Saturday Novel Critique Workshop: Building Powerful Plots

Eager for stimulating feedback from an experienced teacher and fellow writers? This fall, discover how powerful plots propel novels from first page to last.  Detailed critiques and craft tips help you write a tight synopsis, weave your character web, identify pressure points, deepen plot layers and prime your protagonist for life-altering change. Produce pages with an eye towards publication and become part of a supportive writing community.  

Saturday Novel Critique Workshop: Building Powerful Plots

Session 1: A power critique of your novel’s synopsis boiled down to one single-spaced page.  Yes, just one!  Focus on the five plot essentials: an empathetic protagonist, an incident that kicks off your novel, complications (including antagonist), climax and resolution.  What’s that, you’re still figuring it out as you go?  Bring in something to discuss and we’ll all work on our synopses together.  Put some time into what you bring to share, but don’t let it get you down.  The synopsis is a work-in-progress, just like your novel.  You’re going to get support and suggestions.  That’s what this group is for.

Sessions 2-6:  Participants submit pages from their novels and explore powerful plot techniques through discussion and in-class exercises. 

• Session 2: Priming for character change.  How does character control plot?  It’s a combination of your protagonist’s external goals and internal needs that makes plot meaningful.  Good plot isn’t action for action’s sake.  Discover how identifying your protagonist’s most basic human need helps shape a compelling plot built on character change. 
• Session 3: Intensifying turning points and pressure points.  Turning points are moments of change, but pressure points are the moments your protagonist is forced to let go of the familiar and move forward into the unknown.  In-class exercises will help you identify key pressure points that provide page-turning tension and propel momentum. 
• Session 4: Spinning a character web.  Protagonists won’t get very far without help from allies or opponents who make their journey matter.   Every character must help or hinder a protagonist’s progress—or do a bit of both.  In your novel, is everyone necessary?  Secondary characters shouldn’t be prop-ups for the hero, or usurp the protagonist’s spotlight.  We’ll discuss how to find a balance. 
• Session 5: Defining plot layers and subplots.  Layers are multiple plot lines given to one character (the protagonist), while subplots are different plot lines given to other characters.  How many of each do you need?  There’s no magic number.  Discover the benefits of drawbacks of each.    
• Session 6: Raising the stakes.  You’ve developed plot essentials and key characters.  Now, make things harder on your protagonist as he struggles to achieve his goal.  Yes, it can get worse!  Dilemma, high public stakes, inner and outer turmoil make for good storytelling.  Why?  High stakes make your plot powerful, meaningful and more true.

Prior to workshop

• Send a one-page synopsis to your instructor by September 2nd  (single-spaced, 1 inch margins,12-point Times New Roman, title/byline at the top of the page). 
• Contact Angela for more details on writing your synopsis and preparing for workshop: ajrydell@wisc.edu.  You’ll receive a critique schedule once the workshop gets underway.

Student comments

"Angela, you bring such passion and interest and enthusiasm to the class (that) it is inspiring and contagious! Thank you! I wish this class was ongoing. I would love to attend this class 52 weeks a year." ~ Jennifer Woods, Belleville, WI

"It was highly useful, without fluff." ~ Elijah Meeker, Madison, WI

“Instructor Angela Rydell was excellent—real content and real encouragement.” ~ Marcia Bosscher, Madison, WI

"Well-planned by Angela... A really creative atmosphere!" ~ Kathleen Phillips, Waukesha, WI

“Felt very comfortable… a sense of community developed among group members and Angela.” ~ Kelly Ketzel, Oshkosh, WI

"To call Angela a teacher is not quite right. She did not teach us. She drew out of each of us the possibilities we had, which might have been dormant or simply unrecognized." ~ Daniel Kunene, Madison, WI

Your instructor

Angela Rydell, MFA, has taught creative writing through UW-Madison Continuing Studies since 2006. Programs include Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat, School of the Arts, Writers' Institute, and Weekend with Your Novel. She has taught at Edgewood College, in the national program Senior Summer School, been a poet-in-residence in elementary schools, and is the lead judge for the 2010 Wisconsin People & Ideas poetry contest. She is a recipient of Poets & Writers' Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, The Sun, Alaska Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Beloit Poetry Journal, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals.

For more information about this workshop, email Angela Rydell at ajrydell@wisc.edu, or call workshop coordinator Christine DeSmet, 608-262-3447.

By phone: Call 608-262-7942 or 800-725-9692.

By mail: Print, complete and mail the Continuing Studies registration form.

Online: Secure online registration is available for this program.