Fiction Foundations
The fundamentals of long-form fiction — structure, character, scene, and voice — taught through close reading, writing exercises, and workshop critique of your own pages.
Next cohort: October 6, 2026
Overview
What this program is
Most writers who want to write a novel know roughly what they want to say. What they do not know is how to build the structure that will hold it, how to create characters whose desires drive the plot, or how to write scenes that do more than one thing at once.
This program teaches the craft of long-form fiction from the ground up. Over ten weeks, you will work through the fundamental elements — structure, character, scene, voice, and revision — through close reading of published fiction, weekly writing exercises, and workshop critique of your own pages.
The workshop format is central to the program. You will read and respond to your peers' work as well as your own, which is one of the most effective ways to develop critical judgment — the skill that makes everything else possible.
Outcomes
What you will leave with
- —A structural framework for novel-length work that you can apply to your own project
- —A clear understanding of how character desire drives plot
- —The ability to write scenes that carry multiple functions simultaneously
- —A developed sense of voice — what it is, how it works, and how to find yours
- —Workshop critique of 20 pages of your manuscript from peers and instructor
- —A revision framework for reading your own work with critical distance
Who this is for
Who this is for
- —Writers working on a first or second novel who want structural and craft grounding
- —Short story writers making the transition to long-form work
- —Writers who have started multiple novels but struggled to finish them
- —Avid readers who want to understand how the fiction they love actually works
Schedule
Week by week
Story — What fiction is actually doing
Before we talk about structure or character, we need to talk about what fiction is for. This week examines the fundamental contract between writer and reader — what readers want from a novel, what they are willing to give, and what breaks the spell. We will read closely and discuss what we find.
Structure — The shape of a novel
Structure is not a formula — it is a set of principles about how stories create and release tension. This week covers the major structural frameworks (three-act, five-act, the hero's journey, the Fichtean curve) not as prescriptions but as tools for understanding what your story needs.
Character — Desire as the engine of plot
Character and plot are not separate things. Plot is what happens when a character with a specific desire meets a world that resists it. This week you will learn how to build characters whose desires are specific enough to generate story, and how to create the internal and external obstacles that make the story move.
Scene — The unit of fiction
The scene is the fundamental unit of fiction. This week you will learn what a scene is, what it needs to do, and how to write one that carries multiple functions — advancing plot, revealing character, establishing setting, and building tension — without feeling mechanical.
Scene and summary — Knowing which to use
Not everything in a novel happens in scene. Summary is the other half of the equation — how you move through time, compress backstory, and give the reader information they need without dramatising every moment. This week you will learn how to use both and how to know which a given moment requires.
Voice — What makes writing recognisable
Voice is the most discussed and least understood element of fiction. This week we will examine what voice actually is — not personality or style, but the specific relationship between a narrator and the material — and how to develop one that is consistent and distinctly yours.
Workshop — Your pages, critiqued
The first workshop session. You will submit 10 pages of your manuscript in advance; your peers and the instructor will read and respond to them. This session is about learning to give and receive critique — how to identify what is working, what is not, and how to articulate both with precision.
Workshop — Your pages, continued
The second workshop session, covering the remaining members of the cohort. By the end of this session, every participant will have received detailed critique of their pages from both peers and instructor.
Revision — Reading your own work
Revision is not editing. It is re-seeing — the ability to read your own work as a stranger would and identify what is actually on the page rather than what you intended. This week you will learn the diagnostic frameworks that make revision possible and apply them to your own manuscript.
Completion — Where do you go from here
The final session is about the long game: how to sustain a novel-length project, how to manage the middle, and how to finish. We will also discuss what comes after the first draft — the revision process, the path to publication, and the resources available to you as a working writer.
Instructor
Eleanor Marsh
Founder, The Prose Haus
Eleanor has published two novels and taught fiction writing for over a decade. She created Fiction Foundations because she believes that craft is learnable — that the gap between a writer who finishes novels and one who does not is almost always a matter of structural understanding, not talent.
FAQ
Common questions
Ready to do the work?
Next cohort starts October 6, 2026. Spaces are limited.