Chicklit: How to Write It, How to Get It Published

Course Details

Chicklit. Some people like the term. Some people don't. Is the label sexy and fun? Is it insulting and demeaning? What makes a novel chicklit? Why isn?t it considered literature? Or romance? Why do these categories exist, anyway? Are there rules? Does it have to end in marriage? Does the main character need to buy shoes at some point? In this class, we?ll be answering all these questions and more as you write your own novel -- one that stems from your particular sensibility and experience, and that has your distinctive voice.

Typically published in trade paperback with candy-colored covers, chicklit novels are about the challenges of being a woman today. They are intimate and informal. They can be easy to relate to, comforting, entertaining, and funny. They can also be intelligent, sad, touching and thought provoking.

The world depicted in chicklit often resonates because it reflects the female experience. But it can also operate more as a fantasy, depicting a career, city, or way of life that we imagine we?d like to have. Chicklit is often a form of masked memoir -- veiled fictionalizations of the author?s own experiences.

If you're a woman with a story to tell, this class will help you get it out there -- and in the process maybe bend the rules (that don?t exist) and push the borders (that aren?t really there).

• How to create an intriguing heroine who may or may not be nice
• Ways to structure your story (that may be partially based on your own experiences) so that it really becomes fiction
• Whether to include sex scenes, and how to deal with your mother or children reading them
• Tips on dealing with exposition and writing natural sounding dialogue
• Points of view on point of view
• How to give your manuscript an extreme makeover without using plastic surgery
• Everything you need to know about the mysterious business of publishing but were too shy to ask.
  
  Admission Requirements:
  Please send a letter of interest which includes a brief work history and a writing sample that should not exceed 2,000 words.

Instructor Bio

Stephanie Lehmann's Courses

Stephanie Lehmann is the author of Are You in the Mood?, Thoughts While Having Sex, and The Art of Undressing. Her plays have been produced off off Broadway, and she is a contributor to Salon. Originally from San Francisco, she's a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and has a master's in creative writing from New York University. Lehmann now lives with her husband and two children in Manhattan, where she's an associate at the Elaine Koster Literary Agency. Her fourth novel, You Could Do Better, will be published by Penguin/NAL in August 2006.