What you'll learn:

This course is offered through the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.

Through video lectures, activities, discussions, video conferences, peer reviews, and direct feedback from your instructor, you will learn new tools and methods for tackling a deep and intensive revision, gain knowledge on how to work with edit letters from publishing professionals, leave this course with revised pages from your own novel, and create a solid plan for moving forward to complete a full revision.

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate how to incorporate deep revision tools and tactics through assignments, discussions, and peer reviews.
• Understand how to work with edit letters from publishing professionals to prepare your manuscript for submissions to agents and editors.
• Incorporate instructor and other student feedback in the revised pages from your own novel.
• Create a solid plan for moving forward with your manuscript to complete a full revision.

What you'll do:

• Week 1: Taking a Critical Eye to Your Novel
• Week 2: Creating the Road Map to Revise
• Week 3: Attacking Big-Picture Edits
• Week 4: Using Feedback and Working with Editors
• Week 5: Polishing the Manuscript

Who is this course designed for:

Fiction and creative nonfiction writers, authors, and novelists

What you'll receive:

Students will receive intimate feedback on chapters of their novel by the instructor and other class members, as well as in-depth knowledge on how to revise your novel and take it to the next level. All students will also receive an electronic "Certificate of Course Completion in Revising Your Novel" from the Piper Writers Studio at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

Required materials:

• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (ISBN 978-0385480017) - Required
• The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself by Susan Bell (ISBN-13: 978-0393332179) - Required
• Second Sight by Cheryl B. Klein (ISBN 978-0615420820)—specifically the chapters “The Art of Detection: One Editor’s Techniques for Analyzing and Revising Your Novel” and “Twenty-Five Revision Techniques” - Optional