This course consists of 20 x Friday sessions from 10am – 1 pm. Six of these sessions, featuring special guests, will run the full-day (10am – 4pm) and are marked below.
A 2-hour catch up session will be run online via Zoom to report in on writing progress in December 2026. Two additional evening sessions dedicated to the Faber Writing Anthology will be run in 2027.
2026 Dates
Session 1: Friday, 24 July
Introductions: Why This Novel? Why Now?
In this opening session, we’ll meet our fellow writers and discuss the projects we’re bringing to the course. We’ll consider why this particular novel matters now, what questions or tensions sit at its core, and what kinds of obstacles—narrative or practical—writers face when committing to long-form work. We’ll also set expectations for the course, workshopping schedules and discuss strategies for sustaining momentum over the coming months.
Session 2: Friday, 31 July
Planning, Practice, Reading & Research
Good writers are excellent readers of other people’s work. This session introduces techniques of close, targeted reading designed specifically for novelists. We’ll help you identify key “touchstone” novels for your particular project, how to manage research without letting it overwhelm the narrative, and how to develop a sustainable daily practice that balances planning with creative discovery.
Session 3: Friday, 7 August
Beginnings: Writing Exercises for Exploration
During this session, we will explore various ways to enter a story, testing different entry points to see which best establishes the stakes, the mood, and the central curiosity of your work-in-progress. We’ll look at beginnings and also discuss the freedom of allowing for messy first drafts.
Session 4: Friday, 14 August (Full Day)
Writing Place
Guest author: TBC
Evocative settings provide more than surface description; they reveal character and theme and can provide tension. In this full-day intensive, we’ll explore how environment shapes character behaviour, belief, and conflict. Our guest author will discuss how they build immersion through sensory precision and selective detail, turning landscape into a living participant in the story.
Session 5: Friday, 21 August
Voice: Tone, POV, and Tense
Who is telling the story—and from where and when? This session examines point of view, tense, and narrative distance, focusing on how these choices shape authority and reader trust. We’ll consider “voice” as the intersection of style and perspective, looking at how the technical choice of POV dictates the emotional temperature and tone of the entire manuscript.
Session 6: Friday, 28 August
Structure and Plot
This session explores the relationship between story, plot, and structure—and why they are not the same thing. We’ll examine various structural frameworks and discuss pacing, escalation, and narrative momentum. Writers will be encouraged to think flexibly about structure as a tool for meaning-making rather than a rigid formula to be followed.
Session 7: Friday, 4 September
Characters: Major and Minor
This session focuses on the inhabitants of your fictional world. We’ll explore desire, fear, and contradiction in your protagonists, while also looking at the essential role of secondary characters. We will discuss how minor characters can provide pressure, conflict, or witness, helping to define the central characters through their interactions and observations.
Session 8: Friday, 11 September (Full Day)
Dialogue and What Isn’t Said
Guest author: TBC
This intensive session focuses on dialogue as both spoken exchange and narrative device. We’ll examine pace, subtext, and power dynamics, paying particular attention to what is left unsaid—the tension that exists between what characters say and what they actually mean. Our guest author will share techniques for sharpening the “sound” of characters while maintaining narrative economy.
COURSE BREAK
Session 9: Friday, 16 October
Paragraphs and Sentences
This session moves to the cellular level of the novel: the prose itself. We’ll focus on sentence-level craft, syntax, and rhythm. We will discuss how the architecture of a paragraph can control pacing and mood, and how sentence choices accumulate to form a cohesive style that supports the novel’s larger themes.
Session 10: Friday, 23 October (Full Day)
Scene, Summary, and Sustaining Practice
Guest author: TBC
What actually happens inside a scene? This session examines the function of scene versus summary, and how to manage narrative energy on the page. We’ll look at entry and exit points and how to transition between scene and summary. We will also discuss practical strategies for continuing your writing practice independently over the end-of-year break.
END OF YEAR BREAK
Mid-break check-in Zoom session: Friday 4 December 2026, 10 am – 12 pm
2027 Dates
Session 11: Friday, 5 February
Check-in: Causality and Thresholds
Returning after the break, we assess where our manuscripts stand. This session is designed to reignite momentum. We’ll look for thresholds in the draft—moments of transition and change—and practice techniques for deepening the existing material. We will look at causality in fiction versus coincidence, and which allows the reader to more easily suspend disbelief.
Session 12: Friday, 12 February
Deepening Character: Secrets, Perspective, and Icebergs
Building on our earlier work, this session looks at the “iceberg theory” of characterisation—the vast amount of history and psyche that exists beneath the surface of the text. We’ll explore the power of secrets, private motivations, and the ways in which a character’s unique perspective filters their reality, adding layers of complexity to their actions.
Session 13: Friday, 19 February
Using Time as a Narrative Device
Time is one of the novelist’s most powerful tools. This session examines how to manipulate narrative time through flashbacks, flash-forwards, pacing, and compression. We will discuss how to control the pacing of your novel, so that it is in sync with the atmosphere and tone you intend to evoke.
Session 14: Friday, 26 February (Full Day)
Detail: What to Put In and What to Leave Out
Guest author: TBC
A novel’s texture comes from its details, but over-description can stall a story. This session focuses on the art of selection—choosing the “telling detail” that does the work of a thousand words. We will also look at the way objects can carry emotional weight in a story and the differences between objects, artefacts, and talismans. Our guest author will talk about how they discovered the detail necessary to create the texture of their fictional world.
Session 15: Friday, 5 March
The Ethics of Fiction; Imagery and Symbolism
This session considers the relationship between lived experience and invention, alongside the “big ideas” of the novel. We’ll discuss the ethical considerations of transforming real-world material into fiction and explore how a novel’s deeper concerns are translated onto the page through recurring images, symbols, and motifs that emerge organically from the story.
Session 16: Friday, 12 March
Interiority in Fiction; How to Deal with Feedback
Fiction is a rare space that allows us access into other peoples’ interior lives. How do you make the most of this in your manuscript? We will discuss how to manage this through voice and POV. Receiving and processing feedback is a vital skill for any novelist. We cover how to handle the emotional vulnerability of being read, and how to use critiques to strengthen your vision rather than dilute it.
Session 17: Friday, 19 March (Full Day)
The Pitch and the Synopsis
Guest literary agent: TBC
Articulating your project to the industry requires clarity and precision. This intensive session focuses on the differences between pitches, blurbs, and synopses. We’ll practice speaking about the work with confidence. In the afternoon, a guest literary agent will join us to discuss what makes a manuscript stand out and we will practice our pitches.
EASTER BREAK
Session 18: Friday, 30 April
Structural Editing: Fixing the Big Problems
This session focuses on big-picture revision: re-ordering chapters, adjusting emphasis, fixing narrative logic gaps, and assessing pacing. We’ll explore strategies for radical reshaping—learning when to cut, when to merge, and when to start a scene from scratch.
Session 19: Friday, 7 May
Line Editing: Fixing the Details
Guest editor: TBC
This session turns to the final polish. We’ll focus on clarity, rhythm, and word choice at the sentence level. A guest editor will join us to demystify the collaborative revision process, showing us how professional editors look for “filler” words, clichés, and inconsistencies to ensure the prose is as sharp as the story it tells.
Session 20: Friday, 14 May (Full Day)
How to Keep Momentum: Celebration
In our final session, we look toward the future. We’ll discuss how to maintain momentum once the course ends, the path to publication, and the importance of finding a writing community. We will conclude with a celebration of the work achieved and a look at the next steps for your manuscripts.
All sessions are held in person at the Allen & Unwin offices at 83 Alexander Street, Crows Nest. The exact course content could be adjusted according to the experience and concerns of the group and availability of guest writers. The detail of the course is at the discretion of the Course Director and Faber Writing Academy at Allen & Unwin.
