This July, begin that novel you’ve been thinking about, planning, dreaming of. During the week of the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, July 9-19, novelist Skip Horack will be in-residence, leading a small, intimate workshop to help you being your novel–and get it on a permanent track.

This course is for those who have an existing “idea” for a novel, but are uncertain how to nurture that initial spark and proceed. Making informed decisions at the outset regarding such matters as point of view, characterization, setting, structure, plot, and theme greatly increases the likelihood that your first draft will be built upon a solid foundation.

Through a variety of exercises and assigned readings, you’ll create just such a foundation.

You’ll walk away with the first 12-25 pages of your novel draft completed, as well as with clear ideas about how to finish that elusive first draft.

Register securely online here, or contact jhartt@centrum.org for more information, including full Conference and registration information.

Since 1974, the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference has been at the center of the thriving Pacific Northwest literary scene. With a focus on community and rigorous attention to craft, the Conference offers morning workshops, afternoon workshops, and a vibrant readings and lectures program.

Skip Horack is the author of the story collection The Southern Cross (2009), winner of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference 2008 Bakeless Fiction Prize; and the novel The Eden Hunter (2010), a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. His work has also appeared in Oxford American, the Saturday Evening Post, Epoch, The Southern Review, Narrative Magazine, and elsewhere. He is a former Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where he was also a Wallace Stegner Fellow. His novel The Other Joseph will be published by Ecco/HarperCollins in 2015, and he is currently an assistant professor at Florida State University specializing in fiction and creative nonfiction writing. For more information please visit www.skiphorack.com.