FBCW Enrolled: Write a Holiday Romance Novella with best-selling author Jody Holford/Sophie Sullivan
Member price: $120 CAD (That's just $30 a session!)
Non-member price: $170 CAD
**This series will be recorded. A link to the recording will be emailed to registrants each week after the session. The recordings will be available for 45 days from the last session date.**
If you signed up after week one and are missing any recordings, please email hello@bcwriters.ca and let us know which sessions you are missing.
NOTE: Because this is a series of ongoing sessions, there will not be reminder emails about the individual sessions. This series uses the same Zoom link each week. We suggest saving the Zoom link in a calendar event, a Word Document, or the Notes app.
Dates and times:
~ Saturday, November 7, 11 a.m.
~ Saturday, November 14, 11 a.m.
~ Saturday, November 21, 11 a.m.
~ Saturday, November 28, 11 a.m.
A little holiday magic, a whole lot of chemistry, and a happily ever after worth rooting for. What does it take to bring them together in a novella?
Join Jody Holford, who also writes as Sophie Sullivan, for a hands-on course in writing a holiday romance that keeps readers turning the pages. Through guided activities and writing exercises, you’ll develop a story idea and work toward a draft of your own holiday romance novella, learning how to make room for an emotionally satisfying love story within a shorter word count.
Keeping things short and sweet takes careful choices. You’ll explore how to choose an idea suited to the novella format, create characters readers can connect with quickly, and give your romantic leads compelling reasons to fall for each other—with just enough standing in their way. Along the way, you’ll consider how holiday traditions, expectations, and settings can shape the story and bring your characters closer together.
With an emphasis on keeping the essentials, the course will explore how to:
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Develop a focused premise with enough conflict to sustain a novella.
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Build chemistry and a believable emotional connection in fewer pages.
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Use the holiday backdrop to influence character choices and romantic complications.
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Keep scenes purposeful and recognize when a subplot or secondary character is crowding the story.
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Bring the romance to a satisfying conclusion without rushing the happily ever after.
Whether you’re arriving with an idea already simmering or a blank page and a fondness for holiday love stories, this course will help you find your focus and make progress on your draft. Come ready to brainstorm, experiment, and write!
Course objective: For each attendee to develop a story idea and work toward a draft of a unique holiday romance novella, learning how to make room for an emotionally satisfying love story within a shorter word count.
Weekly schedule (tentative):
Week one: The tree skirt
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Meet and greet; who we are, background, favourite romance books and holiday movies
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Choosing and narrowing an idea
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Laying the foundation for our holiday novellas
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Characters, setting, problem
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Homework!
Week two: Bottom third of the tree
Participants who feel comfortable sharing will be invited to share their work with the group. We will discuss what is keeping characters apart, how to balance the holiday atmosphere with romance, and ways to build and create romantic situations.
Week three: Middle and top of the tree
This session will start with student check-ins to share and discuss what story problems might have come up during the writing week. Discussion will be based around where people feel they are stuck, and we’ll roll with those blocks and find ways around them. We will also talk about how to layer in conflict, how to ensure we’re not adding too much backstory, and we’ll start brainstorming a satisfying resolution. Jody will plan to introduce critique partners and demonstrate how to give feedback.
Week four: Time for the star!
We will review how critique partner feedback went and discuss where we are in our stories, including character development, the holiday element, and what’s compelling readers to keep turning pages to reach that happily ever after.
Presenter bio:
Jody Holford/Sophie Sullivan is a Canadian author as well as a cookie-eating, Diet Pepsi-drinking, Disney enthusiast who loves reading and writing romance in almost equal measure. She writes around her day job as a teacher and spends her spare time with her sweet family watching reruns of Friends. She's had plenty of practice writing happily ever after as her alter ego, Jody Holford.
Follow Jody/Sophie online:
https://www.sophiesullivanauthor.com/
https://www.instagram.com/authorsophiesullivan/
