Revising Your Manuscript:
How to Protect the Magic With Joshua Mohr
April 2, 9, 16, & 30, 2025
8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern (5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific)
Revision is the opportunity to deepen and complicate your story, ponder structural shifts, imbue your characters with the dignity of complexity...and do fifty other important/overwhelming things! So how can you organize your revision process in ways that won't induce anxiety attacks?
"I write rough drafts because I have to," says instructor Joshua Mohr. "The magic happens in revision."
In this course, you’ll learn innovative techniques to find the right symbiosis between form and character. The trick is to break the revision process into small bites so you can watch the art elevate.
Through lectures and directed writing assignments, you’ll come away with a system that you can immediately implement into your writing life. "If you're not having fun revising," Josh says, "then you're not doing it right."
Here’s how the class will unfold.
Week 1: We'll dive into revision as an exercise of "restraint," prioritizing certain craft elements at a time so you never feel overwhelmed. The lecture will cover...
-
Character arc
-
Literal and metaphorical action
-
Techniques to make the work as dynamic as possible
-
Ways to structure your stories to make them as compelling as can be
Week 2: This week, we'll challenge the notion of "linear" editing.
-
How do you verify if your book has enough heat to entice readers?
-
An assignment will help you practice the idea of “disjunctive curation.”
Week 3: So far, the course has concerned itself with macro revisions, looking at the cohesive whole of your project. But what about the micro?
-
How do you troubleshoot your scenes to verify that they’re functioning at an optimal level?
Week 4: Writing a novel, memoir, or screenplay requires several drafts to complete the project. Mid- to late-stage revision is very different from the nascent passes.
-
How do your priorities change the deeper into the process you get?
-
What should you focus on as you prepare your manuscript for the marketplace?
Revising a manuscript is about elevating your work to its highest potential. Whether you're fine-tuning character arcs, ensuring every scene pulls its weight, or making sure your book has the energy to captivate readers, this class will guide you through the revision process with clarity and purpose.
Don’t let the revision process overwhelm you—learn how to approach it with strategy and skill. Sign up today and give your manuscript the expert attention it deserves.
Our Faculty
Today's Price Only $247 for 8 hours of instruction
Story Summit + Annual subscribers receive a 20% discount coupon available in their dashboard. Not a subscriber yet? join here.
Please note: Our classes are designed specifically for live participation, so your attendance is important. If you need to miss a class for any reason, you’ll receive a passcode-protected link to watch the recordings after the course is over.
A Peek at Our Past Virtual Classes
