In this interactive lecture, novelist Matt Bell details a practical and straightforward approach to writing fiction, focusing on specific tactics for generating a strong first draft of a novel, including creating compelling characters and structuring a fine-tuned plot, and for polishing your final manuscript to prepare it for submission and publication. Drawing from the strategies detailed in his craft book Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts, Bell will offer an abundance of strategies to help motivate you and shake up your drafting and your revisions, all focused on practical steps you can take to strengthen both your practice and your novel. Come curious and bring your questions!
NOTE: Registration for this event will include a copy of Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell! It will be mailed to you by our local indie bookstore Mac's Backs Books.
This event takes place remotely online via Zoom.
Matt Bell is the author most recently of the novels Appleseed (a New York Times Notable Book of 2021), Scrapper (a Michigan Notable Book), and In the House upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods (a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award). His stories have appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Esquire, Tin House, Conjunctions, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.