Advanced Narrative Structure for Long-Form Fiction
Novel Writing
Long-form fiction has a specific problem: the tools that work in short stories often break down at novel scale. This program is built around that gap.
The structural challenge of novels
A novel is not a long short story. It operates through accumulation, through the slow building of pattern and expectation, and through the management of reader attention across hundreds of pages. Writers who have published short fiction or completed one or two novel drafts often hit a ceiling when they try to work with more complex structures.
Multiple timelines and braided narratives
Novels like Lincoln in the Bardo or The God of Small Things use non-linear time and braided storylines in ways that feel inevitable rather than gimmicky. We study how those structures actually work on the page - what signals orient the reader, how transitions are managed, and what holds disparate threads together thematically.
Unreliable narration as architecture
Unreliable narrators are often discussed as a character trait. We treat them as a structural device. The question is not just what the narrator gets wrong, but how the author controls the gap between what is told and what is true - and how that gap generates meaning rather than confusion.
Format and feedback
This is a small-group program with a maximum of eight participants. Instructor Oliwia Brandt leads two live sessions per month via video call, and participants share work-in-progress for group discussion. The cohort format means feedback comes from peers working at a similar level, which tends to be more useful than generic critique.
Suitable manuscript stage
You should have a novel manuscript in progress - at least a partial draft or a detailed structural plan. Writers who are still at the idea stage will get more from the foundations course first.
Inside the program
Material overview
The material is arranged in stages, with each one building on the last. You can work at your own pace, with no fixed deadline or minimum speed.
Program Stages
- Stage 1 - Structural mapping
- Participants map their own manuscript against established structural models. Not to force the work into a template, but to identify where the current architecture is and is not serving the story.
- Stage 2 - Timeline and chronology
- Working with non-linear time: how to sequence events for emotional rather than chronological logic, managing reader orientation across time jumps.
- Stage 3 - Narrator construction
- Building narrators with consistent internal logic, calibrating reliability, and using narrative gaps deliberately rather than accidentally.
- Stage 4 - Thematic architecture
- How theme operates structurally - through repeated image, echo, and variation - rather than through explicit statement.
- Stage 5 - Revision at scale
- Diagnosing structural problems in a long manuscript without losing the thread of what the book is trying to do. Practical approaches to large-scale revision.
Live sessions are recorded and available to participants for the duration of the program. Written feedback on submitted excerpts is provided within seven business days.
Challenges this program addresses
- Story ideas that stall before chapter three
- Characters that feel flat or interchangeable
- Unclear sense of narrative pacing or tension
What you'll develop
- A clear structural framework for your novel
- Techniques for building believable characters
- Practical tools for sustaining momentum in long-form writing