The Story Doctor

Diagnose and cure your story’s maladies…

This creative writing course is ideal for: Writers with a finished novel, and looking to get it published

You will explore:
How to deconstruct your manuscript and work out what needs to be re-worked
Whether the skeleton of your novel is sound
Techniques for effective cutting and polishing
Refining dialogue, description, images and metaphors
And much more!

“Kate Forsyth is an extraordinary teacher. I walked away inspired, encouraged and motivated with all my batteries
fully charged. Kate draws on her wealth of experience and happily shares her knowledge. I have no hesitation in recommending any of Kate’s courses.”

– Wendy Fitzgerald, The Story Doctor graduate

See more reviews
Key information
Key information:
This is an online tutor-led Zoom course
This is an online tutor-led Zoom course

Starts:
To be announced

Starts:
To be announced

Duration:
5 Monday evenings

Duration:
5 Monday evenings

With:
Kate Forsyth
With:
Kate Forsyth

$595
Can’t make this one? Just fill out this form and we’ll be in touch when there’s a course date that suits you.

To hear about the next date as soon as it's announced, register your interest below!

Learn Online Live with Kate Forsyth

In this unique course, you will spend five evenings with internationally bestselling author Kate Forsyth. You will have an incredible opportunity to learn from one of Australia's best novelists.

With our Online Live courses, you participate online from the comfort of your own home in a live Zoom video-based classroom. Kate and your classmates are right there with you in real time.

Find the cure to your writing woes and be your own Story Doctor

Many aspiring authors struggle to find a publisher for their work, yet do not understand what is wrong with their manuscript. The Story Doctor is designed to help you look at your novel with new eyes, identify your story’s weaknesses, and formulate strategies to fix them. You’ll learn when to add, when to cut, and the secret techniques to help you look below the surface of your story.

Publishers are looking for manuscripts that sparkle, and stand out from the rest. To do this, authors must present a manuscript that needs minimal editing. Learning to restructure and rewrite is even more important for authors who wish to self-publish as they will not have the benefit of an in-house editor to help them.

Even experienced writers can feel that their editing skills are not as sharp as they could be, or that this particular project is proving too challenging and they long for someone to help them find out why. But it is often hard to know where to start. You are so close to your own work that you cannot see what works and what doesn't.

Others give you conflicting advice, or you find yourself deleting whole scenes and then putting them back again. You read the lines over and over, and change a comma or a word till the sentences have lost all freshness and vigour.

You lie awake at night, worrying about your narrative choices and whether you should rewrite the whole manuscript. You send it to agents and publishers, who all tell you that it has merit but is not quite there.

If this sounds all too true, then the story doctor can help you!

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • How to deconstruct your novel into its separate components and work out what is needed, and what can be removed.
  • Story architecture, and whether the skeleton of your novel is sound.
  • Common mistakes, and how to resolve them.
  • Identifying your own fatal weaknesses and learning to avoid them.
  • Techniques for effective cutting and polishing.
  • Ways to refine dialogue, description, images and metaphors.
  • Plus much more!

To gain the most from this course, you will need to have finished a novel and be ready to start thinking about publication.

You will need to have:

  • a finished manuscript
  • a one-page synopsis of your novel
  • a brief chapter-by-chapter outline (a paragraph per chapter)
  • a one paragraph precis of your story
  • blue, black and red pen
  • seven coloured highlighters
  • a thesaurus.

Reviews of The Story Doctor

“Kate Forsyth's depth of knowledge was just amazing. She is powerfully engaging and inspirational! Thank you so much, Kate.”

– Sandie Naumann

“I loved the manner in which Kate Forsyth inspired each individual member of the class through attempting to understand and provide individual assistance and support to everyone in their writing journey. Amazing! Kate created a very strong sense of community amongst us all as writers and fellow (to use her words) ‘kindred spirits'.”

– Christina Bulbrook

“A great big thank you to Kate! It was a brilliant course. I've been waiting to do it for two years and it was everything I had hoped for and more.”

– Anna Thomson

“I was struggling with how to keep pace and move forward. Kate really cleared the path with structure, making a clear line forward on how to fix my novel in practical ways. She also opened up a new way in how I look at the actual words in a sentence, scene, story.”

– Saffron Lombardo

Enjoy exclusive access to our AWC Graduates’ Club

Want to know where all the cool kids hang out? The Graduates’ Club of course! Now, calm down – there are no cigars, leather armchairs or loud ticking grandfather clocks here. But it IS exclusive invitation only (on completion of a course) and it’s free! Meet other writers online and share successes, seek help or just get something off your chest. Many students believe this ‘legacy learning’ is one of the most valuable things about our AWC community, and who are we to argue? So if you want to receive feedback, support and a heads-up on opportunities … join the Club!

Key information
Key information:
This is an online tutor-led Zoom course
This is an online tutor-led Zoom course

Starts:
To be announced

Starts:
To be announced

Duration:
5 Monday evenings

Duration:
5 Monday evenings

With:
Kate Forsyth
With:
Kate Forsyth

$595
Can’t make this one? Just fill out this form and we’ll be in touch when there’s a course date that suits you.
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