The course consists of 22 online evening sessions (Tuesdays 6.30pm to 8.30pm AEDT/AEST), 6 half-day sessions (Saturdays 1.00pm to 4.00pm) and an additional evening session dedicated to the Faber Writing Anthology.
Session 1: Tuesday 24 February
Orientation: Desire, Obstacles, and Stakes
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, emotional, or practical—writers face when committing to long-form work. We’ll also set expectations for the course and discuss strategies for sustaining momentum over 22 weeks.
Session 2: Tuesday 3 March
Reading as a Novelist
Strong novels are built on attentive reading. This session introduces techniques of close, targeted reading designed specifically for writers. We’ll explore how to read for structure, voice, and narrative pressure, and how to establish a personal “reading project” that supports your own novel-in-progress.
Session 3: Saturday 7 March
Story, Plot, and Structure
This intensive session explores the relationship between story, plot, and structure—and why they are not the same thing. We’ll examine a range of structural frameworks and discuss pacing, escalation, and narrative momentum. Writers will be encouraged to think flexibly about structure as a meaning-making tool rather than a formula.
Session 4: Tuesday 10 March
Escalation and Narrative Pressure
Guest author: Kell Woods
This session focuses on how novels generate and sustain tension. We’ll explore escalation, compounding trouble, and the ways narrative decisions accrue cost over time. Kell Woods, author of the bestselling novels After the Forest and Upon a Starlit Tide, will discuss how she approaches plot, pressure, and momentum in her own work.
Session 5: Tuesday 17 March
Point of View and Narrative Distance
Who is telling the story—and from where? This session examines point of view, tense, and narrative distance, with a focus on how these choices shape authority, intimacy, and reader trust. We’ll consider point of view not just as a technical choice, but as an ethical and narrative stance.
Session 6: Saturday 21 March
The Central Character
This session focuses on the major character at the heart of each novel. We’ll explore desire, fear, contradiction, and agency, as well as the role of secondary characters in creating pressure, conflict, and witness. Attention will be given to both psychological and physical characterisation.
Session 7: Tuesday 24 March
Scene, Summary, and Turning Points
What actually happens inside a scene? This session examines the function of scene and summary, how scenes turn, and how narrative energy is managed on the page. We’ll look at entry and exit points, change, and momentum at the scene level.
Session 8: Tuesday 31 March
Place, Setting, and World as Force
Writing place convincingly requires more than surface description. In this session, we’ll explore how setting operates as an active force within a novel—shaping bodies, behaviour, belief, and conflict. We’ll look at how authority and immersion are built through selective detail and sensory precision.
EASTER AND ANZAC DAY BREAK
Session 9: Tuesday 28 April
Dialogue: Sound, Subtext, Power
This session focuses on dialogue as both spoken exchange and narrative device. We’ll examine pace, precision, subtext, and power dynamics, as well as the difference between dialogue as it sounds and dialogue as it functions on the page.
Session 10: Tuesday 5 May
Showing, Telling, and Trusting the Reader
In this session we explore the balance between showing and telling, and how writers can develop power and subtlety by trusting their readers. We’ll look at inference, restraint, and how information is best delivered in long-form fiction.
Session 11: Saturday 9 May
Research and Description
Research is essential to many novels, particularly historical or place-driven work—but it can also overwhelm a narrative. This session explores how to research strategically, how to identify what you need to know, and how to allow the story space to breathe without sacrificing authority or credibility.
Session 12: Tuesday 12 May
Voice and Psychic Distance
Voice is one of the most elusive elements of fiction. This session examines voice as a convergence of style, subject matter, and point of view, with a particular focus on psychic distance—how close or far the narrative sits from a character’s inner life, and how those choices affect tone and tension.
Session 13: Tuesday 19 May
Fiction and the Self
This session considers the relationship between lived experience and invention. We’ll discuss the differences between fiction and autobiography, when to draw from memory and when to invent, and the ethical considerations involved in transforming real material into fiction.
Session 14: Tuesday 26 May
Theme, Ethics, and the World of the Novel
Guest author: James Bradley
This session explores the ‘big ideas’ at work in a novel and how they surface through image, structure, and character rather than statement. Acclaimed author and novelist James Bradley will discuss writing with ethical awareness and sustaining thematic pressure across a long narrative.
Session 15: Tuesday 2 June
Prose Style and the Sentence
This session focuses on sentence-level craft: syntax, rhythm, clarity, and restraint. We’ll consider how sentence choices accumulate meaning over the course of a novel, and how prose style interacts with voice and tone.
COURSE BREAK
Session 16: Tuesday 21 July
Taking Stock: What Actually Happens in Your Novel
At this point in the course, we pause to assess what is on the page. This session focuses on diagnosing narrative gaps, pressure points, and areas of avoidance, and on understanding what the novel is becoming.
Session 17: Tuesday 28 July
Beginnings Revisited
This session returns to the opening of the novel with fresh perspective. We’ll examine common types of beginnings, the expectations they create for readers, and how openings change meaning once the whole book is in view.
Session 18: Tuesday 4 August
Theme, Imagery, and Symbolism
This session explores how a novel’s deeper concerns are translated onto the page through recurring images, symbols, and motifs. We’ll focus on coherence rather than cleverness, and on allowing meaning to emerge organically.
Session 19: Saturday 8 August
Voice, Reading, and Articulating the Project
Guest author: Alexandria Burnham
In this special session, writers will work on sustaining voice and speaking their work aloud. Alexandria Burnham, author of the brilliant debut novel Swallow, will discuss voice, confidence, and articulation, with attention to readings, presentations, and pitching.
Session 20: Tuesday 11 August
Structural Editing
Structural editing requires a different kind of attention than line editing. This session focuses on big-picture revision: order, emphasis, pacing, and narrative logic. We’ll explore strategies for reshaping material rather than simply refining it.
Session 21: Tuesday 18 August
Close Editing
This session turns to sentence-level revision. We’ll focus on clarity, rhythm, word choice, and precision, and discuss strategies for editing without flattening voice.
Session 22: Tuesday 25 August
Editing as Collaboration
Special guest editor (TBC)
This session demystifies the relationship between writer and editor. We’ll explore how editors read, what they look for, and how collaborative revision works in practice.
Session 23: Saturday 29 August
Pitching, Synopsis, and Speaking the Book Clearly
This intensive session focuses on articulating the project to others. We’ll explore the differences between pitches, blurbs, and synopses, and practice speaking about the work with clarity and confidence.
Session 24: Tuesday 1 September
Language, Detail, and Texture
This session revisits the use of detail, metaphor, and figurative language, focusing on how texture enriches narrative without overwhelming it.
Session 25: Tuesday 8 September
Endings
How do you know when a novel is finished? This session explores resolution, echo, and the final promises a book makes to its reader. We’ll examine different kinds of endings and how to achieve satisfaction without tidiness.
Session 26: Saturday 12 September
The Close Edit (Workshop Intensive)
A practical workshop session devoted to polishing work in progress, consolidating revision strategies, and preparing manuscripts for submission or further drafting.
Session 27: Tuesday 15 September
Publishing Pathways Now
Guest publisher: Alex Craig
This session offers a clear-eyed view of the contemporary publishing landscape, including acquisitions, submissions, timelines, and author–publisher relationships. You will have the opportunity to practice pitching with esteemed publisher Alex Craig and hear her thoughts on the industry and what makes a novel desirable in today’s publishing climate.
Session 28: Tuesday 22 September
Final Readings and What Comes Next
In our final session, writers will share excerpts from their work and reflect on the progress they’ve made. We’ll discuss sustaining writing practice beyond the course, next-draft strategies, and possible pathways forward.
Please note 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.
