Writing the Historical Novel Part 3: Studs, Joists, and Rafters

Studs, Joists, and Rafters: Crafting a Plot That Will Drag Readers Into Your Historical World and Make Them Want to Stay

No matter whether a writer is a plotter or a pantser, plot construction eventually has to happen. Real life may be random, but readers seek out stories that follow a well-constructed path toward a resolution that makes logical sense. This is as true of a historical story as any contemporary story. Plot analysis goes back to Aristotle, and we humans have been telling stories since before we came out of the caves, so it is only natural for us to apply our natural storytelling senses to stories set in the past. The skeleton of a story may be concealed and softened and decorated with imaginative flights of fancy and lovely prose (and I hope it is!), but underneath it all, the bones need to be there. In this session, students will be introduced to a variety of planning tools as the instructor applies them to familiar stories. An in-class exercise will help them begin assessing these frameworks to gauge which ones best suit the stories that they want to tell.

Note: Each session is fully stand-alone. You can take this class independently without enrolling in the other parts.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Mary Anna Evans is the author of seventeen novels, which have received recognition including the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Will Rogers Medallion Award, and the Florida Historical Society's Patrick D. Smith Award. They have earned starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, they have been recognized as Book Sense and Indie Next Picks, and they have been on "Best of the Year" lists in The Strand, True West, and Voice of Young America. Her nonfiction has appeared in publications including The Atlantic and the Louisville Review, and it has been shortlisted for the Edgar, Agatha, Macavity, and HRF Keating Awards. She holds an MFA in creative writing and a PhD in English literature, and she is a retired tenured professor of creative writing with a specialty in genre fiction.