About

In this Production Series class, you will be challenged to write a 60,000 word novel in four months. Topics to be covered when you meet on the first and third Wednesdays of each month during that time include the following: (1) the premise, your story as a series of events, the opening, time management, and how to participate in a response group; (2) character development; (3) plot and story arc;  (4) dialogue; (5) point of view and setting; (6) show don’t tell; (7) self-editing; (8) revision and manuscript preparation.

Your commitment:  

• Write, at least 5 days per week for 4 months
• Write, at least, 750 words or 3 pages per day
• Bring selections from your novel to class to work on and share with your response group
• Be an active, productive member of your response group

Before the first class, you will submit the premise for your novel to the instructor. Instructions will be emailed about the formula for a premise. Student premises will be discussed and refined during the first class.

Instructor: T.M. Smith has loved to write since childhood, and it is little wonder that she majored in English in undergraduate school and went on to earn a Master of Arts in the same subject, accumulating more than one hundred credits in writing and literature courses while on that journey. Putting her schooling to good use, she taught her favorite subject at high school, community college, and university. During that busy time, like Virginia Woolf’s character in Between the Acts, she produced “orts, scraps, and fragments” that she now returns to and uses in her writings--a novel, Affection for Crime; two recently finished short stories; and a soon-to-be-completed novel series.

She takes great joy in writing but a greater joy in sharing what she knows, thereby encouraging others to pursue their dreams and become authors.

In her previous life, she earned a master of arts in English and a doctorate in Educational Administration and Higher Education; as principal she was honored when her school received the highly-sought-after National Secondary School Recognition Award (Blue Ribbon School); and she was excited to receive a Milken Outstanding Educator Award.