making the same mistake after it’s been pointed out.

Writing well isn’t easy. It’s hard. If someone has told you that writing is easy, they’ve lied to you. Typing is easy; writing is hard. Our aim in our class is to help writers create publishable work. By reputable publishers, not vanity presses.

If I haven’t scared you off, here are the particulars:

1. Fee is $400, payable in advance and nonrefundable. Auditor’s fee is $50 and is also nonrefundable.

2. Each week, you’ll send to the entire group and me, your pages. You’ll also receive work from your classmates to read and provide comments on. The comments aren’t intended to be scholarly or exhibit some high degree of technical knowledge. We just want to know what worked for you in the writing and what didn’t and why you think it did or didn’t.

3. To help make the class run smoothly, there will be deadlines each week. For instance, if the class begins on a Sunday each week, you’ll send in your work by the following Wednesday. Then, starting on Thursday, you’ll send in your comments on each other’s work. I’ll send my comments to each of you by Saturday night. Then, the next week begins on the following Sunday.

4. Often, the class and I kind of hit a wall. It’s pretty intense. To account for that event, we may take a week hiatus and return the following week. In fact, you can pretty well count on that.

5. We don’t expect a student to be a professional writer at all. It’s a class, not an advanced degree program. Our aim is to help each writer become better at their craft as a result of the class, and to learn how to professionally submit material, and to hopefully end up creating work that is publishable legitimately.

6. While I would never say I would recommend students to agents or publishers, very often I do. The people who finish the class almost always have progressed to the point where their work is, indeed, publishable, and when that happens I’m eager to introduce them and their work to gatekeepers.

7. Required reading will be my book, HOOKED, and Jack Bickham’s book, SCENES & STRUCTURE. Recommended reading will be Janet Burroway’s WRITING FICTION.

If anyone is interested and has more questions, please feel free to email me at butchedgerton@comcast.net.

Thank you,

Les

P.S. Some additional info…

We’ll have a couple of new students this time—most writers keep re-upping each time but occasionally one or two will drop out for various reasons: demands of a new job not allowing them to commit the considerable time that is required to participate, needing time off to address the notes their new agent just gave them for the novel he signed, and so on. Most just keep on, even after they’ve gotten an agent and/or sold their novel, and begin writing a new one. Almost all who stick out the entire session come back. The ones who quit usually quit fairly soon into the class. It’s not for everyone. Nobody holds anybody’s hand and every single one of us is focused on but one thing—helping each other write a novel that’s publishable. It’s a tough game and not for everyone.

I try to warn people who are thinking of joining us, how tough the class is, but I know from past experience that even so forewarned, at least some are going to be in for a shock when they see that we really don’t hold hands, pat people on the back for minimum efforts, or overlook writing that doesn’t work. I’m not cruel (at least I don’t think so) nor are any of the oldtimers in class, but most new folks haven’t been exposed to a class like ours. The truth is, most writers who haven’t had a class like ours has been praised in other classes or most likely, has been in classes that use the “sandwich” method of teaching. You know—that deal where the teach applies a bit of praise, then a bit of criticism, and then a bit of praise. Well, that ain’t our shtick. Not even close. The comments we all provide on everyone’s work fit one definition only. They’re honest.

This isn’t to be mean or to act like we’re the only folks around who know what good writing is. Except… we do. I’m not aware of any other class out there with the kind of track record ours enjoys. Virtually every writer who stays the course with us ends up with a top agent and/or a book deal. That doesn’t happen in a single ten-week session. About the earliest anyone has earned an agent or book deal in our class has been about a year. And, that’s reasonable.

The thing is, our writers don’t expect things to be easy.

Here are a few comments by students:

Hi ________. Since Les opened the floor for comments from the "class veterans" I'm chipping in with my two cents. I have a file cabinet filled with stuff I sent Les and then needed asbestos gloves to take the paper off the printer. When I started this journey, I'd never taken an English class past high school. (I was pre-med in college) I figured I love to read, so how hard can it be? Okay, quit laughing at me. Clearly, when I wrote my first version of my first novel, I had no idea about story structure, POV, any of that. I figured I'm pretty articulate and therefore I can write?

Les quickly set me straight. All of this is to point out that we've all been on the receiving end of Les' brutal honesty. I will find some of the comments he made on my work and post them but phrases like "throwing up in my mouth now" and "bury this so deep in the yard no one ever finds it" are seared into my brain and I don't have to look to find those!!! The point is, I took other classes before I met Les and the teachers were kind and gentle and never told me I sucked. If it weren't for Les, I'd still be churning out awful drivel that makes people want to throw up instead of trying not to throw up while I wait to see if my agent is able to sell my book. I would never have gotten an agent without Les. So hang in there. Listen to everything he says and if it doesn't make sense, ask away.

The novel that I am currently trying to sell has been a work in progress since 2009. The first time Les saw it he sent it back and told me to re-write the WHOLE thing!!! My character was a wimp. She sat back and let things happen to her. I argued a little, rewrote a little and then moved on to another book. After a year, I went back and reread it and saw the truth. It was awful. So I took a deep breath and started over. Page one. First sentence. Re-wrote the entire thing. It took a full year and then I revised it again. It's definitely a process. But once you get the Inciting incident and the outline steps down pat, it's a whole lot easier. Trust me!!! And you'll never graduate completely. A few months ago, Les and I went head-to-head on one single passage. I was trying to be lazy and take the easy way out. He called me on it and I resubmitted three or four weeks in a row, revisions on the same passage. I was sure my classmates were so sick of it they were going to stick needles in their eyes rather than read it again! But in the end, the passage rocked!! So hang in there!!!! It'll get better.

That’s all, folks…

AUDITOR POSITIONS ARE OPEN

Hi folks,

Well, our latest bootcamp class session has ended and in about a week (Jan. 17) a new, ten-week session will be beginning. I’ve heard from several people who are interested in joining us, but alas, we only had two openings for writers this time and both were filled from the auditors who were on board last session. This is the first place we always go to when we need new class members.

Our auditor program has been a resounding success for the several years we’ve had it. Basically, auditors have access to everything we do in class at all times. They see how we operate, how we present our work, how it’s critiqued, and are privy to all the many conversations about craft the members have. It’s exactly like sitting in class with the only proviso that they can’t participate actively. Many auditors have told me that they learned more by sitting on the sidelines observing that they did in their university classes on writing. We are a serious group, with but one goal—that every member become published and published well. Our track record in that regard is excellent. And, we expect that goal to continue next session. As many as six writers will have finished the novels they’ve been working on in class and I believe all of them will find a legitimate publisher. A few nearing the completion of their novels have already secured good agents and are just putting the final polish on their manuscripts.

Which means that we will probably have several openings in the following session. Not that many—most who finish their novels opt to remain in class as they work on their next work. People who are already in class always have first dibs on being in the next session. When we do have openings, we’ll solicit from the ranks of the current auditors. If openings are not filled thusly, we then open it up to anyone who applies. This rarely happens.

A few years ago in Scottsdale with some of the class. Holly, Linda, moi, Mary and Maegan.

The purpose of this post is to let people know that we are always open to auditors. There are no limits on the number of auditors who can join us, simply because we don’t have to take any time for their work. It’s that simple. That’s also the reason we maintain class size at 10-12 people each session. That’s the number of participants that we can serve properly and fairly and thoroughly. Any more than that, we would run into a time problem. Both myself and all the class members take significant time to read and comment on the submissions each week, and if we added more to class, we’d have to spend less time on everyone else’s work and we’re just not going to do that.

The way class works, the class is divided into two groups. Holly Love, our class administrator and member herself, assigns each group to a color. Six in each group. Each writer is required to read and make detailed comments on the other five members in his/her group and return those for the class as a whole to view. That doesn’t mean that they can’t read and comment on any writers outside their group—they certainly can and do—but these are their required reads. A few years ago, each class member had to read and comment on everyone else’s work in class, but it got to be too much for more than a few, so we’ve divided the class in two now. I’m the only one who reads and comments on everyone’s work.

What’s different about our class is that we don’t care about placating people’s feelings. We’re not mean-spirited, but our standards are based on helping our fellow writers create a publishable novel. We’re not there to make people feel good or to lavish praise on each other. If praise is warranted, they’ll receive it, but our biggest focus is on what isn’t working and how to fix it.

This is the reason I formed this group several years ago. I’d taught in various universities and other venues, both online and on site, including the UCLA Writer’s Program, the University of Toledo, Phoenix College (the “real” college, not that internet pretend school you see on billboards), St. Francis University, Trine University, the New York Writer’s Workshop, Writer’s Digest Online Classes, Vermont College, and other venues. The reason I quit and opened up this class was that every one of those venues required their teachers to practice the “sandwich” method of teaching. Put simply, you were to provide a bit of praise (the bread), a piece of criticism (the meat), and then another bit of praise (more bread, ala the sandwich method. I simply couldn’t do it any longer. The truth is, often there is nothing to praise and I had to make up something. Mostly to salve their feelings. And, to make sure they had a pleasant experience and would return to take another class.

 

I just couldn’t do it any longer. I kept seeing students who were no closer to being published than when they began and they kept clinging on to the bits of praise handed out with their sandwich as some kind of justification that they were “writing.” Well, many were writing… just not writing well.

It was then I realized that praising someone for bullshit wasn’t a kindness at all. If they didn’t know their writing wasn’t working, they’d never do anything to get better. And, by and large, many didn’t. Many were perfectly happy, sitting in a warm, fuzzy club that kept feeding them these sandwiches. Kind of like more than one local writer’s club. Most people didn’t want to tell others the truth, which often was… “Your writing flat-out sucks.” When you tell someone that, they have two choices. 1. Disagree, often violently. 2. Agree, and do something about it. I only wanted to spend time with that second group. When I first began the classes, I fully expected a huge turnover each new session. We had a class structure and philosophy that didn’t deliver sandwiches to the others. If a writer’s work sucked, we told them that. With no mincing of words. But… and here’s the big “but”—we didn’t just say it sucked; we told them why and we also told them how they could improve it. Don’t misunderstand—we don’t promote “formulas” or anything like that in class. We tell them why it wasn’t working and suggested how they could make it more publishable.

What happened was that I got a huge surprise. People didn’t quit. They forged on and enrolled in a second class. And third… and… Their books began getting published. It turns out people aren’t as thin-skinned as too often thought. It turns out there are a lot of people who actually want someone to tell them why they’re not getting published and offer them tools to actually find a publisher and see their work in print. Some do… quit, that is… but not nearly as many as I figured we’d get. Some truly tough writers, who didn’t believe that genius was the only requirement to see their books end up on bookstore shelves. Who knew that hard work, patience and attitude were just as important and maybe even more so.

Those early folks (some of who are still with us, four years later), created a name for our class. It has become “Les Edgerton’s Bootcamp for Writers.” And, it is a bootcamp. We don’t tolerate sissies or quitters or know-it-alls or needy folks. Just don’t have time for that kind of person. We welcome men and women who are willing to do the hard, hard work of becoming publishable writers.

Anyway, sorry to go on like this, but I’m extremely proud of the writers in our classes. And, I’d like to invite you to join us as an auditor. I wish I could allow everyone who wants to become a working member, but I can’t. But, I think I can safely promise you that you’ll be courtside to a class where you’ll learn an awful lot about how to write a publishable book. And, safely. The class won’t even know you’re there. And, then, if you like what you see every day, when one of those rare openings occur, you’ll have the first shot at filling it.

Class membership is $400. To be an auditor is only $50.00.

If you’re interested and would like to know more about it or to just sign up, just email me at butchedgerton@comcast.net.

Thanks for taking the time to read and consider this. I’m wishing you nothing but profitable writing this coming year. Like that brilliant philosopher, Red Green, says: “I’m pulling for ya. We’re all in this together.”

Blue skies,

Les

Diana Beebe and I meet up in Dallas at the DFW convention. Diana recently won a major writing contest and her work is being looked at by several prominent agents and publishers. She's a member of our class.