The Advanced Novelist: Write a Novel That Actually Works
Go beyond the basics and learn the craft-level techniques professional novelists use to build complex structure, layered characters, and prose that earns readers' trust — then finish your novel.
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Architect a novel-length structure that sustains tension and momentum across every act without relying on plot tricks
- Build psychologically complex characters whose internal contradictions drive the story forward organically
- Write and revise scene-level prose with intentional control over rhythm, distance, and point of view
- Design and execute a non-linear or unconventional narrative structure with clarity and purpose
- Develop a villain or antagonist whose perspective is genuinely compelling, not cartoonish
- Perform a structural revision pass that identifies and fixes deep story problems without line-editing busywork
- Diagnose the specific craft weakness stalling your current manuscript and apply a targeted fix
- Complete a polished, submission-ready synopsis and opening chapter package
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 16 lessons
Structural Thinking at Novel Scale
Move beyond three-act diagrams and learn to think about structure as a system of escalating pressure, promises, and payoffs. Diagnose the structural DNA of published novels and apply the same lens to your own manuscript.
- 1.1Why Acts Lie to You: Pressure Systems Over Plot BeatsIncluded
- 1.2The Promise Contract: What Your First 50 Pages GuaranteeIncluded
- 1.3Second Act Gravity: Engineering Momentum Through the MiddleIncluded
Character Architecture for Complex Protagonists
Advanced character work means building people whose contradictions are load-bearing — characters whose flaws aren't quirks but the very engine of the plot. Move from character sketches to character systems.
- 2.1The Wound Isn't the Character: Building Contradictory Inner LivesIncluded
- 2.2Supporting Characters as Argument: The Thematic CastIncluded
- 2.3Writing the Persuasive Villain: Antagonists Who Are Right About SomethingIncluded
Prose at the Sentence and Scene Level
Advanced prose work isn't about beautiful sentences — it's about control. Learn to make deliberate choices about rhythm, distance, and register so that your style serves the story rather than decorating it.
- 3.1Psychic Distance as a Tool: When to Be Inside and When to Pull BackIncluded
- 3.2Rhythm and Resistance: How Sentence Structure Shapes Reader ExperienceIncluded
- 3.3Scene Surgery: Diagnosing and Fixing Scenes That Almost WorkIncluded
Unconventional Structure and Narrative Form
Non-linear timelines, multiple POVs, unreliable narrators, second-person — formal experimentation is only powerful when it's purposeful. Learn when to break convention, and how to do it with precision.
- 4.1Non-Linear Time: Making Flashbacks and Timelines Feel InevitableIncluded
- 4.2Multiple POV Without Cacophony: Voice Differentiation at the Technical LevelIncluded
Structural Revision — Fixing the Deep Draft
Revision at the advanced level is not copyediting. This module teaches you to perform a structural pass that identifies and repairs the foundational problems in a complete draft — before a single line is polished.
- 5.1The Reverse Outline: Reading Your Draft as an Editor WouldIncluded
- 5.2Theme as Architecture: Making Sure Your Novel Means What You Think It MeansIncluded
- 5.3The Climax and Ending: Earning the Emotional ContractIncluded
Entering the Professional World — Submission and Beyond
Craft without strategy is a private act. This module bridges the gap between finishing your novel and putting it in front of agents, editors, and readers — with honesty about what the industry actually looks for.
- 6.1Writing the Synopsis That Doesn't Kill Your BookIncluded
- 6.2The Opening Chapter Package: First Pages That Do Their JobIncluded
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Jonathon Kendall
I've been writing and studying fiction seriously for over a decade, and I've spent most of that time asking the same question: why does this scene almost work? I've written novels that failed in interesting ways and a few that finally didn't. Along the way I've workshopped manuscripts at the advanced level, studied under published novelists, and become obsessed with the specific, diagnosable craft problems that stop good writers from writing great books. I created this course because the advice I needed at the intermediate-to-advanced stage simply didn't exist in one place — so I built it. Everything here is what I wish someone had told me five drafts ago.
— Jonathon Kendall
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- 6 modules, 16 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed