That’s Professor Crusie, Please
So those of you who have been dying to learn to write romance from me AND get college credit, you’re in luck. Starting in the fall, Pam Regis and I will teaching the McDaniel College Romance Writing Program, which is a five-course online graduate program with full college credit. (The graduate credit can be transferred into a McDaniel Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) degree.)
You’re probably wondering how this happened. (If not, pretend to wonder. I’m still amazed.) Nora Roberts has given McDaniel College a lot of money to start a Center for the Study of Romance, which includes support for the romance collection in the Hoover Library, the establishment of a minor in romance fiction, and–TA DA–an online romance writing program. The fabulous Pam Regis is the director of the center and she e-mailed me and said, “Hey, do you want to teach online?” and I said, “Yes,” and she said, “Good, help me design the courses,” and we did. So if you don’t like the way this is set up, blame me, because every time I said, “Do THIS,” Pam said, “Okay.” I love working with Pam.
The graduate level program has five eight-week courses that taken consecutively should result not only in a detailed understanding of romance and the writing of it but also in a complete and throughly critiqued proposal (by me, so stock up on wine and anti-depressants) ready to be sent to editors. (Yes, you have to take the courses consecutively.) You must have a bachelor’s degree (graduate level, folks), and a checkbook (it’s $1290 per course, so that’s about $6500 for forty weeks of The Crusie Theory of Novel Writing), and apply between July 1st and July 27th for the first course, “Reading the Romance,” which starts on August 27th (apply as in “submit a graduate application, application fee, and official undergraduate transcripts from an accredited institution verifying a degree”).
You can get the official descriptions of the courses through McDaniel, but here’s the quick-and-dirty version (Pam and I will both be teaching the first Reading the Romance Course, I’ll be teaching the last four, assuming I don’t get hit by a truck or do something so horrible McDaniel fires me):
o Reading the Romance:
This is pretty much “reading as a writer,” going through ten romance and women’s fiction novels and looking for characterization, structure, theme and all the other things that go into a great romance novel. Basically, we’re going to force you to read ten romance novels for college credit and then talk about how the writers did the things they did so you can do them, too. And since I know some of the writers, I’m going to rope them into talking about what they did (Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Barbara O’Neal, and Patricia Gaffney have already said they’ll do online chats, and I have enough dirt on Stuart and Rich that they’ll chat, too; I’ll be asking the others as we get closer to the class dates). It’s the Introduction to Romance As We See It before you get into the classes where I make you write it and show it to me and the other students in your class. Romance writing is not for wimps.
Required Reading:
Montana Sky, Nora Roberts
Heaven, Texas, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase
Indigo, Beverly Jenkins
Dogs and Goddeses, Anne Stuart, Lani Diane Rich, Jennifer Crusie
Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
The Saving Graces, Patricia Gaffney
How to Bake a Perfect Life, Barbara O’Neal
o Writing the Romance Novel I:
The second course is all about character and relationships, looking at the roles of the protagonist and antagonist in writing romance, the psychology of love and how to apply it in writing the romance, and the importance of community and all the relationships within it as both foil and subtext to the romance. We’ll workshop first scenes and first chapters and study the relationships in your novel-in-progress.
o Writing the Romance Novel II
The third course is about structure, how to use classic plot structure, scene structure, and focus in terms of time (pacing), voice, and theme. We’ll analyze the plot of your novel-in-progress and you’ll construct a polished synopsis.
o Romance Writing Workshop
This is where you put the first three courses all together, or How To Revise Your Novel. You’ll be doing mostly critiquing during this eight weeks, which is good because I found during my MFA that I learned a lot more critiquing other people’s work than I did doing my own.
o Publishing
And in the last eight weeks, you get the business course, how traditional publishing and e-publishing work (short version: it’s a casino, honey), how to work with agents and editors, and how to market your work. At the end of this course, you’ll know who you want to send your proposal to and you’ll have a good proposal to send: first thirty pages, synopsis, and query letter. What we don’t promise you: that you’ll get published. Absolutely no guarantees there, you just roll the dice and take your chances.
I’ll hold office hours online so you can come into a chat room and ask questions at specific times, plus we’ll have online meetings to discuss projects and critique work and chats with authors and others, but for the most part, you can work any time you want. Feel free to ask questions: we’re still putting the courses together so some things are still being decided, but the above description is pretty much what you’ll get. Any questions about credit hours and transfers and general admissions info should be directed to McDaniel or your own institution of learning.
Question: How is this different from Writewell?
Answer: It’s the difference between a really great bicycle and a Mercedes. At Writewell you get a lecture and support materials for a reasonable price, but you get no direct feedback from me. At McDaniel, you get me and the rest of your classmates, talking about writing in general and the romance genre in particular, and beyond that, discussing your work in particular. I can’t guarantee I’ll read your entire novel, but we’ll be talking about most of it every week over a span of forty weeks.
And now I must go back to work. Next up: Pictures of my crochet. Because I have the attention span of a gnat.
