Blueprint to Book: Plotting and Writing a Novel with Angela Knight

Plot-Structure-GMC Blueprint to Book: Plotting and Writing a Novel with Angela Knight

Level
Mixed
Basic and Premium Members Prices
Premium Members $40 & Basic Members $50

Register by April 24th and save $5, use code BLUEPRINTKNIGHT2023 at checkout!
Category
  1. Characters
  2. Description/Setting
  3. Structure
  4. GMC
  5. Plotting
  6. Shorts/Novella
$5 off Early Registration Coupon-expires 1 week before class starts
BLUEPRINTKNIGHT2023
Class Length
4 Weeks
In this month-long, twelve-lesson class, NYT best-selling author, Angela Knight, demonstrates how she plots, writes, and revises a short novel.

Where Brainstorming to Revision dealt with the short story, in this class Angela digs into novel construction. She uses a combination of video demonstrations, written lessons, worksheets, and free one-on-one critiques to help you learn how to write a book readers will love.

She’ll post worksheets, videos and written lessons on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays you can email her scenes from your WIP for private critique. Past students have said the feedback was invaluable.

1. Introduction: what to expect with the class.​
2. Initial Idea: Angela shows how to research your Work In Progress using various techniques. She explains how to spot information that definitely belongs in the book. She then explains how to use that information to brainstorm the broad events that will make up the book.​
3. Conflict and Character Creation: In a video, Angela demonstrates the character creation sheet you can use to write your book. She discusses the three forms of conflict that form any good novel’s foundation. Then she goes into the reasons your protagonists must be badly screwed up.​
4. Heroes Assemble: Angela uses the character sheet to show you how to develop your hero, giving him the internal conflicts and wounds that make a Happy Ever After seem unlikely. She also shows how to motivate those conflicts and wounds with believable backstory.​
5. Wonder Women: Next Angela uses the sheet to create the last woman that hero would ever want to fall in love with. She shows how the heroine’s internal scars, goals and motivations combine to create a powerful romantic conflict while making her a strong and memorable character.​
6. A Few Bad Men (and Women): Angela demonstrates the construction of antagonists designed to attack your protagonists’ greatest weaknesses. This creates terrific tension in the book, and drives readers to keep reading. She also discusses how to make the antagonist a fully realized, three-dimensional character instead of a cartoon villain.​
7. Blueprint to Success: just as you wouldn’t start building a house without a blueprint, you need to create a series of events that complicates your protagonists’ lives. Angela demonstrates the worksheet she uses to plot her books and explains the plot ingredients you need for a solid foundation. Without that foundation, you’ll find finishing the book difficult and frustrating.​
8. Dynamic Entry: Angela discusses how to write a first chapter that sucks readers in and makes them pounce on the BUY button. She talks about how to provide each protagonist with a first scene that shows who they are, what their biggest problem is, and the challenges they must resolve before they get their HEA.​
9. Washboard Middles: how to keep the middle of your book rippling with tension so the reader wouldn’t even dream of putting it down.​
10. Endgame: Angela covers avoiding anti-climaxes, choreographing fight scenes, and resolving your characters’ internal, external, and romantic conflicts in a heart- pounding scene that sends readers looking for your backlist.​
11. Second Draft Craft: Angela demonstrates how to fix problematic scenes that lack energy and emotion.​
12. Finishing Touches: in this video, Angela demonstrates how to clean up badly written sentences and make them sing.​
In almost thirty years as a published author, Angela Knight has written 27 novels, 35 novellas and two books on writing. During her 14 years with Penguin-Putnam (now Penguin-Random House), her books hit the bestseller lists of The New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly on multiple occasions. In 2022, she won the Passionate Plume award for Best Speculative Romance from the Passionate Ink erotic romance authors organization.
Class Format
This class is a blended video and message-based class. Each lesson contains a pre-recorded video, text-based worksheets, and discussion threads. You may access the videos any time during the class

Savvy Authors' workshops are held on a forum: a bulletin board based system. You will receive a reminder notice one day prior to the start of the workshop that includes instructions on how to access the workshop forum. If you have not received instructions by the day the workshop begins, please check your spam filter.

The forum will be available the morning (EST) of the day the workshop starts and will remain accessible to all participants thereafter. You will also be given simple instructions on how to create a PDF of all your discussions along with our privacy and data retention policy.
Author
Angela Knight
Start date
May 1, 2023 at 9:00 AM
End date
May 29, 2023 at 12:50 AM
Registration end date
May 8, 2023 at 8:00 PM
Rating
4.93 star(s) 97 ratings

Latest reviews

Angela Knight shares her techniques and I have tried several of them. Taking walks while brainstorming my book worked for me in the past. I tried it again and am thankful she reminded me of a method I had forgotten about. I liked the video format of this course, which is a change for me, rather than reading files. She is a great teacher and explains her worksheets well, referring to her recently completed novel, Arcane Deception. I also like that she continues to share any toolbox of resources to get back into writing her next book, long after the course is done. Thank you!
This comprehensive workshop in which Angela shows her entire system for creating a book was done with video, text, and charts. The way in which she presents in all those formats helped me to understand and retain the massive amount of material presented. From brainstorming the initial idea, constructing each section of the first draft, rewrites, editing, creating a cover, and more is covered (and not just in passing). The walking/recording while brainstorming was a revelation to me. Seriously the best investment I've ever made in a workshop--both in terms of money and time. Too bad the rating is capped at five stars. I'd give this one ten.
I am so glad I took Angela's class. It's the first workshop that has ever taken me through the entire process of writing a book. Taking a video "walK" with Angela as she brainstorms her book showed me that other writers think as I do. The combination of video lessons and print lessons kept the flow of information varied and interesting. There was such pertinent, applicable information in the videos, so having them available for several months is a huge plus. If you want to take a workshop that gives you the whole picture of writing a book, from the idea stage to the last chapter, look no further. Blueprint to Success is worth your time and money.
Seeing Angela Knight fix things in her doc. was an eye-opener for me. Having visual breaks from the written word by using her art was... I have no words. As an artist it was epic to see in a writing class. It helped me stay focused while feeding my love of visual art with my love writing. This class fed my soul and filled my well. I needed it. Her teaching style is entertaining while she she teaches. I found myself laughing out loud in the best ways at certain times. That's the caution I can give, you might laught too loud. You get the visual, the audio, the docs. Don't hesitate. This was awesome!
I loved this workshop! I learned various things along the way to make my characters stronger ad my plotting tighter. Over the years, I've taken workshops Angela has given and she never, ever, disappoints. Her teaching is to the point and passionate, easy to understand. I highly recommend this workshop and any others by Angela Knight.
This has been the best fifty bucks I have ever spent! Angela provides a combination of both video and written content, including grids, graphs and sample outlines. Everything needed to write a novel from start to finish. On top of that, critiques are offered and a discussion forum that is detailed and informative. If you haven't taken this class yet, then you're missing out!
Wonderful class and instructor. Would recommend this workshop for anyone wanting to be a writer and be successful!! Awesome teacher with lots of info to share.
I already knew Angela Knight was an amazing instructor from previous classes/webinars I've taken. Although I assumed I already knew the foundation of novel building, seeing the instructor's name, I knew I would benefit to learn her process. The new multimedia format of the course was like having Angela in your home or beside you, as a walking buddy. The videos and word/pdf lesson attachments illustrated the lessons so well. The experience was incredible. The author walks the class through her process to create the novel she discusses in the course as an example for the students. Her input on homework and critiques is invaluable. She is kind and available/accessible to answer student questions. I cannot praise this class or the instructor enough. No, I'm not a relative of Her's either. I applaud her thoroughness and openness to want to help aspiring authors.