10 Months: March - December, 2026 • Meets First Wednesdays on Zoom (6-9 pm EDT) • $3,800

10-Month Novel Workshop: Revision

with Ariel Delgado Dixon

This workshop is for fiction writers who have finished a complete draft of a full-length manuscript and are looking for support and structure in the revision process. The explicit goal of this course is to complete one full revision of a completed draft of a manuscript. All participants and the instructor will read up to 90K words of each others’ full manuscripts over the course of the year, and each writer will have two opportunities to discuss their manuscript with the entire group, where they will receive written and verbal feedback. Writers will meet with the instructor for two one-on-one hour-long sessions, one of which will focus on deep verbal feedback and recommended approaches to revision of their full manuscript, and the other on discussing up to 6,000 words of revised material. This course meets over Zoom once a month for three hours, in small accountability buddy groups of 2-3 people at least once between meetings, and is in regular contact via a virtual classroom space. Over the course of the year, we'll set active, clear goals that will help participants both get through a full revision and better understand craft elements in novel writing, such as character development, structure, plot, scene construction, and more. Each month, writers will be offered a set of linked, progressive exercises geared toward helping them as they revise, a slew of prompts and writing exercises geared toward re-writing necessary sections of the book or reworking existing pages, craft lectures, discussion questions, and readings designed to maintain momentum, solidify a regular writing practice, and provide support around all of the highs and lows of the novel revision process. Writers should be prepared to read and discuss up to four novels over the course of the year, as well as craft readings, as assigned by the instructor. For more details about what this course entails, including overall features of the program, see the above About the Program section​.
Limited to 8 writers.

Course Outline & Topics Covered

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• MARCH : How theme drives story / Intro to reverse outlining / Finding the heart of your book 
   

• APRIL: Plot / Story Arc and narrative tension / Seeing your novel's bigger picture
   

• MAY : Characterization techniques / Using the reverse outline to bring characters to life
   

• JUNE: Perspective / Narrative Strategy / Choosing the right narrator
   

• JULY:  Scene writing techniques / How to decide when to cut or write new scenes
   

• AUGUST: Using your narrator to summarize, provide context, and manage time
   

• SEPTEMBER: Writing authentic and dramatic dialogue
   

• OCTOBER: Structure and organization / Experimenting with timelines
   

• NOVEMBER: Subtext, using specific details, and place / How to know when you’re finished
   

• DECEMBER: Beginnings and endings / How to query agents and ways to publish

Instructor