Module 4: Fine-Tuning and Marketing Your Work
Unit 15: Perfection, Windows, and "Below the Stairs"—One More Crime
The novelist's job is to show—not tell. The techniques on how to show your reader what's going on inside your character's skull and behind the scenes. The right way to feed your reader information. How to avoid the wrong way.
Unit 16: Prince Charming and Some Dangerous Numbers—On Being Evocative and Remodeling
The purpose and process of rewrite. The novelist's checklist.
Unit 17: Weak Structures, a Bad Device—A look at Cross-Genre Romance
The role of research. How to avoid a "bad" beginning and ending. Developing a well planned novel from page one.
Unit 18: More Detailed Plans—Vanity
Outlines. Writing the outline that will "presell" your novel. How to make the O&3 (three complete highly polished chapters and an outline for the rest of your book).
Unit 19: Trim and Decoration
The odds and ends, the rag bag. How the role of the editor has changed—how they judge submissions, the process of editing and avoiding clichés.
Unit 20: Selling Your Castle
The construction and selling of yourself and your novel. The best way to approach the editor. How your manuscript should be presented. Using rejection as an encouragement—recharging your batteries.