Henrietta Rose-Innes

Henrietta Rose-Innes has written two novels, Shark's Egg (Kwela, 2000) and The Rock Alphabet (Kwela, 2004), and has compiled a book of South African writing, Nice Times! A Book of South African Pleasures and Delights (Double Storey, 2006). A number of her short stories and essays have appeared in local and international publications.

Most recently, her story "Poison" won the 2007 Southern African PEN / HSBC Writing Award. She won the 2008 Caine Prize for African Writing.

With years of experience as a freelance literary editor (including Kwela, Juta, Umuzi and Jacana), Henrietta is familiar with both ends of the publishing process. As well as giving detailed input on manuscripts, she can offer guidance on various aspects of "the writing life": the joys and challenges, the topical issues and opportunities, and the nitty-gritty of dealing with agents, publishers and contracts.

Charlotte Randall

Jo-Anne Richards is the author of four novels, her latest being My Brother's Book, published by Picador. Her first book was The Innocence of Roast Chicken, published by Headline in London, shortlisted for the M-Net Book Prize and nominated for the Impac International Dublin Award. It was chosen as a "Dillon's Debut" in the UK, to be showcased as an "outstanding first novel". Her books have been translated into German and French and she was invited to Bayreuth University in Germany to speak on her writing when the translation of her second book, Touching the Lighthouse, launched. She has had short stories published in five collections, by Headline in London, Penguin, Double Storey, Jacana and Oshun.

She is Academic Co-ordinator of the Honours in Journalism at Wits University and supervises Masters students in the Creative Writing programme. She also runs a Writers' Circle in Johannesburg.

How The Course Works:

You will learn about:

• The basics: theme, point of view, voice, genre, characterisation, plot, structure (Modules 1-5)
• Writing skills: style, dialogue, revision (Modules 6-8)
• Publication: finding a publisher, editing and book production (Modules 9-10)
• The writing life, issues and trends (Modules 11-12)

However, the main focus will be on your individual manuscript. You'll be writing your novel as we go along, and as the course progresses, the emphasis will shift away from exercises to one-on-one critique and help. You'll regularly send instalments of your manuscript to your tutor for feedback. These will start fairly short and grow longer with each module, building up your word count. At the end of 12 modules, you will have gained important skills and have a text of at least 20 000 words.

The aim of the initial course is to produce a solid preliminary text of 20 000 to 25 000 words, which will then be critiqued. You may then choose to continue with the follow-up course, which will be aimed at completing the manuscript.

Course Curriculum 

Module One - Your Novel: An Introduction

• Common questions answered
• Overcoming writer's block
• Getting started
• Exercise: Construct a schedule, write a novel proposal, and complete a warm-up writing exercise.

Module Two - The Basics

• An overview of the elements of a novel: Genre, Theme, Point Of View and Voice
• Exercise: Write two genre scenes, and discuss voice, theme and point of view in a novel of your choice.

Module Three - Characterisation

• The importance of characters
• Creating vivid, believable major and minor characters
• Exercise: Write character outlines of a major character and a minor character, and a brief scene in which they interact.
• Text instalment: at least 700 words

Module Four - Plot

• Understanding elements of storytelling
• The classic story structure
• Exercise: Construct a plot outline.
• Text instalment: at least 1 500 words

Module Five - Putting Scenes Together

• Scenes, chapters and paragraphs
• Transitions, beginnings and endings
• Exercise: Practise writing transitions
• Text instalment: at least 2 000 words

Module Six - Writing Style

• Good and bad style tips
• Finding your own style
• Exercise: Examine your own writing style.
• Text instalment: at least 2 500 words

Module Seven - Dialogue

• Writing natural, interesting dialogue - do's and don'ts
• Dialogue layout and formatting
• Exercise: Record and edit a dialogue
• Text instalment: at least 3 000 words

Module Eight - Revising Your Work

• The importance of revising your work
• Revision Tips
• Exercise: Revise a passage, collate your novel and find areas that need work.
• Progress of your novel: at least 3 000 words

Module Nine - Selling Your Book

• How to approach a publisher
• Presentation of the manuscript
• Overview of contractual issues
• Exercise: Write a covering letter.
• Text instalment: at least 3 000 words

Module Ten - Book Production

• An overview of the processes of editing, design, distribution, marketing and sale of a book
• Exercise: Write a blurb.
• Progress of your novel: at least 3 500 words

Module Eleven - Trends in Publishing

• What's happening in writing and publishing right now?
• Publishing options: self-publishing, online publishing
• Progress of your novel: at least 3 500 words

Module Twelve - The Writing Life

• The lifestyle of the working writer
• Opportunities and challenges in the world of writing
• Progress of your novel: at least 3 500 words
• After module 12, you will submit a revised text of 25 000 to 30 000 words for final marking and a critique.

Estimated Time Commitment:

This is hard to predict, as some people are simply faster writers than others. However, for each 1000 words of your novel, you could calculate on spending about an hour writing and at least the same amount of time in revising. The exercises should each not take more than two hours to complete. And finally, you should expect to spend some time at the end of the course, giving your manuscript a final polish. This gives a rough estimate of 90 hours over the course of 12 modules, or round about 7-8 hours a month.