Middle Grade and Young Adult Novel Revision Intensive: A Four-Day Boot Camp

(EGL 308)

This four-day intensive workshop with both in-class and between-class time for revision will explore how successful middle grade and YA novels hook an audience to keep them reading, and how writers can apply techniques to achieve the same. Students should bring their complete or nearly complete draft of a middle grade or YA novel.

We will analyze exemplary novels for middle grades (eight to twelve years old) and young adults (twelve to eighteen years old). Students will then focus on their own manuscript. We will practice writing and revision techniques looking at creating a unique, believable voice and crafting vivid scenes. We will discuss chapter endings, symbolic language, humor, emotion, dialogue, details, beginnings, and perfect endings. Students will check their manuscript for signs of a solid structure, plot, subplots, pacing, tension, and fully developed characters.

Course schedule:
June 22, 24, 26 and 29
10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Lynn E. Hazen, Author

Lynn Hazen is author of the middle grade novel, Mermaid Mary Margaret, which was hailed “a winner” by Kirkus Reviews. Her published works include a picture book, Buzz Bumble to the Rescue; chapter books, Cinder Rabbit and The Amazing Trail of Seymour Snail; and a young adult novel, Shifty. Hazen received an MA in education from San Francisco State University and an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College.

Ellen Yeomans, Author

Ellen Yeomans is the author of two picture books and the young adult novel, Rubber Houses. She teaches writing at Onondaga Community College. Yeomans has also created and facilitated her own weekend intensives in writing for children and young adults in central New York. She received an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College.