MASTER CLASS
The Master Class is a juried-in workshop for up to ten selected participants which convenes each morning of our annual conference.
Applications for the 2025 Master Class will be available in January, 2025. For updates, sign up for our newsletter.
Applicants are selected by the Master Class instructor.
Master Class tuition of $875 will be required upon selection and includes breakfast and lunch all three days of the conference, as well as entry to the afternoon and evening events.
about the 2024 master class
THE NOVEL IN THREE STAGES: INSPIRATION, FIRST DRAFT AND REVISION
A novel can be developed in three basic stages: inspiration, first draft, and revision.
Inspiration can include dreams, automatic writing, visual art, music, movement, visions, myths, legends, fairy tales, history, real-life events, and catharsis.
First draft work can include character development (including gift/flaw, want/need, arc and wound), plot, setting, voice, and theme.
Revision can include strengthening all elements of the draft and considering external structure through story beats.
In this workshop we will start by doing some exercises to inspire. Then we will do some exercises to develop, using Francesca Lia Block’s highly effective “12 Questions." And finally we will do some exercises to shape using various structural approaches.
about the master class instructor
Francesca Lia Block
Francesca Lia Block, M.F.A., is the author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly.