A Novel Approach with David Butler
Info
Date: October 22, 2025
Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Duration: 8 weeks
Level: Beginner |
Cost: €275 (€247 Members)
Location: Online
This course will take place online on Wednesdays (8 sessions in total).
Course Summary
In this eight-week course, facilitator David Butler will help you to workshop your novel-in-progress by examining areas such as point-of-view, structure, effective openings, dialogue, humour, irony, etc., in order to help you create a page-turning work of fiction. By the end of the eight weeks your novel will be, as Alfred Hitchcock phrased it, ‘life with the dull bits cut out’.
Course Outline
For the first few weeks, participants will be looking in detail at great examples from literature, focusing on such key areas as structure, openings, character, dialogue, point of view etc. During this part of the course, homework exercises will be set to develop and hone each of these skill-sets.
More importantly, as the course progresses, participants will be asked to submit a substantial extract from their own works in progress. These will be examined in detail by the entire group, with constructive feedback being offered.
Course Outcomes
One of the most important capabilities for any writer is the ability to assess, criticise, and improve his or her own work in progress. This is at the heart of this eight week course.
In addition, participants will gain an insight into what makes for a solid structure, an effective opening, dramatic dialogue, memorable characterisation, and so forth.
David Butler’s novel City of Dis was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, 2015. Arlen House recently published his third story collection, White Spirits, while his sixth novel, Scorched Earth, will be published by Dedalus Books (Irl) under pen-name Dara Kavanagh this October. Awards for the short story include the Maria Edgeworth (twice), Benedict Kiely, Colm Tóibín, ChipLit Fest, ITT/Redline and Fish International.
https://www.dedalusbooks.com/our-books/book.php?id=00000405
https://booksirelandmagazine.com/white-spirits-the-work-of-a-true-artist/
