Get Ready to Write Your Novel This November with Laura Castoro

Wednesdays, July 31 – September 4, 6:30-8:30pm CST, Hybrid
Instructor: Laura Castoro
Nonmember: $155; Member: $135; Student/Educator/Mil $75

*EARN CPE’S

Have you always dreamed of writing a novel, but didn’t know how to get started? Have you thought about participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but were too scared to actually do it?

National Novel Writing Month is this November! The goal of this annual writing challenge is to write a book of 50,000 words or more in 30 days. Although November seems like a ways away, there are things we can do to prepare for success now!

In this six-week novel writing prep course we will use National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) resources and more to do the pre-work to set ourselves up to draft a novel this (or any) November! We will explore tools and resources to help us create a dynamic storyline, build pivotal characters, bring the setting to life, and draft an outline. We will also set achievable goals for getting the book project completed.

If you are not ready to write a novel in 30 days, no worries! This course will help you generate new ideas and lay the groundwork for tackling that novel at your own pace.

We will open a discussion forum on WetInk, our online platform for creative writing classes, during National Novel Writing Month. Students will be able to post goals, updates, words of encouragement, and insights on their novel writing journey. Laura will check in with students 3 times via the Wet Ink Platform during National Novel Writing Month (November, 2024) to answer questions, respond to discussion, and cheer writers on.

Open to fiction writers of all skill levels who are ready to take on the challenge of writing a novel. Students are encouraged to bring laptops and their favorite writing tools.

Students will leave this course with:

• The setting, characters, plot, and outline drafted
• A calendar-driven plan of action for bringing your novel to life
• Resources and support for completing a 50,000-word novel

Laura Castoro, a USA Today, Amazon top 100, and Apple Books bestseller, has published 47 novels with major publishing houses such as Dell Books, Berkley, Avon, Warner, MIRA, Harlequin, Kensington, Pocketbooks, St, Harper Collins, Martins Press, and William Morrow. She has also contributed to several fiction anthologies and has published non-fiction YA and short fiction in Good Housekeeping. Under the name Laura Parker, she writes historical and contemporary romance, westerns, and sagas. As Laura Castoro, she writes contemporary African American and contemporary women’s fiction. Writing as D. D. Ayres, she publishes a romantic suspense series called the K-9 Rescue Series. Her current release as Laura Castoro is Love On The Line (2021) through William Morrow.

Laura has won multiple national writing awards. In 2005, she was inducted into the Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame. She is a past president of Novelists, Inc. (2013), an international professional fiction writers’ organization. She is a past president and board member of the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, a writer residency program in the AR Ozarks. She is a speaker at numerous conferences and workshops in the U.S. and abroad. Laura currently lives in San Antonio, TX. Visit Laura at www.ddayres.com