Intensive + Critique: Planning & Plotting a Series for Young Readers

Writing and selling a series for young readers requires a different process than that for a stand-alone novel. In this intensive, you'll gain the know-how to plan, structure, and pitch your series with confidence.

This intensive will be broken into two, 90-minute sessions on planning and plotting a series, delivered over Zoom, with the opportunity to ask additional questions on the intensive's discussion board. Each class will also include short in-class exercises, take-home exercises to complete on your own and a handout to keep. 

This intensive builds on Marcie's class Developing a Premise for Serialized Fiction for Young Readers. Your signup includes access to this class; we encourage you to watch it in advance. 

Session 1 : Planning

In this session, you'll work on getting the bones of your series idea in place. Through lecture and case study, we'll cover:

• Writing a compelling premise. This part of the intensive builds directly on the webinar material. Participants will be given the opportunity to share their premise in advance, and Marcie will use a handful of these to demonstrate what works and what can be strengthened.
• Considerations for choosing a format: chapter book, graphic novel, or early reader; prose, comic or hybrid
• Character growth and arc over a series 

Session 2: Plotting

This session will dive into plotting the first book in your series, and planning additional books. Through lecture, case study, and in-class writing, we will cover: 

• Outlining book one 
• Writing additional book blurbs 
• What to include in your proposal/submission package and what to consider as you create each element.

Partial Submission Package Critique

After the intensive, you'll have the opportunity to get feedback on a partial submission package from Marcie. This will include:

• Series premise: 1-2 sentences.
• Book One chapter-by-chapter outline: 1-2 sentence summary per chapter.
• Two additional book blurbs, 3-4 sentences each

Marcie will provide a written critique of your series materials. After, the group will meet on Zoom to give each person a chance to ask Marcie questions and brainstorm live.