Transform your manuscript with acclaimed author C Pam Zhang!

These one-on-one sessions are geared for early- and middle-stage works in progress whose authors are looking to make significant changes, as well as for more polished manuscripts. This format is especially useful for writers who have hit a wall in their writing, those who want to rekindle a sense of joy and excitement, and those who have had negative experiences with soliciting feedback in the past.

Inspired by Zhang’s “Draft Zero” Novel Intensive course, Zhang operates from the principle that novels are living entities that can change and grow significantly. She focuses on cultivating an atmosphere of curiosity and possibility that helps writers identify the core of their project, its fundamental identity, what makes it unique, and what levers can be pulled to keep the writer excited to keep writing.

Writers will leave this experience with not just one edited manuscript, but insights and a tool kit that allow them to work through many versions of the manuscript on their own.

 

Format

  • Introductory call. Prior to the full manuscript review, students will schedule a brief introductory call to discuss their needs, biggest questions, and provide context about their work and themselves as writers.
  • Ahead of the next meeting, Zhang will read the manuscript and prepare a heat map of the book’s strengths and slack points, and perspectives on the work’s core “aboutness”: themes both hidden and obvious, what the work wants to be, and what it could be with revision. Zhang may also prepare questions, writing exercises, character analyses, reading lists, and plot suggestions; however, these are individualized for the particular manuscript in question.
  • Manuscript call. Students will schedule a 60+ minute call to discuss ideas and possibilities for their manuscript. Students are encouraged to bring questions.
  • Written summary and heat map by email. Zhang will follow up with a 2-5 page summary of the discussion within one week, as well as any additional follow-up suggestions, such as individualized writing exercises and reading lists. Zhang will also deliver the manuscript marked up as a heat map. Note that this format does not focus on line edits, as Zhang considers them insignificant at this stage.
  • This opportunity is for fiction manuscripts up to 60,000 words, with the option to add words in increments of 15,000, for $250. Maximum manuscript length is 150,000 words.

Principles

  • Zhang operates from a radically humanist approach to work-in-progress as truly in progress: malleable, thrillingly alive with potential, and containing the seeds of its own “aboutness.”
  • Deviates from traditional methods of workshopping and editing. This is not a critique that assumes a manuscript is flawed; rather, it is an articulation of possibilities.
  • Every manuscript, however rough and early-stage, has an innate intelligence that Zhang and the writer will collaborate to uncover.
  • Manuscripts can – and often should! – change enormously.
  • Calls should be a space for inquiry and true curiosity. While Zhang will bring prepared notes, the writer is always encouraged to redirect the conversation, and calls often evolve in unexpected ways.

Pricing

Starting at $2300 | Member price: $2200

To Apply

Please send a 5-10 page fiction work sample along with a brief paragraph about your work and/or your writing goals to emily.holland@writer.org. Your work sample does not need to be from the project you are hoping to work on. This opportunity is filled on a rolling basis, with limited open spots. Apply early for preferred scheduling!

Acceptance is required before registering.

Student Testimonials

“Pam provided me with a compass and map, showing me how to chase the joy on the page. […] I experienced very little “writer’s block”. Instead, I learned how to fail hard and fast, and fail faster and better the next time. And while I made more progress in the year than I imagined possible, I learned that I was happiest when I came to the page with excitement.”

-Anna H., Draft Zero Novel Generator Class

“I especially appreciated the qualities [Zhang] unfailingly brought to her teaching, combining generosity, kindness, and unvarying commitment to upending the traditional workshop model. […] Her craft lectures are among the most illuminating I’ve ever been exposed to and the one-on-one feedback she gave on my writing the most useful I’ve ever received.”

-Ki K., Draft Zero Novel Generator Class

“The space was warm, rigorous, and thoughtfully constructed. The craft workshops were meaningful and tightly run – I still think about different ways of editing through [Zhang’s] frameworks. […] The greatest gift was to be told, directly and indirectly, that I ought to take my writing seriously. Thank you for this unforgettable experience.”

-Alina S., Year-Long Fiction Intensive Class

“I know I’m a sharper reader and writer. […] The class was always a moment of fun, sharing, and growing, that I looked forward to and gave me something creative and wonderful to think about.”

-Kirsten I., Year-Long Fiction Intensive Class

“The anti-workshop helped me grow so much as a writer. I recently began the rewrite of my novel and it’s going surprisingly well. I’m feeling the “wind in my sails” so to speak, and I do believe it was the writing intensive that unlocked this flow.”

-Claire Z., Year-Long Fiction Intensive Class

 

C Pam Zhang is the author of two bestselling novels, How Much of These Hills is Gold and Land of Milk and Honey. She is the winner of the Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award, the Asian/Pacific Award for Literature, the California Book Award, and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, and the American Library in Paris. Her writing appears in Best American Short Stories, The Cut, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. Her work has been translated into twelve languages. She has taught for Stanford University, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Kundiman.