Blueprint Your Book 2013
A 6-Week Intensive
for Crafting Your Manuscript
August 31—Oct. 18, 2013
with Minal Hajratwala
Blueprint Your Book is a crash course in structure — to help you transform your ideas and rough drafts into a cohesive, compelling manuscript.
Every book makes its own shape in the world, just like a body. As Michelangelo said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” We’ll chisel deep into the foundations of great storytelling to find the shape that works best for you. You’ll end up with an organic form and an action plan that gives you full freedom to sculpt your story whole.
Each week, you’ll receive a lesson packed with tools and exercises that you can put to work now. You’ll spend the week exploring, applying the new ideas to your own work, and workshopping your results with your classmates. You’ll also receive personalized feedback from me. You’ll learn:
The top five successful book structures
How to create your own organic structure (a.k.a., this is not your school essay outline)
What you most need to know about plot and narrative drive
How to sort out overlapping timelines and handle flashbacks
How to develop your characters’ motivations to drive the story
How to get crystal-clear about your themes (i.e. What the heck is this book about?)
The strengths and unique qualities that others see in your project — even when you might not
How to structure your time and your support system
How to deal with your inner critics
How to strike the balance between form and freedom, to create a form that lets you write everything your book needs to say
You’ll also receive:
Insightful, personal critique from me on the work you generate in class
Encouraging, thoughtful workshopping from peers
Dozens of easy, 15- to 30-minute writing prompts to bring out the book that’s in you
And you’ll end up with an action plan to drive your project all the way to completion.
You can use this course as the perfect setup for National Novel Writing Month: the challenge of writing 50,000 words this November. (I’ve done it twice, using these same tools to create my workplan, and it’s a remarkable experience!)
You’re ready to Blueprint Your Book if you:
Yearn for a clear plan to help you make progress on your manuscript.
Wrestle with character arcs, plot, and theme — but can’t imagine reducing your gorgeously complex story to a mere “outline.”
Want a solid foundation to get you started.
Are halfway through and need a jolt of clarity to propel you to the end!
Fee: $565 US.
Registration: Pay $565 by PayPal to hajratwala {at} gmail {dot} com to reserve your space.
Dates: We start August 31 and finish October 18, 2013.
Requirements: An email address and internet access twice a week. You can join from anywhere in the solar system. All genres and genders are welcome.
Questions? Please scroll down for Frequently Asked Questions, or email me.
About the Instructor
Minal Hajratwala is the author of Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), which has been called “incomparable” by Alice Walker and “searingly honest” by the Washington Post. The book won a Pen USA Award, an Asian American Writers Workshop Award, a Lambda Literary Award, a California Book Award (Silver, Nonfiction), and was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Writing Prize. She spent seven years researching and writing the book, traveling the world to interview more than seventy-five members of her extended family.
She is the also editor of Out! Stories From the New Queer India (Queer Ink, 2013), a groundbreaking anthology of contemporary LGBT literature since the decriminalization of homosexuality in India. She spent 2010-11 as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in India researching a novel, while also writing poems about the unicorns of the ancient Indus Valley. Her creative work has received recognition and support from the Sundance Institute, the Jon Sims Center for the Arts, the SerpentSource Foundation, and the Hedgebrook writing retreat for women, where she has served on the Alumnae Leadership Council. Her one-woman show, “Avatars: Gods for a New Millennium,” was commissioned by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco for World AIDS Day in 1999. As a journalist, she worked at the San Jose Mercury News from 1992 to 2000 as an editor, reporter, and the newspaper’s first reader representative (ombudsperson). She is a graduate of Stanford University and held a fellowship in the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in 2000-01.
As a writing coach, Ms. Hajratwala believes language is magical, and she loves helping individuals and organizations access the power to express themselves in words. She has taught writing workshops nationally and internationally at universities, community organizations, and online, including as a 2012 memoir faculty member at the Voices of Our Nations Arts summer program for writers of color on the University of California-Berkeley campus.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q. How do I sign up for Blueprint Your Book?
The quickest way: Via PayPal.com, submit a payment of $565 to hajratwala {at} gmail {dot} com. You can use your Paypal funds or a credit card. You’ll get a confirmation from PayPal immediately, and a welcome email from me within 24 hours.
If you’ve never used PayPal, don’t worry. It’s easy and takes about 3 minutes. Grab your credit or debit card, then just follow these simple steps:
Go to www.paypal.com
Go to “Buy” and then “Make a payment.”
Enter “hajratwala@gmail.com,” then your email address, then the amount, $565.
Click Continue and follow the directions to finish.
That’s it!
If you prefer to mail a check:
Send a check for $565 to:
Minal Hajratwala
847 East Angela St.
Pleasanton CA 94566
Please drop me an email *after* you have put the check in the mail. I will consider that your registration date and start sending you materials, so that we don’t have to wait for the snail mail to arrive.
In India, if you want to deposit directly to my account, ask me for my details.
Or send your owl / passenger pigeon / unicorn. (Please do not pay in leprechaun money, though.)
Payment is due in full before your first class, unless… scroll to the bottom of this FAQ.
Q. What is the time commitment?
This is an intensive course. You’ll want to allot a minimum of 2 hours per week to read the weekly lesson, try out a few of the exercises, and participate in the workshopping. The assignments are flexible and each week, you’ll be given a choice of things to do. If you got excited and did everything on the list, you could spend up to 10-12 hours a week — or even more, if you decide to write, write, write!
Q. Can I get a sneak preview of the syllabus?
Of course! Here you go:
Week 1: Time. Timelines, flashbacks, cause and effect, time period research, chronological and non-chronological elements of storytelling.
Week 2: Place. Maps, memories, geographical research, world-building.
Week 3: Plot. Arcs, acts, mysteries, suspense, tension/trauma points, narrative drive, post-outlines, emotional maps.
Week 4: Character. Development, motivation, interviewing, interactions, quest/journey.
Week 5: Theme. Image, metaphor, symbol, central argument, throughline, core meaning.
Week 6: Action plan. Putting together what you’ve learned. Writer’s life: support circle, critique, inner critics, calendaring, goals, blueprint for completion.
Q. Seriously, we’re going to do all that?
I’m going to offer you all that —because that’s what makes this an intensive. Then, you’re going to choose what you most need right now — because that’s what makes you the writer in charge of your own process.
The truth is, I’ll give you way more than you can possibly do in six weeks. Somewhere in there will be the gems that will transform your writing, right where you are now — so you won’t waste time doing anything irrelevant or that doesn’t resonate.
Remember, the purpose of this course is to set you up to finish your book. Use the tools you need now. Keep the rest for when you need them, weeks or years later. (I still use exercises and frameworks that I learned in writing classes I took in 1994.) You have a lifetime ahead of you as a writer, and your book has a whole life cycle ahead too.
The wealth of material here guarantees that you’ll get exactly what you need at this stage, as well as a box full of toys/tools to play with as your book grows up.
Q. What stage should my book be in to join this class? I’m not sure what my book is about… I’m not even sure I’m writing a book … I’ve already finished a first draft, can I still learn from this class?
All of the tools and exercises are designed to use prior to new writing OR prior to a major re-write/revision. Here’s the rundown:
If you want to write a book but you’re not exactly sure what, this class will be awesome for you. You’ll get ideas and tools that will help to you shape your ideas. You’ll be able to move forward from the cloud of vague ideas that you have now, to focus on a clear, specific, actionable project. And a plan for getting it done.
If you are at or near the beginning of your book, this class will be fantabulous for you. You’ll get a bunch of new tools and a head start on a lot of stuff that will save you time and hair-pulling in the writing process. Go sign up, ok?
If you’re partway through your book, or have a draft or two done, but you sense that there are major issues with structure/theme/plot/character, this class will offer you huge relief. We’ll sort out the things that are confusing you, and get you revved up with a bunch of new strategies so that you can finish your manuscript with confidence. Sign up!
If your book is almost finished and you know exactly what it’s about and you don’t really need to sort out any issues, congratulations! This class would probably be most helpful if you want to get a headstart on your next project. Or you might want to ask me about my manuscript review services, because I am a fantastic editor. Or, you know, maybe you want to go get a glass of wine and pin some stuff on Pinterest instead.
Q. What’s your connection with NaNoWriMo? Actually, what is NaNoWriMo?
A. Besides being what Mork said to Mindy (OK, now I’m totally dating myself), NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It’s actually international but they haven’t gotten around to changing the name to InNoWriMo because anyway, that sounds yuck. Anyway, it’s a month — November, to be precise — when a whole lot of fools courageous souls sign up to write 50,000 words in a month. I don’t have any official connection to NaNoWriMo, other than writing a Pep but I think it’s a fantastic tool that I recommend to my writing students.
The first time I did NaNoWriMo, I wrote 50,000 words of a novel. I just freewrote like mad, which was fantastic AND had the result that lots of things didn’t end up connecting. The second time, I used the tools that I developed for this course to make specific plans for what I was writing, and it was wonderful to have a working structure in place. I’m excited to share my toolbox/toybox with you.
Q. I understand that it’s online; is there any kind of group interaction? Are there specific days/times when we must sign on?
Interaction with the group takes place in a “virtual workshop,” via a web discussion forum where you can log on anytime.
There are no required times to sign on. But you’re most welcome to join one of the optional live sessions.
Q. When are the live sessions? What will happen in them? Will they be recorded?
Optionally, you can attend a live session with me via Google+ Hangouts. I’ve scheduled them so that people in various timezones should be able to come to at least one session, if desired. The times are:
Monday, Sept. 2: 9 am – 10:30 am Pacific time; 12 pm – 1:30 pm Eastern time; 9:30 pm – 11 pm Indian Standard time.
Saturday, Sept. 21: 7:30 pm – 9 pm Pacific time; 10:30 pm – 12 am Eastern time; 8 am – 9:30 am Indian Standard Time Sunday in India).
Saturday, Oct. 5: 9 am – 10:30 am Pacific time; 12 pm – 1:30 pm Eastern time; 9:30 pm – 11 pm Indian Standard Time.
If you’re in another timezone, so sorry I haven’t calculated yours here! Do check out the World Clock to see your times, and ask me if there’s any confusion.
The format of the live sessions will be Q&A and shared freewriting, and content will be entirely student-guided. We’ll use Google+ Hangout or an equivalent.
In order to create a safe space where participants can share concerns and work in progress, the live sessions will not be recorded or disseminated; however, you may ask other students to share notes on the sessions.
Q. How will the online course work? What technology do I need?
This course will be housed on an interactive educational tool called CourseSites. It’s designed for teaching, and the basic functions are simple to use.
I’ll post a new lesson by 12 noon each Saturday. You’ll log in when you can and read it, and you’ll have until Thursday to post your work for feedback from me and your peers. You’ll give and receive feedback by the following Tuesday. You can also engage in discussions on the online forum and in the optional live sessions.
At the beginning of the course, I’ll send you a welcome document that will include technical details, login information, etc.
The tech basics you will need are:
• An email address.
• A computer with access to email 2-3 times a week.
If you want to join the live sessions, you’ll need:
• A gmail address and Google+ Hangout account.
• A computer with audio and/or video capability to dial in.
Q. Can I take one session at a time? What if I’m going to be away part of the time?
Each lesson will build on the previous ones. We’ll be sharing work and creating a temporary community. So, in order to keep it safe for everyone and manageable for me, there will be no drop-ins. If you are going to be away for some of this time, don’t worry. This is a self-paced class, so you can always catch up on the exercises you’ve missed. Or you can just skip them and go back later, after the class finishes.
Q. What level of anonymity will there be?
You’ll post your own writing and give feedback using whatever name and email address you choose. It’s absolutely fine with me if you want to use a pseudonym or create an alter ego for the purpose of this workshop. Our group agreements will include not discussing or sharing anyone’s work outside the workshop.
If you and I know each other socially, I will always keep all elements of our coaching/teaching relationship private, including the fact that you’re taking the workshop.
Q. How many students do you expect or will you cap?
There is no firm limit. If it gets too big or unwieldy, I’ll probably split it into two smaller “sections” rather than close it off. Since I don’t know when I’ll have the time to teach this way again, I’m reluctant to turn away to anyone who’s ready and willing to move into this work now.
Q. Is there any provision for people with financial hardship?
Yes. Times are tough, right? Instead of paying the full registration fee up front, if you need to, you can make payments on the following schedule:
$200 due August 31 or before your first class
$200 due September 20
$165 due October 5
Please note that when you sign up, you are committing to the whole course, so this is NOT a way to “try out” the class and hedge your bets! I trust you to honor your commitment. You can pay via PayPal or, if you prefer, you can mail 3 checks to me, postdated, and I will cash them on the appropriate dates.
If you are based in India AND have limited finances, you can apply for a special reduced rate of 18,000 rupees, which is about half the US student rate.
Q. Are you accepting international students? Is there a reduced rate?
Yes. Please contact me for payment options if you cannot access PayPal or if you have a question about currency conversion.
Q. My question is not answered here.
No problem. Ask me at hajratwala {at} gmail {dot} com .
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