Most novelists set out to tell a story about one or more people who are anxious to change something about their lives, who need to make choices, who hope to make some kind of discovery, or who want to move on in some way.
A good novelist offers the reader a story in which these events and actions have logical but unpredictable consequences, and which eventually lead to a satisfying conclusion, but which also give the reader some surprises along the way. This course will help you develop the techniques needed to achieve this.
A novelist needs motivation to write, and many published novelists write not only to earn money but also because they have something to say. You may wish to bring a specific situation or issue to the attention of your readers, or to put your own opinions on record, or to expose injustice. Or maybe you hope to write good stories which have no particular message for the world, but which will give their readers satisfaction and pleasure.
Almost all published novels tell some kind of story, and most of them offer the reader a conclusion which is satisfying in some way, even if it is not hopeful, happy or particularly neat. If you wish to become a published novelist, you should not end a novel in such a way that the reader is going to wonder if you simply ran out of things to say, or did not know how to round everything off.
The work done during this course, and the knowledge and understanding which you gain from your tutor, will set you on the right road to being a successful writer - plotting and dialogue, making your characters believable, understanding narrative, all of these are areas of writing capable of being improved by practice and skilled teaching.
If you have finished the course before completing your novel, and you wish to conyinue working with your tutor, you can buy 'extensions' to the course which allow you to continue by submit additional chapters to your tutor. Extensions cover either 5 or 10 chapters each time, and the process can be continued until your novel is finished.
