Hi
folks,
Well,
we’re just finishing up our final week on the current session of my online
novel-writing class, “Les Edgerton’s Bootcamp for Writers,” and find ourselves
a couple of openings. Our next session will begin on May 26 and consists of a
ten-week session, with the probability of taking a week off sometime during the
term to recharge batteries.
This
is a call for new class members. Not sure how many openings we’ll have as we
offer vacancies first to our auditors.
The
basics are the course costs $400 and it’s limited to ten people. The $400 is
nonrefundable, as if a person quits during the session it would be impossible
to fill that vacancy. As this is my primary source of income, it would be
detrimental for myself and my family. It’s very rare that anyone opts out once
begun, however. In over five years, there have only been two.
We’ve
had a remarkable history of success. Nearly three dozen writers over the past dozen
years who has become a part of our class or whom I’ve coached privately has
gone on to being legitimately published and/or secured a good literary agent.
In fact, that is our only goal—to become legitimately published.
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.
Some of our class meet up in
Scottsdale to celebrate classmate Maegan Beaumont's first published novel.
I
figured I’d let some of the class members give you their take on our class.
They don’t hold back and they all have tough skins. They will all tell you the
same thing. It isn’t a class for sissies or for those who need their hands held
or lots of pats on the back. Becoming published is hard, hard work and isn’t an
undertaking for sissies. To get there, our students know they have to put on
their Big Boy and Big Girl pants and expect to work harder than they ever have
in their lives—and to never, ever “settle” their standards of excellence.
From a student several years ago:
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.
From another student:
The novel that I am currently trying
to sell has been a work in progress for several years. 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. (Note: This
novel sold and the writer is currently working on her fifth novel.)
Class
members come from all over the globe. We’ve had students from the UK, Ireland,
Taiwan, Spain, all parts of the U.S., Canada, Australia, Luxembourg and many
other places. We work with writers in virtually every genre on the bookshelves.
The
way class works is that the class is divided into two equal groups. We used to
have just one group, but it got to be too much for many students. In the past,
everybody in the class was required to read everybody else’s work each week and
provide in-depth comments on everyone’s work. That meant they had to read nine
other class members’ work and deliver intelligent commentary on each one. We’ve
since evolved to a more manageable number where now each class member reads and
delivers comments on just four other classmates’ work. I provide comments on
everybody’s work and that’s why the class is limited to only ten. With ten
writers, I can give each person the quality of time and analysis each deserves.
Each
week begins on Sunday evening, when people can begin submitting their weekly
pages from Sunday until Thursday. If it’s a new writer to the class, they are
allowed to submit their first five pages of their novel, plus an outline which
consists of five statements and a total of 15-20 words. Oldtimers in class call
this “inciting incident hell.” If the outline isn’t working and their beginning
doesn’t represent the inciting incident as provided in their outline, they are
required to keep submitting each week until it does. Our feeling is if they
haven’t thought through their novels sufficiently and provided a publishable
novel structure (evidenced by the outline), then they most likely don’t have a
novel ready to be written and to simply plunge ahead will almost invariably
lead to an unfinished novel. We don’t want that.
Once
they’ve been okayed for the beginning, from thereafter they can submit up to
eight pages per week, along with the others in class.
Time
zones don’t matter. Everybody’s work, including everyone’s comments and my own
comments on each person’s work each week is posted on the class site and folks
can go to it any time of the day or night. Class members can begin sending back
their comments on each others’ in their group from Sunday through the following
Sunday, when it begins again. Although, in practicality, most members send in
their work each week on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It’s like being in an
“on-ground” class in that everything said or done in class is seen by
everybody.
We
do have a chat function and people use it all the time, even though they’re in
different time zones. One of the best things about this class is that we have
lots of oldtimers who know from their own experience what works in a novel and
what doesn’t and more importantly… why
it works or doesn’t work. It’s like having a group of seven or eight other
professionals helping you with your own novel. Probably at any given time in
class, there will be four or five who already have had a novel or several
published as a result of being in class, so it’s a really rarefied group. And,
if you think that you couldn’t operate in a situation like this because you’re
a beginner, that simply isn’t the case here at all. Nearly every single person
in each class began just the way you did, as a rank beginner. And, they
remember and they have complete empathy for your situation, if you’re a
beginning writer.
It’s
not a situation of simply saying, “This doesn’t work.” Myself and others in class
will surely say that, but we then let you know why it didn’t work and give you
solid suggestions on how to make it work. We collectively have a nurturing
nature and all of us want the newcomer to succeed just about as badly as that
writer wants to.
If
you are still interested but still feel intimidated, I think if you simply look
at how the class works, you’ll quickly see how you’ll fit in comfortably. Since
we’ve got one week left in class, for anyone who would like to see up close and
personal how we work as a class, I’d be delighted to give you auditor status
for our last week. Besides class members, we also have an auditor function
which works the same as it does in a “regular” college class. You’re admitted
to class and can view every single thing we’re doing and the entire class
session is archived and easy to access. Normally, the cost of auditing the
class is $50, but for our last week, for those interested in simply getting a
look at how we work, just email me at butchedgerton@comcast.net
and let me know and I’ll have our class administrator, Holly, get you on board
asap.
If you're interested but don't feel you're ready to begin writing your novel, we also offer the opportunity to audit class for $50.00. It works the same as auditing a regular college class on the ground. You sit in on the class and see everything we do--you just don't actively participate. It's a valuable experience as most of the things the writers in class experience are the same problems every writer faces. It's also a great way to see how we work and make entering a future session much more comfortable. Just contact me at butchedgerton@comcast.net and we'll get you on board. I've had countless participants tell me it was an extraordinary experience for them. One guy told me he'd learned more about how to structure and write a novel in just ten weeks of observing our class in action than he had during his MFA years. That's probably because we're teaching actual writing techniques that work and nothing on contemplating our navels...
I
know there are no doubt a lot of questions you may have. Please feel free to
contact me at any time and ask me anything you’d like.
From
past experience, when we’ve had openings like this, they go quickly, so if you
are interested, please get in touch, okay?
For
those interested in such things, here are a few of my own qualifications to
teach writing.
MFA
in Writing from Vermont College
Taught
writing for the UCLA Writer’s Program
Taught
writing via Skype for the New York Writer’s Workshop
Writer-in-Residence
for three years for the University of Toledo
Writer-in-Residence
for one year for Trine University
Taught
writing classes for St. Francis University
Taught
writing classes for Phoenix College
Taught
writing for Writer’s Digest Online Classes
Taught
writing classes for Vermont College
Published
20+ books, including craft books on writing, novels, sports books, YA novel, historical
nonfiction book, humor nonfiction, black comedy novel, noir, thrillers, memoir, literary and existential fiction.
Dozens
of short stories published in such publications as The South Carolina Review,
High Plains Literary Review, Aethlon, Flatmancrooked, Murdaland, Best American
Mystery Stories and many others.
A
lot of living… much of it as an outlaw…
Blue
skies,
Les
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