Cutting and Polishing:
Turning Your Good Manuscript into a Great Book
with Elizabeth Rosner
You’ve completed a draft, or nearly so. You think it’s good. But is it the best it can be? Is it enough of a gem to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace? What can you do to transform your manuscript from adequate to extraordinary? That is the topic of this unique class.
In Elizabeth Rosner’s three-decade career as a teacher and nationally bestselling author, she has worked with hundreds of writers in revising and refining drafts and turning them into successful books. She has not won the Pulitzer for her writing (at least so far), but if there were one for teaching, we think she would be a top candidate. And a multitude of her grateful students share this opinion. She is truly an exceptional teacher.
Elizabeth will invite you to share excerpts, both those that you think are excellent, and others that you aren’t sure about. She will skillfully dissect them, finding what makes the great parts great and where the less-than-great parts are missing the mark.
She will help you to identify what truly works in your manuscript. The originality of your voice. The depth of your characters. The power of your story arc. The fluency and cleanliness of your prose. Then, with her exceptional gift for gently yet accurately guiding writers, she will help you understand where these strengths shine brightly, and where they don’t.
Writers sometimes dread the process of revision. “I gave it my best shot,” they tell themselves. “I’d rather move on to another book now.” And their book languishes unpublished, or if it is published, not widely read. Elizabeth’s inspirational teaching has helped many to bring the same joyful creative energy to the revision process that compelled them to write the book in the first place.
We enthusiastically recommend this class for writers who have a completed or nearly completed manuscript in any genre—fiction, memoir, non-fiction, short story or other—who have the courage to recognize that their creation is not quite the masterpiece they want it to be, and the determination to bring it to its true potential.
4 Afternoons: Monday 11/2–Thursday 11/5 | 1:30-4:30pm
$895.00
In stock
Elizabeth Rosner is the author of three novels, a poetry collection, and most recently, a book of creative nonfiction. SURVIVOR CAFÉ: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award; interviews with Rosner were featured on National Public Radio and in the New York Times. Her prize-winning novels have been translated into ten languages; her essays and poems have appeared in Elle, the Forward, the NY Times Magazine, and numerous anthologies. She leads writing workshops internationally.
“In addition to being an accomplished novelist, memoirist, and poet, Liz has the extraordinary gift of ability to coax the authentic voice from each participant. In words and silences, in rhythms and pauses, in verbs and nouns each voice enters the hallowed space of committed listeners to sing its soul into the circle of comrades traveling the anguished path. Whatever the background, an inviting arena of warmth and patience welcomes each participant. Liz’s instruction alone is worth the time and cost, but the real bargain is her ability to generate that magnetic allure where each participant’s muse cannot resist emerging to be heard.” — student testimonial