Whether you’re a NaNoWriMo veteran or this is your first time giving it a shot, this lively and interactive workshop will set you up for success. Hands-on activities and story-generating exercises will guide you in crafting compelling characters and an engaging plot. We’ll also discuss common novel-writing pitfalls, explore the “secrets” to great novels. All levels of writers are welcome: bring your passion for storytelling and get ready to write. Please bring a laptop or pen and paper!

Glenn Schudel is a writer, educator, theatre practitioner, and Florida native. He became obsessed with rhetoric while earning his MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University. More recently, he worked as a ghostwriter for Special Fiction Books, turning 2000-word outlines into romance novels. This taught him he could actually finish something if he had an outline, correcting his lifelong belief that he was a panster rather than a plotter. In 2022, he began writing under his own pen name and has since published two novels, a novella, and several short stories. He has taught at Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA, and both South Florida State College and New College of Florida. In 2018, he began teaching in the Creative Writing program at Ringling College, becoming a full-time faculty member in 2023.