Adult Writing Workshop: Shape Your Novel in 4 Weeks with Dana De Greff

Everyone loves the idea of writing a novel…until they start it and realize they don’t know what they’re doing! “The Shape of a Novel” breaks down what you need to write a novel and how to outline your book before you start it so that when you’re stuck you have a blueprint to return to.

Workshops will include brief lectures on how to put your ideas on paper, ways to organize a narrative, how to build great scenes, character development, point of view, world building, creating conflict, how to form memorable settings, and more. We’ll use examples from writers such as Toni Morrison, Celeste Ng, and Margaret Atwood, as well as discuss strategies for battling writer’s block, finding ideas from everyday life, and using creative prompts for inspiration to help you write every day (or almost every day).

Note: You don’t need to be a writer to take this workshop or to have ever written a novel before. All you need is an open mind, a love of words, and a desire to learn how to write a novel!

Born in Miami, Dana De Greff holds a Masters in Fine Arts in fiction from the University of Miami and is the Founder & Executive Director of PageSlayers, a 2016 Knight Arts Challenge Winner that provides free creative writing summer camps in Opa-Locka. She is the author of Alterations (winner of the 2018 Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series published by Seven Kitchens Press), recipient of the 2018 Lillian E. Smith Writer-in-Service Award, and the 2017-2018 Literary Artist-in-Residence at the Deering Estate. She has taught creative writing workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, to students of all ages in both English and Spanish in places such as Austin, Texas, Patagonia, Chile, and Miami Florida. She is currently looking for a good home for her first novel, The Odyssey Hotel, and is represented by Writers House. You can find her writing and other tidbits at danadegreff.com.