Read Worthy Fiction

12 Weeks to Your Novel's 1st Draft

4.50 (47 reviews)
Udemy
platform
English
language
Creativity
category
instructor
Read Worthy Fiction
436
students
3 hours
content
Feb 2016
last update
$39.99
regular price

What you will learn

Be able to apply the basic principles of novel writing

Start writing that novel

Description

Learn to write a novel by writing a novel!

Read Worthy Fiction is for everyone; the only thing you need is the desire to write a book.

It's designed to be run over 12 weeks, so you’ll dedicate a mere 30 minutes a day to your book, and you’ll write 500 new words in that time. That’s a medium-sized email – anyone can do it.

Over 12 weeks you will acquire knowledge, tips and key insights into creative writing. Once you have completed the course, you will have learned everything you need to know to write your first novel, and you will have written your first novel.

Whether you have never written a story before, or you've already written and published several, this course will provide you with a solid foundation on which to build your writing career.

Content

Week 0 - The Whole Story

Basecamp Mindset
The Path to the Summit

Week 1 - Hero & Threat

Are You Sitting Comfortably
The Promise

Week 2 - Spur to Action

Landscape and Landscaping
Broadening the Horizon

Week 3 - Confrontations

Looking In
Companions

Week 4 - Escalation

Obstacles and Detours
Forks and Knives

Week 5 - Plans and Pivots

Baggage
Equipment

Week 6 - Pause for Breath

Looking Back
Found Objects

Week 7 - Awry

Missteps
Stepping Stones

Week 8 - The Dark Night

Getting Lost
Sightseeing

Week 9 - Depth

Ball of Yarn
Footprints

Week 10 - Drama and Twists

The Thick of It
Crossing the Chasm

Week 11 - The End

Arrival
Denouement

Week 12 - Memory

Taking Stock

Reviews

S.
November 1, 2019
No story framework to build on, no storytelling techniques, no real guidance to the process of writing a novel. In my opinion, this is not a true "course". It is a series of very loosely related talks showing one person's opinions about different parts of a story. I can honestly say that I didn't learn a single thing from listening to over half of the lectures. I got too annoyed with the lack of any real substance to finish the course. I was particularly disappointed because this teacher has a number of smaller Udemy courses that are very informative. I enjoyed those lectures, I learned a lot from them, and I will probably listen to them a few more times. This course, however, is like "stone soup". If I were the teacher, I would revamp the lectures and add a few resources with some actual value to them. I would add some meat, some vegetables, some bones and broth and seasonings, and I'd make a hearty stew out of it. I believe that he has the material and experience to do this. If he leaves this course as it is, it could scare new students away from purchasing his better courses.
Peter
April 27, 2018
Harry seems able to always reframe artistic/writerly issues in an informative and illuminating fashion. Or even transformational I would say. This is my second run through, as his courses, although short, seem to have immense depth. I watched the lessons off-line. I enjoy them hugely, including the exercises, and feel my understanding of writing growing.
Venkataramanan
January 3, 2018
This is a promising course. I am expecting to put an extra star if my draft comes up , at least to me, well.
Alicia
November 24, 2017
This course is thorough and easy to follow along with. I’m an experienced writer and I am finding new nuggets of information I did not know before. I highly recommend this course for fiction writers.
Lois
June 24, 2017
Harry has the most pleasant voice and he never ceases to encourage! I took ten pages of notes and will refer to them as I revise my short story. All of what he shared will help with my novels too! I learned a lot of new things which quite surprised me that I will incorporate into my two novels as I get them ready for publishing. I do recommend this course! Thanks, Harry.
Anna
October 5, 2016
Makes a lot of sense, logical and straight forward. I really wish my English Lit. A'level (2000) had had a compositional element like his instead of endless deconstruction, interpretation and analysis.
Anne-Maree
October 2, 2016
Foolishly, I started doing this course in November at the same time as I was doing the National Novel writing month AND working on something else. I started one idea, scrapped it and changed to another mid-course before I put it aside again. And then I just forgot about it. Months later, I’ve come back and completed the course but I confess to cheating a whole lot. I didn’t write 500 words a day *hangs head* Udemy now has a reminder option that I clearly needed months ago. So, I don’t have a fully completed novella or half a novel. What I do have is a greater understanding of story structure and I also have pages of downloads. Harry generously allows a download of the transcript, the sound file, and a pdf of short notes and homework. I am pretty certain that I will come back to those notes, as there are levels of the course that I just wasn’t ready for. That’s my fault, not Harry’s.
Scott
September 3, 2016
Concise distillation of essential storytelling principles. More detailed examples of practice would anchor and link these concepts. Harry is an outstanding narrator. I wish I could hire him to narrate the audio edition of my novel.
Udemy
May 26, 2016
Delivery is very clear and engaging The process is explained and guidelines set out in an unambiguous way. The narrator's voice is extremely pleasant!
Leonard
April 18, 2016
An outstanding introduction to writing for first-time novelists. Check off that novel on your bucket list. Or, become a full-time writer. You choose.
Dan
April 4, 2016
I signed up for this course because I was looking for some help with my first book. I had used the Marshall Plan software a bit, and played around with using the type of structure that it imposes. I found that it absolutely stifled my creativity. Then, I tried "pantsing." I just wrote what came to me, with little or no pre-planning. That did not work, either. Thankfully, I then found out about Harry's course and it has made all the difference. I am now working on what I believe will be an extremely solid draft of my first book. Read Worthy Fiction gave me guidelines and a framework for structuring my story, but it did not stifle my creativity. I am amazed at Harry's understanding of the creative process, and the pitfalls that writers encounter. He has worked with a lot of writers, so he has had a lot of opportunity to observe their struggles. The course is very succinct, methodical and direct. He gives you a framework that will make it truly hard for you to write a bad story. I highly recommend this course to anyone who is about to write their first book, and I believe more experienced writers can benefit from Read Worthy Fiction as well.
Craig
March 11, 2016
I was sixty thousand words into my novel when I started having doubts. By this point, I’d spent months writing, and many more outlining. I was starting to worry about not having a story, about wasting my time and ending up with a mess. Potentially wasting nearly two years, with nothing good to show for it after all that effort. I thought about trying a creative writing course, but they didn't seem to be directed towards what I wanted to achieve, which was to learn about story craft. I'd also looked into workshops like Viable Paradise, but they were way out of my price range. So that’s why I was drawn to the read worthy course, despite reservations at never having done anything like this before. I found it really easy to get stuck into the course. The way in which it is structured throughout the twelve weeks, with 5K words per week, made it seem extremely achievable. It wasn’t daunting at all. Creating a novella from scratch is also a perfect way of structuring the course, as it gives you something tangible by the end of it. The way each week was split in two made sense, and it made it easy to digest the first section before moving on to the second. Having each week split into two lectures, and then giving different resources for different learning styles is also a great idea. Week by week, I listened to the audio lessons back to back, then downloaded all of the transcripts, slides and action plans for that week. I then typically skimmed the transcripts, looked through the slides and then went through the action plans. Once I’d been through the action plans, I started constructing in my head how I was going to put that week’s action plan into effect. If I got stuck at any point, or needed reminding about anything, I just dipped in and out of each of the downloadable resources. I would often find something in the transcript, skip to the audio and listen to that piece again and then look back over the slides and the action plan. I would also listen to the audio at the same time as having the slides and action plans open side-by-side across two monitors. For the first few weeks, I diligently completed each week in order but after the story was well underway I started to get nervous about the lack of plotting. I was firmly in the plotting camp before starting the course, and so I was curious about when we would get to that point. I ended up reading ahead through all the course content to see when that would materialise. For the novella, I think the way in which the course structured things was perfect as far as balancing pantsing/plotting. By the end of it, I was fully invested in getting on with the job of absorbing that week’s goals, and then working on the novella to that end. And now that I have finished the course, I can see how best to balance pantsing and plotting for the best story outcome. I really like the fact that I’ve always got access to the course material and can dip into it at any time. The cost of the course is extremely competitively priced. When authors are charging $500 just for Facebook advertising courses, it's a steal. A lot of the specific details of the course have really stuck with me. They seem to have seeped into my subconscious and it has become second nature to apply them when writing. All in all, I would unreservedly recommend this course to anyone, irrespective as to how long they’ve been writing.

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757382
udemy ID
2/9/2016
course created date
2/8/2020
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