Itinerary Novel Course

How to write a novel

The Novel Itinerary is a teaching program designed specifically for the training of novelists. Throughout this program, students will learn the method proposed by Escuela de Escritores to conceive, structure and write a novel from the initial idea to its last correction.

This program was born from the collaboration and teaching exchange with our sister school, the Escola d'Escriptura de l'Ateneu Barcelonès, and has been developed by the faculty of the Escuela de Escritores combining the knowledge of teachers specialized in narrative techniques such as Javier Sagarna, Magdalena Tirado, Alfonso Fernández Burgos or Magdalena Tirado with the experience of novelists such as Rubén Abella, José Ovejero, Lara Moreno, Ignacio Ferrando or María José Codes.

Objectives of the Itinerary

The objective of the Novel Itinerary is for students to progressively acquire, perfect and practice theoretical knowledge and writing techniques and apply them at each precise stage of the process of creating their novel.

Thus, after learning the basic technical and expressive tools during the first year, the student will begin the creation process starting from a planning that avoids the deficiencies and gaps in the plot that frequently lead to frustration and abandonment; On these solid foundations, it will be time to start writing.

After passing through the Itinerary, the student will not only have written a novel, but will also have learned a structured method for writing novels that will allow them to safely venture into writing new projects from a deep knowledge of the internal keys of the genre.

To achieve these objectives, Escuela de Escritores has designed a three-course itinerary .

The three courses of the itinerary

Each one of the novel courses lasts for an academic year (more than eight months each course). This table includes the characteristics for each of the modalities that we offer (the face-to-face modality is taught in Madrid and Zaragoza).

Virtual mode

• Duration: 8 months (approximate dedication: 150 hours)
• Price: 1,200 euros
• Students per group: 12 in 1st and 2nd, 10 in 3rd

Face-to-face modality

• Duration: 90 hours (divided into 30 3-hour classes)
• Price: 1,200 euros
• Students per group: 12 in 1st and 2nd, 10 in 3rd

First year: Narrative techniques of the novel

On the Internet / in Madrid /

In this course the student will know and practice until mastering each of the narrative techniques involved in the process of writing a novel.

The fifteen topics of this course consist of theoretical materials dedicated to the different narrative resources and techniques, a recommended bibliography, mandatory readings, the analysis of the use of these techniques by different writers throughout history and writing proposals for put them into practice. During the last part of this first year, the student will begin to outline the novel that he will write in the second year, to build the beginning of the plot and to define his characters.

Second year: Novel I

On the Internet / in Madrid

Throughout this second year the student will undertake one of the key moments of his learning. During the first months, he will concentrate on planning, on building that secret framework that holds every good novel: the main and secondary plots, the psychological depth of the characters, the conflicts that move them, the events that trigger the action and the engines that keep it alive and drive it towards its end, the tone, etc.

In the last months of the course, when the novel has a solid structure, we will start writing the first chapters. Each of the fifteen topics of the Novel I course includes theoretical materials, bibliography, readings, text analysis and practical proposals.

Third year: Novel II

On the Internet / in Madrid

During the last year, the student will write the complete text of his novel with the security that will provide him with mastery of the technique and the work on the structure and the characters that he has developed during the previous courses. It will be time to explore in search of one's own style, to refine the acquired resources and to count, more than ever, on the support of classmates and the guidance of teachers who will supervise the writing process of each novel.