Alexander Chee here, back with a new class: What Is A Novel For?

Is your idea a novel, interconnected stories, a memoir, a memoir in essays? A screenplay? A new class takes one idea through an adventure in forms.

The idea for the new class is this: We will walk a story idea through a variety of formal possibilities. The two sessions, a month apart, will be available for a limited time by recording if the class time is out of sync with your schedule or time zone—each will be up for a month afterward on a password protected site. Closed captioning and ASL interpreters will be included and scholarships are available. There will be a mix of writing prompts before and after each session and a letter from me also to get at what might be left over. And I’ll host a community discussion here, answering questions.

I see the class as the answer to a perennial question I and other writers get frequently at Q&As: “When you’re writing something, how do you know what it will be?” The person asking is often embarrassed, as if of course we all instantly know. And some of us do. But many don’t. It is a good question. Not only how do we know but how do we decide?

Before now, I have usually said something about listening to the idea, or I might talk about the difference between a scene coming first—more often the case with fiction— or a line—a poem often comes that way—and sometimes I will discuss autobiography, point of view, the possibilities in fiction and the essay, and so forth. But it seemed time for a better and more coherent answer, at length, and so this class will model how to walk an idea through several formal variations, and the pros and cons of each. It will also be a useful class for those of you who have taken up the task of adapting material from say a novel to a film or television show. Or for those of you who have considered writing a memoir after trying and even succeeding to write and publish a novel.

For those looking for more, I am also teaching this summer at Sewanee and Provincetown. More details on those workshops soon.

Cheers,

Alexander Chee