Novel Boot Camp 2016 – Starts July 1st!
The third annual Novel Boot Camp will be held this July. It will include lectures, discussion questions, and writing workshops. This year, for the first time, lectures will be done in video format. To join Novel Boot Camp 2016, you can follow the blog or my YouTube channel.
Novel Boot Camp 2015
The second annual Novel Boot Camp was held in August 2015.
Novel Boot Camp 2014
Novel Boot Camp was a lecture series and online workshop held in July of 2014. The posts are listed below for your convenience.
The Lectures
Lesson #1: The First Page Promise
Lesson #2: Introducing the Main Character
Lesson #3: How to Avoid Info Dumping
Lesson #4: Writing Believable Dialogue
Lesson #5: Character Motivation
Lesson #6: Internal and External Conflicts
Lesson #7: Be Ruthless
Lesson #8: Writing Believable Antagonists
Lesson #9: The Saggy Middle
Lesson #10: The Character Arc
Lesson #11: Developing Your Voice
Lesson #12: Writing a Series
Lesson #13: Handling Romance
Lesson #14: Strengthening the Setting
Lesson #15: The Climax
Lesson #16: Nailing the Denouement
Lesson #17: Dialogue Tags
Lesson #18: Identifying Your Novel’s Genre
Lesson #19: How to Self-Edit
Workshops
The workshops are closed, however you are welcome to view and learn from the old posts.
Workshop 1: The Genre Guessing Game
Workshop 2: First Page Critique Session
Workshop 3: Help Me, Help Me!
Workshop 4: Ask the Editor
Workshop 5: Query Letter & Blurb Critique
Connect with Other Novel Boot Camp Participants
Even if you missed Novel Boot Camp, you are more than welcome to join us on Twitter or Facebook.
Donate to Novel Boot Camp
This free online course is one of the most ambitious things I’ve ever taken on. My goal is for the course to be a wild success so that it can be repeated (with new content!) year after year. If possible, your donation would help support the huge time investment of Novel Boot Camp. If you can’t afford a donation, I totally understand! Please consider sharing my posts and writing positive reviews on your blog.
Any showing of support (in the comments or through a donation) is so greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Ellen Brock 
If there are any opportunities for group work, such as connecting participants with like genres, it might allow us to continue working with one another after novel boot camp. That might be a great follow-up after what I expect will be a fantastic opportunity to improve my work. Thank you for organizing this!
Hi Ellen,
This may sound like a pretty stupid question….. but would it be useful to join the bootcamp even though I don’t write in English?
Obviously, if reading and critiquing what participants write is a big part of it, it wouldn’t make sense to participate. But does it? Or is it more about learning important lessons and applying them ourselves – in which case language would not necessarily be a barrier?
Thanks!
Jutta
Hi Jutta,
I think you should definitely still participate! There will be lessons each day that could be applied to work in any language. The workshops are completely optional and are just a sort of “bonus” for those who want extra help. It’s not what the bulk of it will be about.
-Ellen
Great! I’m really looking forward to it.
To answer your poll-question, whether participants of the boot camp would also be interested in paying for one-on-one help:
If there were no language barrier – yes, definitely! Come to think of it, I might just switch to English to make it possible. 😉
Thanks again,
Jutta
You are one plucky youngster! Considering I hate the summer, this may be the first time I’ve looked forward to July in years. Love your videos [though I still have no idea about the head-hopping thing], and couldn’t resist jumping on board.
Not sure if I should bring in my 260K beast or submit my short story. I’m inclined to bring my novel to play because I spent about a year on CRITTERS and after a few months put together an explanation of why I used ‘3rd person omniscient’.
“I include the name of each character in each paragraph so that the reader knows EXACTLY ‘who’s mind am I in right now?’. For a published use of this narrative style, read some Kate Wilhelm. She switches head in the middle of a sentence sometimes, and [I’ve been told] she rocks.”
This, after I had one reader explain what it was and liked it and gave me an example of a successful writer who thrives in those waters. It helped. Some folks it makes crazy, others thrived on it… interested to see your take on it. 🙂
Did I understand correctly we’ll be critiquing each others work? I’m not sure why anyone would need a thick skin for that – feedback is mana from heaven!
Your Buddy, Chester
I can’t wait!! This is so what I have been waiting for since there are not many workshops where I live. That you so much for everything that you are doing 🙂
Thank*
I’m really looking forward to this and have marked my calendar. I’ll be watching for updates as they come.
I can’t wait. This seems fun!!!
I’m really excited about this. I’ve just about finished my ms, but finding beta – readers is
proving to be like pulling teeth. The people who’ve read it say it’s really good, but they’re not the gatekeepers at a pub house. I love writing though; i don’t know what i’d do with myself if i couldn’t write … if i couldn’t create worlds and fill them with life, with action, murder, mayhem and the occasional light touch of romance. I’ve finished four rough drafts and find myself thirsting to write the next concept. It’s awesome, really. I hear a piece of music that moves me or see something while i’m out on the streets of my city and pow! i get an idea for a book.
I’m really liking the whole process of it: researching agents (not that far yet, but it never hurts to be ready), writing, revising, rewriting. Although i have to confess, a lot of editors and
such say to read, but it seems some authors in the genre i like to read are dead boring.
But who am i to say that, lol. They’re published and i’m not … not yet anyway.
LOL. I’m mortified. My kid nudged my elbow and made me right click before i could finish checking my last post. Sorry about that guys.
Hi Ellen
I have just found this and been watching your videos on YouTube. I’ve enjoyed watching them and you’ve cleared up a few bits and pieces that I had questions about.
By the time July rolls round, I’ll have finished my first draft and had about a month to let it rest.
Question: Does it matter where we are in the world? I’m in England, so between 5-8 hours ahead of you, I think. Will there be ‘live’ work to do on the blog, or just when we can get to it?
I’m really looking forward to the boot camp. It’s a great idea and a huge thank you for doing it(fingers crossed that you get enough people on board!).
Heather
(P.S. now paranoid about grammatical errors and long sentences that go on and on………..)
Hi Heather,
Thanks for watching my videos!
I plan to have the live parts take place over at least a day or two to give everyone time to participate, so the time difference should be no problem!
I look forward to getting to know you and your project more during Boot Camp!
-Ellen
Hi Ellen
That’s great about the time difference. I’m 6 hours ahead – just noticed the times on the posts.
I’ve read through the other posts and it looks like there will be a good bunch of people taking part, if we can all make it.
Right, I must do a bit more writing and a bit less faffing around on the internet! “To faff” is to spend time in ineffectual activity !
Heather
Being a bit of a “noob” here, but where do I send my first paragraph? I have signed up, but alas nothing happened after that.
The critique will be at a designated time during the course. It will be a blog post that you will have to leave a comment on.
Thanks for signing up!