All registrants should have received the zoom information immediately upon registration from the email address: courtney@notsorryproductions.com. If you have any other questions ahead of our first class on Sunday, please email the course TA Norah Murphy at: norah@notsorryproductions.com. 

Writing a Romance Novel Workshop with Vanessa & Caitlin!

October 8 - November 26, 12-1:30pm ET

Course Description:

November is National Novel Writing Month! And at Not Sorry, we treat reading and writing romance novels as sacred. In this 8-week course, we’ll come together in community to hold space for writing time, celebrate desire, and work toward happy endings. 

In October, we’ll focus on understanding the key components of a great romance story, and dig into the personal and spiritual aspects of romance-writing so that you feel empowered to write a 50,000-word novel in November, and inspired to prioritize what you hold sacred going forward. 

In November, you’ll write that 50,000-word romance novel! Along the way, you’ll explore what you find sexy, investigate what you value in relationships, and uncover new depths of your creativity. November will be filled with encouragement and support from your writing group, as well as guidance, tips, and tricks to keep you on pace for this writing sprint. 

Throughout this course, you’ll also learn from special guest lecturers on how to deepen your writing practice and celebrate the stories you write. You’ll learn how to plot an engaging novel and develop complex characters, as well as how to set goals and plan for overcoming obstacles. You’ll learn how to tap into yourself and your creativity by building ritual around your writing practice. You’ll also learn how to share your writing and be in community with other writers by learning how to give and receive feedback. 

At the end of eight weeks, we hope you come away from this class with a beautiful draft of your romance novel, a profound sense of accomplishment, a better understanding of yourself and what you hold sacred, and new friendships with both real people and fictional characters.

We will also offer a supplementary advanced revision track for those participants who are excited about continuing with their novel beyond the course and the month of November. More information below!

The details:

• Tuition: Sliding scale, $350-$550

• Dates: Sundays starting at 12PM EST starting October 8 and ending November 26. Classes will be 90 minutes, except for the first class, which will last 2 hours!

• Recording: Classes WILL be recorded for later viewing, but the course is best experienced if participants attend each session live.

• Cost: Full price is $450. If you can’t quite afford that, we have a price option of $350. If you would like to pay $550, all money above $450 will go toward scholarships that we will offer and help subsidize. 

• Scholarships: While we are unable to offer full scholarships for this course at this time, we are able to accommodate a range of partial tuition scholarships.

• Prep work or pre-reqs: None! We will have assignments ready for you when you arrive. All you have to show up with is the desire to write!

Faculty bios:

Vanessa Zoltan - Instructor

Vanessa Zoltan is the CEO of Not Sorry Productions. She has her BA from Washington University in St. Louis in English and Creative Writing. She also has her Master's of Divinity from Harvard. She averages two Romance novels a week during her Romance spells. She hosted and co-created the first season of Hot & Bothered, which was all about writing Romance novels.

Her favorite romance trope is Marriage of Convenience, and during this class, she’ll be working on her story which is Friends to Lovers--her other favorite trope.

Caitlin Hofmeister - Instructor 

Caitlin is the executive producer for Not Sorry's podcasts. She has her MFA in filmmaking from the University of Montana, and a BA in Creative Writing and Philosophy from Linfield University. She's facilitated writing workshops in both academic and community settings and strongly believes that everyone has a book in them. 

Her favorite romance trope is Fake Relationship, and in this class she'll be working on a story of Mistaken Identities--her other favorite trope. 

What to expect from Not Sorry Virtual Classes:

• This virtual class has unlimited registrations. This means that your virtual class might be 75+ people. However, our virtual classes will generally incorporate small groups of no more than 5 people!

• Unless otherwise stated, all our virtual classes will be recorded (except small group breakouts). A copy of the recording will be sent out to all registered participants and available for 6 months following the course end date.

• Immediately after registering, you should receive an email from courtney@notsorryproductions.com with the Zoom link and some other basic information for the course. You will also receive another email within 72 hours of the course beginning. Please check your spam folder first if you do not think you have received these emails!

Advanced Revision Track:

December 3, 2023 to January 21, 2024. 12-1:30pm ET.

So, you’ve written a first draft of a Romance novel, now what? After our amazing course last year came to a close, we heard from so many of you that you craved guidance about how to shape your project into a more fully realized book. This year, over eight weeks and six class sessions, our small group of fifteen participants will dive into the craft of revision. 

In the first half of the course, we will discuss specific strategies to tackle the amorphous adventure of revising a book. We’ll read essays from famous writers with tips about how to revise, look at examples from novels we love, and break down the craft elements of what makes a story work. Then, you will have a two week break over the holidays to get cracking on the changes you envision (and rest, relax, and ring in the new year.) When we return together in 2024, we will have a combination of small group work and writing exercises that will help us with the final push of your first pass shaping the novel into its newly evolved state. 

If you choose to join us for the full journey from October until the end of January, we hope that you’ll finish the course series with a full draft of a Romance novel with a clear view towards your aims for the project and how to get there. You’ll have learned new skills for drafting, revising, and conceptualizing large projects and gained a sense of community in the often isolating endeavor of novel writing. 

The details:

• Tuition: $500. The course will be capped at 15 participants. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer scholarships at this time.

• Dates: Sundays starting at 12PM EST starting December 3rd and ending January 21st. Classes will be 90 minutes. We’ll have a two week holiday break in the middle of the course, taking December 24th (Christmas Eve) and December 31st (New Years Eve) off, so there will be six sessions over eight weeks.

• Recording: Classes will not be recorded given the small group nature of the work we’ll be doing, so do your best to make sure you can attend our sessions live before registering. 

• Prep work or pre-reqs: Having attended or viewed the first eight sessions of the NaNoWriMo course and coming with a full first draft to start revising!

• Experience: You do not have to consider yourself a writer, let alone an “advanced” one, to join this course. The only qualification necessary is a desire and commitment to polish up your manuscript after working so hard on it over the last few weeks.