Mastering the Manuscript: Completing a Full-Length Poetry Manuscript (from Start to Finish)

Join award-winning author Ollie Schminkey for this 10-week intensive course that will provide you with all of the tools you need to draft your own full-length poetry manuscript. This course will focus on not only how to write a manuscript, but how to write a good one.

We’ll begin at the beginning, and you’ll learn how to create a compelling theme, structure, and organization for your manuscript (existing ideas and projects are welcome, but we will be looking at those ideas and refining them to make sure they really help your book shine, so come prepared with an open mind).

Whether you are coming to this course with some poems already written or whether you are starting from scratch, you will write 20-30 new poems based off of provided prompts, some of which we will complete during our weekly meetings, but the bulk will be on your own as part of a daily/weekly writing practice (this works out to writing about 2-3 poems a week). By the end of this course, you will have a significant amount of new material for consideration in your manuscript. Please note that this writing schedule is significantly more rigorous than most other courses, and you will get out of the course what you put in.

Each week, we will meet for an hour and a half over Zoom and cover a new topic. These topics range from ideation to effective metaphors to manuscript structure to poem endings and will often include a short lesson followed by a writing exercise. You will grow your writing craft as you complete the content of your manuscript, strengthening both your ideas and your writing as you go.

This course includes significant out of class work each week (these manuscripts aren’t going to write themselves!), estimated at about 1-1.5 hours per week. The bulk of this work will be writing new poems, but you will sometimes be required to edit your peers’ work (never more than a few poems at a time), and to complete other assignments, including reading a full-length poetry manuscript from a published author.

During the course, you will receive global/more general edits on your entire manuscript from the instructor, and you will create a 5-poem packet that represents the manuscript, on which you will receive in-depth poem edits. At the end of the first two months, you will get peer feedback on a poem of your choice. If you would like in-depth feedback on all of your poems, this course pairs well with private coaching from Ollie Schminkey.

A few other things of note: this course focuses on the craft of the manuscript itself, and is not a course on publishing. Although you will receive some resources for publishing and you’ll have an opportunity to ask any questions you have, keep in mind that this is a primarily generative course. This course is best suited to folks who are serious about making significant progress on a manuscript, although both beginners and more experienced poets are welcomed with open arms, and exercises/assignments are designed to benefit many experience levels of writers.

Ollie aims for all of their classes to be actively non-competitive, non-judgemental, pro-diversity, anti-racist, pro-LGBTQ, and extremely fun! You can expect a collaborative environment, a flexible approach to poetry, and (hopefully) a good laugh per class. Poems in this workshop will cover a wide variety of themes, some of which contain mature content and may be activating for some participants.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Develop and choose a successful idea/theme/structure for your manuscript.
• Understand the mechanisms of successful manuscripts, and apply those qualities to your own work.
• Read and analyze one poetry manuscript that achieves goals that are similar to yours (we’ll talk about how to identify and choose these manuscripts in class).
• Identify presses and contests that would be a good fit for your work.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Learn new writing skills and ways to improve your writing with many manuscript-specific tools.
• Generate a large body (20-30 poems) of work for consideration in your manuscript, including a variety of forms and structures.
• Compile a packet of 5 poems that represent the heart of the manuscript for extensive editing.
• Receive and give peer feedback on two poems.

Zoom Schedule

Class will meet live on Zoom for 10 weeks on Thursdays from 7-8:30 PM Eastern, February 6th- April 10th. Classes will include a short lecture (10 minutes), guided writing time, exercises, sharing, and group conversation.

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: Ideation and Creation!

This first week, you’ll learn about different ways to come up with ideas, how to test those ideas for success, and how to choose the right one for your manuscript. We’ll talk about how to determine the goal of your book, how to tailor your manuscript to your audience, and how to choose a structure that is right for your book. If you already have an idea for your book, you’ll learn how to refine that idea. By next week, you’ll have a clear theme for your manuscript, as well as any tweaks to any existing ideas. And, of course, you’ll begin writing, with prompts that are specifically tailored to support the structure and theme of your manuscript!

Week Two: The Not-So-Basics

We are going to take it back to the beginning, and you’ll learn some poetry vocab (that’s probably more practical and helpful than your high school English class), and we’ll put that vocab to the test with examples, exercises, and tips. You’ll also choose a book to read that achieves similar content and structure goals to your manuscript. (Reading this book will be due on Week Six, so you have enough time to order your chosen book if you need to). The assignment will include writing your weekly batch of poems, with prompts designed to incorporate this new vocabulary into your work.

Week Three: Metaphors and Images

We’ll do a deep dive into what makes metaphors work, images shine, and poems connect with readers. We’ll practice in class, learn from the greats (otherwise known as poets I personally think are great, which will be a diverse array of contemporary poets), and, of course, write!

Week Four: The “After” Poem

We’ll learn how to find inspiration from other poets’ work, how to properly credit them for that inspiration, and how to use that inspiration to make poems that are uniquely ours. In addition to writing your weekly poems, you will post a poem for in-class peer editing.

Week Five: All About Editing

You will learn some tips and tricks for giving, receiving, and completing edits. We will be taking a look at your poems in-class and providing feedback as a group. The homework for this week will include reading your book you chose in Week Two, and coming to class next week with some ideas of what you learned.

Week Six: Reading, Writing, and ‘Rithmetic (Just Kidding, There’s No Math)

We’ll discuss what you learned from your books (what you loved, what you didn’t), and how that will impact the future of your own manuscript. We’ll write together off of a prompt inspired by the book you just read, and your weekly assignment will take inspiration from your book. This will also serve as a check-in for how your manuscript is progressing and to make any adjustments as needed.

Week Seven: Gotta Try Em All–Form Poems!

We’ll dive into the myriad of form options for poems, and you’ll examine how different types of form poems can support your manuscript. Your weekly writing assignment will include intentionally drafting form poems that strengthen your project.

Week Eight: All Good Things Must Come to An End–How to End a Poem

You’ll learn about 3 ways to effectively end a poem and leave your readers with that “wow” feeling. Of course, we’ll practice in class, and of course, your weekly assignment will have you interrogating and improving your endings. You will also identify and post a “title poem” for the collection for peer editing. For next week, the entire draft of your manuscript is also due, and you will be receiving global feedback from the instructor.

Week Nine: Finding the Heart of Your Manuscript

In class, we will edit our title poems as a group and check in about the progress of your manuscript. For next week, you will compile a packet of 5 poems for intensive instructor editing that represent the heart of your collection.

Week Ten: Publication

You’ll learn how to identify presses and contests that might be a good fit for your work, and you’ll also get a chance to ask any questions you have about the publishing world. You’ll get a guide for next steps, and, of course, we’ll celebrate the new draft of your manuscript!

$645.00 Original price was: $645.00.$550.00Current price is: $550.00.Enroll Now