WRITING A NOVEL, MEMOIR or AUTOFICTION WITH A WRITING COACH: One-on-One Instruction
START DATE: Ongoing. We choose the same day each month to meet. There are options for weekly or twice-a-month meetings.
DURATION: 4 meetings with the chance to renew for additional meetings.
LOCATION: Email, Google Drive, Zoom
FEEDBACK: Instructor feedback and critique on a shared Google document and via Zoom (optional)
CONTACT: Through this website www.gilagreenwrites.com
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Are you writing a novel? Do you need a writing coach to keep you accountable and provide feedback as you go? Do you have an idea for a novel, memoir or autofiction, but you don't know how to plan or get started? Join me in an online workshop environment, where you can work with me to get a first or second draft of a novel completed. Novelists for almost any genre are welcome. (Please note: I am not an expert in children's writing. If you are writing a children's novel, I recommend you find an editor who has published children's books.) Depending on your needs, I will also help you with writing a synopsis and query letter.
Past participants ask about setting in story: WATCH
This class has two options:
Option One:
This is for writers who have a fairly complete draft of a novel or at least have done extensive planning and will have pages for me to critique each meeting. We choose a date to meet each month on zoom and the pages have to be in 3 days before our meeting. If you don't want zoom, we choose a date each month to hand in your work on a shared Google document.
You will receive a FULL edit (content and line editing) for up to 4000 words or 15 double-spaced, 12 pt font, pages each meeting. With this track you can get up to 16,000 words critiqued.
Option Two:
This is for writers who are starting out writing a novel and need help with planning, structure, how to begin, writer's block, etc. It is perfect for someone who has an idea for a book or short story or essay collection, but does not know where or how to start. I will guide you by getting you started with the main story elements (what every story must have) and writing exercises as needed. Depending on your comfort level and pace with planning, you may also receive one or two light critiques through this track. This track also has the zoom option. You will also receive four edits on your exercises, outlines and light drafts.
Cost: $400 for both tracks for 4 meetings that includes edit of up to 4,000 words per meeting and 4 zoom meetings of one hour. If you do not want the zoom option (shared Google document only) the price is $280.
This course is open to writers living anywhere and the price excludes any PayPal fees if you choose this payment option.
WATCH Past participants ask about flash fiction vs short story writing: Should you write flash fiction or a short story?
Bio
Gila Green is a seven times award-nominated, internationally published writer. She has traditionally published four novels in three countries (USA, Canada, Australia). She has published dozens of short stories and short works in literary magazines and anthologies, participated in the 2020 Vancouver Jewish Book Festival as an author, and the New York Jewish Book Council Author Talk. She has edited more than a dozen books to publication.
Gila interviews an author monthly on her site: www.gilagreenwrites. Here is a sample list of published books Gila has edited: https://reedsy.com/gila-green. Gila has experience in both adult and young adult novel publishing and works regularly with magazine writers.
Gila has been teaching creative writing online since 2009. She lives in Israel, but is originally from Canada. She spent one year living in South Africa, has both an Ashkenazi and Yemenite background, and has been teaching English as a Foreign Language since 2013 to students from Israel, Ethiopia, Russia, France and other countries. She is able to relate to authors and content from a wide variety of experiences.
March 2023: Spring Memoir Workshop at Lounge Writers
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Memoir is as popular as ever. An increasing number of people have realized that their oral histories and stories are in danger of disappearing. That’s one of the reasons why memoir's popularity remains steady. We read each other's stories to build empathy, to explore new realities, to escape, and let's not forget: to be entertained. Memoir is ideal for our modern search for hope in what is for many an increasingly lonely world. The 21st century reader has made memoir in-demand reading.
In this two-hour workshop, we will use short readings and instructor critiques to teach participants how to begin a memoir. We will focus on carving beginnings down to their essence, while still conveying meaning through the successful interplay between character, conflict, and theme. There will be a writing exercise and group and instructor feedback.
Cost: $40
Time: 9:00 am - 11 am PDT
Date: March 28, 2023
Workshop objectives:
- To sharpen the difference between memoir, fiction, and autofiction.
- To analyze a variety of ways writers can begin their memoir.
- To increase your confidence as a memoir writer.
- To add depth to your beginning or in other words, to begin with intention.
ABOUT ME: Gila Green's novels feature characters of Sephardi, Yemenite, and mixed Middle Eastern heritage because she couldn't find any Jewish stories that reflected her experience growing up and decided to write them herself. Her novel-in-stories White Zion explores one Yemenite family's journey from Sanaa to Jerusalem to Canada. In Passport Control, heroine Miriam Gil struggles to understand her Yemenite father's past against a trove of family secrets. Gila is an author, a creative writing teacher, an EFL college lecturer, an editor, and a mother of five. When she's not exploring the Middle East in her novels, she migrates to South Africa in her continuing environmental young adult series that takes place in Kruger National Park. Her first novel King of the Class was published in Vancouver, Canada (2013, NON Publishing). In addition to her four published novels, her short works have been featured in dozens of publications including: Sephardic Horizons, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Literary Journal, Fiction Magazine, Akashic Books, The Fiddlehead, and others.
