The project, which appeared in 2016, was founded by Tatyana Tolstaya and Maria Golovanivskaya. Later, Tatyana Nikitichna left school, but the “Good Text” did not end there - many famous authors joined him, including Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Vera Pavlova, Sergey Shargunov and many others. Unlike most projects dedicated to writing skills, the quality of students' texts is not “improved” here with the help of some purely applied knowledge. Good Text takes a different path, trying to create a unique creative environment for students in which they can grow. In fact, this is what the whole project is designed for, when a novice author can freely communicate with recognized masters of their craft.

An excellent course for those who want to understand the nature of a literary text, as well as get very specific and applicable writing skills. Courses at Garage are taught by the poet and prose writer Leonid Kostyukov - during the classes, even a novice author will be able to figure out what skills he needs to develop for success in the future, as well as what strengths and weaknesses he has. The emphasis here is primarily on theory, so anyone who likes a thorough approach to business should like this.

"Netology"

Creative Writing School

The school was founded in 2015 by writer Maya Kucherskaya and philologist Natalia Osipova. The project participants at different times were many well-known literary figures, including Dmitry Bykov, Elena Kholmogorova and Marina Stepnova. At CWS, they try to give students not only the opportunity to communicate with outstanding writers: the concept of the school is based on programs (creative writing) used in American and European universities. They don’t promise to make Dostoevsky and Tolstoy out of you, but they will definitely help you understand how to write good texts. And this is not so little.

Literary club "Russian Pioneer"

Many people know about the "pioneer readings", but not so many people know that there is also a literary club at the magazine. Approximately once a year, writing courses are held under the guidance of Alexander Kabakov, winner of the Big Book and the Big Apollon Grigoriev Prize. During the classes in the club, they try to teach one of the main skills for any writer - the ability to step back from the created text and edit it correctly. Naturally, it does not do without practical exercises, so it will not be possible to simply be a listener. Also, famous writers come to visit students, for example, Guzel Yakhina and Pavel Basinsky.

"Caviar"

Copywriters, of course, are not writers, although one does not interfere with the other - Frederic Beigbeder is a good confirmation of this. The famous Ikra school still trains quite good specialists, inviting leading creative experts from various agencies as teachers. As part of intensive copywriting classes, you will learn how to write (and shorten) texts that your target audience will respond to and help you create a portfolio to start your own successful career. The only negative is that Caviar is famous for the rather high cost of courses, so you may have to save up a little money for training.

There is a fixed expression: everything that has ever happened should become a book. From time immemorial, people have recorded history behind them - invented and real, speaking in literary language and describing only dry facts. And the more accessible the letter became, the more massively it was used, receiving more and more freedom and creative expression from century to century.

The word "blog" is no longer surprising. It seems that everyone is leading them. Someone writes often, someone writes less often, but social networks somehow organize the posts, arrange them and structure them into one whole, whether it's your personal page or thematic posts in the community. Simply put, if you have a barely active page on the social network, then you can rightfully be considered a writer. But what?

This is where the most interesting lies. Given the fact that many, if not all, write, few really know how to write. A staggeringly small number of frequent writers think about perfecting their craft. Not just to write more competently or more interestingly, but to create texts like a professional writer, with full awareness of the meaning of using a great and powerful word. Therefore, for those who write regularly, we strongly advise you to become a real pro. This will not only expand and improve the presentation of the author himself, but also, little by little, raise the general level of the culture of writing. And this will already be an impressive milestone in the new history.

Creative Writing School

Briefly "about": Literary workshops of the Creative Writing School were founded by the writer Maya Kucherskaya and the philologist Natalya Osipova. The concept of the school is based on creative writing programs used in American and European universities. All workshop developments are unique and created specifically for the Creative Writing School.

Courses:“Gloss like a human: how to write columns for women's magazines”, “Storytelling: how to write entertainingly?”, “How to write witty? The search for wit: from poetic epigrams to book reviews, etc.

Duration: from 10 weeks to a one-day intensive.

Price: from 4000 rub.

School of editors in Artyom Gorbunov's design bureau

Briefly "about": w cola puts training on stream and gives a ticket to the profession to domestic editors with clear life guidelines. School partners allocate jobs for the best students. Review and selection of interns takes place on the defense of the final work.

Program: text and editing, typography and layout, interface and information, negotiations and relationships, design and law, management and results.

Duration: y The curriculum consists of three levels and lasts one academic year.

Price: 40,000 rubles / step.

Courses “Punctum”

Briefly "about":"P unctum” is a small free cultural center where various events are held daily: lectures, shows, seminars, concerts, exhibitions. The main direction is humanitarian knowledge: philosophy, art, culture, languages, music, cinema, as well as workshops where you can learn specific skills: draw, create beautiful texts, speak dead languages, play the guitar and so on.

Courses:"Workshop of the Artistic Word: Create a Hero", express course by Olga Gavrilina "Workshop of the Text: from Conception to Realization", "Landscape with an Iron or Creative Screenwriting as It Is".

Duration: from 1 lesson.

Price: from 2500 rub. class.

Writing-school

Briefly "about": " The Writing-School.ru School of Writing is aimed at both beginners and established authors - prose writers, poets, screenwriters, playwrights, etc. The school is currently under development, but educational materials are already available for study. It is planned to publish both the author's courses of the school and courses of other specialists.

Courses: James Patterson: "Lessons in Writing", "I Want to Become a Writer: The Beginning of Beginnings", "Conscious Writing".

Duration: Courses are conducted online, materials are available on the website.

Price: from 1250 rub. well.

Online courses at Free Publicity School

Briefly "about": Free Publicity School conducts online courses and trainings that help to realize the inner need of a person - the need to express oneself in the world. Since 2014, more than 20 courses have been held, graduates of which are published in such publications as Forbes, Psychologies, Lifehacker, Life is Interesting!, Happy Parents and many others.

Courses:“Conscious Writing Course”, “Strong Text”, “I Write a Book Every Day”, “Personal Brand”, etc.

Duration: 10 days.

Price: from 10 000 rub.

Courses at the International Union of Writers

Briefly "about": The International Union of Writers (International Union of Writers, Poets, Authors, Playwrights and Journalists) is the world's largest organization of professional writers. The union was founded in 1954. Until recently, the headquarters of the organization was located in Paris, at the moment the main unit is located in Moscow.

Program: literary seminars; lectures on the theory of creation of a literary work;
an introduction to the history of popular literature; the basics of producing a writer (negotiating with a publisher, subtleties and pitfalls when concluding a contract); Copyright; meetings and master classes with invited writers, journalists, representatives of publishing houses, literary critics who review prose in major media.

Duration: 3 months.

Price: full-time - 71,100 rubles, distance learning - 60,000 rubles. per semester.

Recruitment for the next session of the School will be announced soon. Keep for updates.

Application for the next session can be sent now.Click on the button.

What is School "Good text" ?

Lectures and seminars of the School are conducted only by actively working writers, poets, translators, screenwriters, journalists, philologists, culturologists.

The method of the School is the creation of an environment for the student that is most conducive to the development of a sense of the text, a special writer's vision and hearing. The main thing that a student should receive from the School is a new experience of writing, a new understanding of himself as an author and a new idea of ​​creativity.

“If you decide to become a writer, then you must have the determination to do everything first.Nobody will help you."

- Boris Akunin

Submit your application along with your introductory text ☛

How are the lectures?

Lectures are held on weekends. from 11.00 to 17.00. On the day, students listen to 3-4 lectures with breaks for coffee breaks and lunch. You can view lectures from previous sessions in the section.

A seminars?

Seminars are held on weekday evenings. from 19.00 to 22.00. Students complete their homework for one month prior to the start of the study session. Texts written on the instructions of teachers are analyzed at seminars.

"Writing is like collecting. Your notebooks should be full of peeped details."

- Maria Golovanivskaya

Where are the classes?

We always choose venues for lectures and seminars in the center of Moscow and within walking distance from the metro. For example, previous sessions were held in Yandex and in the gallery of Nadya Brykina. We inform students about the location of the classes a couple of weeks before the start of the session.

How to become a student of the School?

Admission to full training is based on the results of a creative competition. Poems, prose, non-fiction (up to 5 thousand characters), as well as an application for admission in free form send by mail. In response, you will receive an email with more detailed information about training formats and costs.

Training is available in two formats:
"Full learning" - lectures, seminars and homework.
"Listener" - only lectures.

For those who have chosen the "Listener" format, it is enough to send an application without an introductory text .

Conversation between Maria Golovanivskaya and Dmitry Vodennikov
and Alyona Doletskaya: can a post on Facebook be literature?

Elena Pasternak about the phenomenon of Chekhov's plays:
"Chekhov's Russian man looks like a monitor lizard."

"There should be something in your texts that you would be ashamed to show them to your mother".

- Dmitry Vodennikov

"A talented person is such a great human sensibility."

- Evgenia Dolginova

What about outside the school?

In between sessions, we often get together to read our texts, drink tea together and just see each other. And sometimes we arrange real thematic readings: students read their poems and short stories in the house-museum of B.L. Pasternak, with scenes Gorky Park, in the gallery of Nadia Brykina, and for the last time readings were straight on the country lawn Alena Doletskaya.

Many students of the School are published in literary magazines, electronic editions, various collections, and someone is already preparing their own books.

"Well, you don't get literature. But cutlets are obtained. So what? People read for five minutes before going to bed, and cutlets are eaten three times a day."

- Victoria Tokareva

Learning is light! Submit your application along with your introductory text ☛

“We will show where in our literary universe is north, where is southeast, how to catch a fair wind, and how to swim against the current”

Text: Alexander Dragan
Photo: Sergey Kuznetsov / RIA, ria.ru

In Moscow, there is a boom in creative workshops, schools, and courses. Enthusiasts talk about the "creative economy". Pragmatists assure that people who are used to spending the summer months in India or Spain can no longer afford it, and invest in self-education. Be that as it may, a literary school-agency has already begun work at Winzavod, and in July in the Moscow Library. Turgenev, classes of the new school of literary skill will be held - Creative Writing School, or School of Creative Writing. The two-week training will include four workshops: in fiction (led by Maya Kucherskaya), in screenwriting (led by Marina Stepnova), in literary translation (led by Viktor Sonkin and Alexandra Borisenko) and in the art of biography (led by Alexei Vdovin and Irina Lukyanova ). Lectures will also be held for all students of the school: Dmitry Bykov, Avdotya Smirnova, Alexei Varlamov and others will talk about the basics of literary and screenwriting skills.
According to the founders of the school, this is Russia's first adaptation of the Western discipline Creative Writing ("creative writing"). Project Manager - Maya Kucherskaya- writer, critic, winner of the Bunin Prize, winner of the Reader's Choice Award for the Big Book Prize. The Year of Literature.RF asked Maya about the School and its program, about creative writing and why one should become a writer today.

How and when did you get the idea to open the School of Creative Writing?

Maya Kucherskaya: It all started with the city of Kirov. Philologist and businesswoman Natasha Osipova invited me to her hometown to chat with readers and just nice people. It was a fantastic trip - a waterfall of meetings, conversations, including existential ones, a visit to the Rembrandt Museum, and there is one in Kirov, and then the workshop of the artist Lena Avinova. But in a separate line - a conversation with Natasha, in her cozy house, over a glass of wine, under the scratching of snowflakes in the window - all this happened in early November last year. Among other things, I shared with Natasha an old dream - to open a school of literary skill. Soon the degree of communication reached such a height that I suggested Natasha open this school together. Immediately. Natasha, still amazed at her fearlessness, agreed. And it rushed off, in three months we turned the mountain. By the way, not without the help of the same Kirov artist Lena, who drew us the site, the logo, and posters.

What is creative writing, "creative writing" that you are going to teach?

Maya Kucherskaya: I prefer the translation "creative writing". This is the art of writing fiction and non-fiction, and it's so obvious that I think you want to ask something else: "What's new in what you offer?" Literary studies are nothing new. The new is the philosophy of this discipline. The model, which has fallen in love with Russian culture, is something like this: a poet, a writer - a prophet, he listens to the harp of Seraphim, and then burns the hearts of people with the sounds he hears. He is a mediator. Is it possible to learn this - listen to the harp, burn hearts? Don't laugh! It's a gift, a gift from God. And there is nothing to argue about, gift. We enter after that, everything starts later. It is impossible to breathe a gift into someone who has not been given. But those who are given, especially if given in limited quantities, are in dire need of professional skills. In polishing, cutting, or switching to another language - in regular training. There is nothing easier than burying your own talent in the ground, including self-confidence, the conviction that "I have nothing to learn."

But are there any universal recipes in creativity, even in literature?

Maya Kucherskaya: Universal - no, I do not think. There is an anti-recipe for every recipe, for example, there is such a common phrase “write only about what you know” - but sometimes what you don’t know turns out to be much more interesting, because you are freer. The burden of knowledge in creativity is sometimes burdensome. American Mary Elizabeth Dodge, as you know, has never been to Holland, but it was about this country, its spirit, atmosphere that she wrote the book Silver Skates.

The duration of classes at the School is only two weeks. Is it possible to teach the techniques of creative writing in such a short time?

Maya Kucherskaya: You can talk about their existence. You can get oriented. A compass is hidden in the logo of our school, we will show where in our literary universe is north, where is southeast, how to catch a fair wind, and how to swim against the current and not drown, on the contrary, discover new continents, and not some well-known India.

Your program is declared to be voluminous and rich. Tell us more about how everything will go?

Maya Kucherskaya: Three times a week the participants of the School will communicate with their master. At the heart of each of our workshops are creative tasks, there will be many of them, they will definitely be discussed in the classroom. That is, our School is predominantly applied. That is why our classes are called "workshops" - this is working with material, with verbal clay, making cups, bowls of all kinds. The workshops are also because they will be led by real masters of their craft, the writer Marina Stepnova - again. Writer Irina Lukyanova - two. Translators and educators - Viktor Sonkin and Alexandra Borisenko - three. A young scientist, the author of many, in my opinion, truly inspired works on philology - Alexei Vdovin - four. Twice a week there will be lectures by Dmitry Bykov, Dunya Smirnova, Alexei Varlamov. We are still negotiating with someone else. Lectures will become an exhalation for everyone, and a place for a common meeting, when both students and their teachers gather together in one auditorium.

Judging by the program of your course, you will consider mainly technical issues: plot, conflict, characters, style. But what about the ever-relevant “how to write when you don’t write”? Or how to organize your time and workspace… Will you touch on these topics?

Maya Kucherskaya: With time and space, I think, listeners will figure it out without us, it's like recommending to a person the color of the wallpaper in his room. Doomed business! To the question “how to write when it is not written”, I have an unequivocal answer. Do not write under any circumstances. Humanity will survive. If you can’t write, then at the moment you have nothing to say to the world. That's not necessary! On the other hand, “not writing” is unprofessional, a true professional can write in any condition, under any weather conditions, and not at the behest of his heart, but by order. Everything seems to be like that. But still, on custom texts, even the best authors often bear the stamp of compulsion. Olga Slavnikova, one of our most talented authors, several years ago wrote railroad stories on commission, a whole year, one story a month. It turned out twelve, and all are excellent. But there are only two masterpieces among them.

How do you register for courses? Are there many applicants for free places?

Maya Kucherskaya: So far, we have only accepted applications for free places. There were a lot of applicants! Our slogan “Do you want to be a writer? Try". It turns out everyone wants to be a writer. Everyone wants to try. We received hundreds of applications, a bunch of competitive works.

What can you say about the level of introductory works?

Maya Kucherskaya: Very sad. And so interesting! Several talented works have already come across, although I have read only a small part. But here's what I've already noticed. Of course, I read prose works. And those who chose the first version of the task composed micro-etudes on three topics - they usually write more lyrically, more emotionally, they have a thinner pen than those who preferred to write the beginnings of novels of different genres. On the other hand, the second ones look more professional, skillfully, they are such designers, architects of texts, but not jewelers. I want to say that the very choice of the task, especially the level of performance, reveals what type the writer belongs to. A lyricist is a prose narrator, writer of thrillers or psychological prose.

Who are your future students? What kind of people enroll in the School?

Maya Kucherskaya: Don't know! I only know their ages and names. There are noticeably more young people, from 20 to 30, although I don't have final figures yet. But who they are, I myself would like to know. For now, I can only guess. It would seem to me that our School should be of interest to those who have already completed or almost completed their bachelor's degree and want to engage in creativity. Or who sits in the office, squeezed from all sides by Excel tables and dreams of breaking out of these alien cells and numbers in order to create their own world.

When creating courses, did you rely solely on your own experience or did you use European and American developments?

Maya Kucherskaya: Of course they did. Russian systematic textbooks on writing skills do not yet exist or I have not found them. Even though I was looking! There are so many English-speaking ones that you need to filter them.

Book publishing is going through hard times. Circulations are falling, piracy is rampant, while the percentage of the reading population is declining. People lose the ability to focus on large texts. So why become a writer today?

Maya Kucherskaya: This should be asked of those who are knocking at our door. There is little hope for understanding, especially for the general reader. And this is not the most profitable occupation - writing books, no! But ... not for self-interest, not for battles, we were born for inspiration ... Yes, people understand: it's a joy to write, compose texts, and besides, do it well. You disenchant something or someone when you write. Here he wrote how a yellowish flower broke through the gray, unwashed after the winter, dirty earth - and disenchanted this flower. Who else can do that, except the writer? Well, or an artist.

How did it happen that in the West literary skill has become a part of university education, while we don’t have such a discipline?

Yes, because we do not have such a declared value that writing well is good. That no science is possible without creativity, and a true scientist is no less a creator than an artist. An artist is also a researcher of reality, and a researcher is an artist, a creator of the image of the world in his own language. By and large, there is no difference!

At the same time, literary courses in Russia are a more than popular phenomenon. In Moscow alone, I counted nine courses. And this is without the School of Literary Translation, which was launched in early March by Viktor Golyshev and Vladimir Babkov. And without all kinds of journalistic courses and schools. What do you think is the reason for such a surge of interest?

Maya Kucherskaya: Yes, but one and a half of these courses really work. I also researched the issue. And this is still not very similar to our School with several workshops, with outstanding teachers and lecturers. The interest of people is understandable, despite the cooling of the mass reader's love for literature, we remain a very literary country. The laurels of Pushkin and Dostoevsky do not give us rest, and everyone who studied Russian literature at school became infected with it, in my opinion. Not to mention the fact that creativity is the path to inner freedom, it is also a good life task.

What advice would you give to writers who don't have the opportunity to attend your courses but would like to hone their craft?

Maya Kucherskaya: Read! There are more contemporaries, but also classics. Train. Find your own kind and discuss your work in a circle of like-minded people. There is no literature without conversations. Any uncut nugget will still remain bright, unusual, but savage. Civilization is needed - that is, a literary outlook and a literary circle of its own. Well, or at least a circle. Our School is an attempt to create it.

In 2010, I opened a private distance writing and poetry school for aspiring authors. A novice writer does not mean at all that he is young. Millions of non-professional adults want to write a book. According to http://publishingperspectives.com, about 200 million Americans would like to publish their book - almost two-thirds of the US population! In Russia, people are not so arrogant, but we also have more and more people who want to publish. And good! Why suffer? Learn to write - and write to your health! Yes, maybe you are not Pushkin, not Gogol, not Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, but you are a Russian or Russian-speaking writer and poet. You are already envied by writers from many countries of the world, because you are consecrated by the great names of the classics of Russian literature. Retired generals and colonels, directors of factories and institutes, realtors and deputies, administrators and politicians, prosecutors and judges, pleasant ladies and ladies pleasant in all respects, respectable housewives and Russian-speaking immigrants hatch in the recesses of their potentially interesting souls for the public truly unprecedented plots, for years they are nervous and tormented, lose their health and quarrel with loved ones, not knowing how to correctly state and present the fruits of their thoughts about life or their fantasies to the Russian people who are still reading.

It is precisely such accomplished busy people who have no time to scour the Internet for months and years and climb the bookshelves of libraries, looking for and expensively buying scattered materials on writing, the Likhachev School of Writing and Poetry quickly turns first into strong novice authors, and then into writers and writers. poets - through the directed university level of individual training and mentoring.

Students of the Likhachev School of Writing and Poetry will take four courses to choose from: one - theoretical, three - practical.

Course 1. "Fundamentals of Literary Studies".

2 course. "Writing skill".

The patient and benevolent teachers of the Likhachev School of Writing and Poetry are ready for this: “Beginners are our profile”, paraphrasing the doctor from “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, we declare. Indeed, for many capable and even talented, but not yet masterful, novice authors, drunken writing becomes a real disease - with complications in society, in the family and, most importantly, with oneself. We will try to put such "drunks" on strong writer's feet or simply help a novice author write at least one book. No matter what they say about the modern writing workshop, there are not enough good writers in the country! We sincerely rejoice when we see how the skill of the student grows. If six months or a year of study does not lead to anything useful, we don’t pull money, but honestly advise the author to leave writing - not everyone can become the author of even one book, or we simply offer to hire an experienced editor or writer to thoroughly correct the manuscript or rewrite / wrote again.

At the Likhachev School of Writing and Poetry, about a third of the students are Russian-speaking immigrants from the countries of the former USSR. Yes, adult immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and other republics, once abroad, write books (not necessarily fiction) in Russian, and close communication with connoisseurs of Russian classical and modern literature and poetry from the Likhachev School of Writing and Poetry , allows them not to spoil their pure literary Russian language.

In a good way, the first and second courses are mandatory - most students only finish them. But there are exceptions: if, for example, you retired and want only one thing - to write memoirs about your life, family and work, publish them at your own expense in a circulation of 100-200 copies and give them to friends, acquaintances and beloved bosses, then you will not it is obligatory to pass the theoretical course "Fundamentals of Literary Studies". This also applies to those students who, in addition to satisfying writer's ambitions, by giving away books to their clients and customers in their main profession, significantly increase the number of the latter. And this can be done: giving your own book, published in a gift version, to clients, partners and superiors is a proven way to significantly increase the author's personal income in his main profession. We have many realtors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, bankers, judges, athletes, administrators, military men, teachers - they study not only to satisfy their writing vanity, but also in order to advance in their main profession.

But if you dream of one day waking up with a laurel wreath of a famous writer on your not yet gray and not completely bald head, you need both courses and at least 6 months of mentoring. The technology of mastering writing skills and achieving success has been worked out, especially in the West, but on its own, without a mentor, a busy person in Russia cannot master it in ten or twenty years. Than to lose decades and health, where it is more profitable to pay and unlearn for half a year or a year. Russian-speaking immigrants now living in China, the USA, Europe, the Near and Middle East, for some reason understand this thesis better than Russians, and therefore they aspire to our School.

The following sections work at the Likhachev School of Writing and Poetry: novel, memoirs, children's book, popular science book, science fiction and fantasy, dramaturgy, detective story and thriller, love and ladies' novel, "women's prose", poetry.

Training programs are being prepared in the sections of film script, TV movie script and TV series.

More prepared and self-confident authors who have a completed or requiring development manuscript can contact our editors at the Literary Editor website http://litredactor.wordpress.com/ mail: [email protected]

Come, it will be interesting and useful!

2. List of training courses

First grade. "Fundamentals of Literary Studies"

A theoretical course based on the literary studies course taught at Russian universities. This core course is supplemented with topics from American and English universities. The course is designed for 2 months: 4 topics per week. At the request of the student, the period of study can be reduced to 1 month.

List of topics for the course "Fundamentals of Literary Studies" (32 lessons)

1. Dictionary of literary terms
2. Fiction
3. Fiction as an art form
4. Literary work
5. Genus and genre in literature
6. The subject world of the work
7. Time and space in the work. Chronotop
8. character, character, hero
9. Plot and plot
10. motive
11. Psychologism
12. Polyphony
13. Portrait
14. Landscape
15. Detail
16. Narration. Narrator, narrator
17. Lyrical subject
18. Composition
19. Narration as a compositional-speech form
20. Description
21. reasoning
22. Other compositional speech forms (paragraph, monologue, dialogue, polylogue, someone else's speech, improperly direct speech)
23. verbal image. Figurative structure of the text
24. Point of view
25. Ways of expressing the author's position in a literary text
26. Style
27. The language of a literary work
28. Artistic speech
29. Monologue. Dialog. polylogue
30. Remake in modern literature
31. Theory of Literature. Lecture course at Yale University, USA

Second course. "Writing skill"

The main and largest course. For the sake of it, they go to study at the Likhachev School of Writing.

The course is divided into two parts: general and genre. The course is designed for 3 months: 3-4 topics per week. At the request of the student, the training period can be reduced to 2 months (5-6 topics per week).

List of topics for the general course "Writing" (47 lessons)

1.1. I am a writer

1.2. Uncertainty, fear of the writer

1.3. Writer Motivation

1.5. Organization of writing

Theme 2. Choice of theme and genre

2.1. What to write about? Topic selection

2.2. Reader question: "What do you write?"

2.3. List of literary genres

2.4. Genre selection. Are you a specialist or generalist?

2.5. The choice of the genre on the example of the topic "Cats", or "Cat genre"

2.6. The Importance of Genre in the Book Business

2.7. Why is it better to write in a non-unique genre?

2.8. How to write in a mixed genre?

2.9. D. Bykov. "Past the Genre"

2.10. Lotman Yu. "The Queen of Spades" and the theme of cards and card games in Russian literature of the early 19th century

Topic 3. The idea and sources of a literary work

3.1. The idea of ​​a literary work: definition

3.2. The emergence of the idea of ​​a literary work

3.3. Where and how to find an idea and material for a literary work

3.4. Checking the idea of ​​a literary work

3.5. Idea and trend in a literary work

3.6. Criteria for the idea of ​​a literary work

Topic 4. "The Story of a Million Dollars"

Master class for screenwriters and writers. Robert McKee (RobertMcKee).

Translation from English, Moscow, 2008

Topic 5. Literary history

5.1. History in a plot literary work

5.2. Questions in Literary History

5.3. How to Enter the World of Literary History

5.4. Abandoned literary stories

5.5. How to push your literary story

Topic 6. The idea of ​​a literary work

6.1. What is the purpose of a literary work

6.2. Carrying out the idea of ​​a work (on the example of Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot")

6.3. The idea and genre originality of Gogol's novel "Dead Souls"

6.4. Y. Lotman. Pushkin and The Tale of Captain Kopeikin. To the history of the conception and composition of "Dead Souls"

6.5. Steps for turning an idea into a plot and an initial plan for a work

Topic 7. How to build a literary history. Part 1

7.1. Building Literary History Like Building a House

7.2. Why You Should Stick to One Literary Story

Topic 8. How to build a literary history. Part 2.

For exampleanalysis of the trilogy novel (and film) "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins (« The Hunger Games.Suzanne Collins)

8.3. Analysis of Chapter 1 of The Hunger Games by writer Mooderino

8.4. Waiting for the release of The Hunger Games

Topic 8A. "The Hunger Games". Suzanne Collins. Text of the novel

Topic 9. The structure of literary history. Part 1. Floor alignment of the work

9.1. Three-act structure of literary history on the example of a mousetrap

9.2. The structure of the novel under revision

9.3. Elements of the structure of literary history. Five rules of storey building work

9.4. The structure of literary history. Floor alignment is the key to creating artwork. Book by William Bernhardt, 2013, USA

Topic 10. The structure of literary history. Part 2. The structure and architecture of a dramatic action-packed work

10.1. Choosing the type of creative process when building a literary work

10.2. The Structure and Architecture of Literary History (Based on L. Brooks)

1. 2.1. Brooks' preface to the series "The Structure of Literary History"

10.2.2. An Introduction to Four-Act Literary History

10.2.3. Signposts on the road of telling a four-act literary story

10.2.4. Five missions to set the parameters of the first part of the literary history

10.2.5. The Most Important Moment in Literary History: The First Plot Point

10.2.6. The second part of literary history

10.2.7. Winding around Milestone midpoint head

10.2.8. The third part of literary history is a reflection

10.2.9. Second plot point in literary history

10.2.10. The fourth part of literary history is pinching

10.2.11. The fourth part of literary history - the final act

"The Inner Life of the Novel: The Deconstruction of the Deadly Faux Novel". A writer's guide to how to write a novel, and the construction of a literary story behind these creative decisions. Larry Brooks e-book, USA 2014

Topic 10B. From idea to publication of a novel: an American example with Russian commentary

American writer and literary mentor K.M. Weiland talks in detail about the process of writing the novel "Dreamlander" in her blog. Weiland's story, translated by S.S. Likhachev

Topic 11. Plot. Part 1. Template for a literary plot

11.1. What is the difference between literary history and the plot of a work

11.2. How many literary plots are there

11.3. Plot classifications according to Borges and other authors

Topic 12. Plot. Part 2. Dramatic plots by J. Polti

12.1. List of dramatic plots by J. Polti

12.2. Description of dramatic scenes

Topic 13. How to build a literary plot. Part 1. Elements and classifications of the plot

13.1. Classic plot structure. Elements of a linear plot

13.2. Motif, structure in a literary plot

13.3. The plot from the point of view of narratology

13.4. Classification of literary plots

13.5. Three-level construction of a plot in a literary work

Topic 14. How to build a literary plot. Part 2. Plot, plot, composition in Russian classical literature

14.1. General questions of the plot and plot construction of the work

14.1.2. Chronotope and artistic space. Time cycle

14.1.3. Composition, architectonics

14.1.4. Beginning, middle, end of story

14.2. Dostoevsky

14.3. Gogol

14.4. Tolstoy

14.5. Chekhov

14.6. Bunin

14.7. Pushkin

Topic 15. How to build a literary plot. Part 3. Types and techniques of plot device

15.1. Types of plots: linear, concentric, multiline

15.2. Plot devices

15.2.1. DeusExMachina (God from the Machine)

15.2.2. MacGuffin (MacGuffin)

15.2.3. Flashback (Flashback)

15.2.4. Flashforward (Foreshadowing the future)

15.2.5. Shoulder angel (shoulder of an angel)

15.2.6. Deathtrap (Deathtrap)

15.2.7. Redherring (Distraction)

15.3. Storyline

15.4. Summary of S. Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot" as an example of MacGuffin

15.5. Summary of the play by A. Vampilov "Duck Hunt" as an example of MacGuffin

Topic 16. How to build a literary plot. Part 4. Plot space and plot time in a work of art

16.1. Artistic time, artistic space and event in a literary work: general questions

16.2. Y. Lotman. "The plot space of the Russian novel of the 19th century"

16.3. Space and time in the cycle of short stories and short stories by I.A. Bunin "Dark alleys"

16.4. Y. Lotman. "Artistic space in Gogol's prose"

16.5. Analysis of artistic time on the example of a story V.P. Astafieva"Falling Leaf"

Topic 17. How to build a literary plot. Part 5. Materials from foreign literary mentors

(For independent work. Machine translation of articles. 498 pages of text)

Topic 18. Planning a literary work

18.1. Planner and Intuitive Writer

18.2. Template writer and original writer in relation to the planning of the work

18.3. Floor planning of the novel: general questions

18.3.1. Chapter Level Planning

18.3.2. Episode level planning

18.3.3. Scene Level Planning

18.4. Planning on the example of the fantasy novel "The Seventh Cradle"

18.4.1. The text of the first two chapters of the novel "The Seventh Cradle"

18.4.2. Chapter 1 floor plans

18.4.3. Chapter 2 floor plans

Topic 19. Narration. Part 1. Point of view. Forms and modes of storytelling

19.1. General questions of narration. Point of view

19.1.1. storytelling, narrator, narrator

19.1.2. Point of view. Choice of point of view by the author

19.2. Forms of Narrative Organization

19.3. Narrative modes in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person

19.4. First Person Narration: Advantages and Disadvantages

1. 4.1. Benefits of First Person Narrative

19.4.2. Disadvantages of First Person Narrative

19.4.3. Mistakes when using first-person narration

19.5. Third person narration

19.5.1. The Benefits of Third Person Narrative

19.5.2. Disadvantages of Third Person Narrative

Topic 20. Narrative. Part 2. Forms and methods of narration. Combination of storytelling

20.1. Is it possible to mix first and third person

20.2. Omniscient Narrator

20.3. limited narrator

20.4. Selective narrator

20.5. The Objective Narrator, or "The Eye of the Camera"

Topic 21. Narrative. Part 3. How the classics tell and tell

20.1. Dostoevsky

20.1.1. Article by Eric Egeberg (Toronto, Canada) "The Hero and the Narrator in Dostoyevsky's The Teenager"

20.2. Chekhov

20.3. Lermontov

20.4. Nabokov

20.5. Gogol

20.6 Tolstoy

20.7. Narrative in the "new (French) novel", M. Butor

20.8. Other writers

Topic 22. Style. Part 1. Writing style, language, word

22.1. The concept of artistic style and artistic method

22.2. Types of styles

22.3. Stylistic tricks

22.4. First phrase

22.7. Language and style on the example of Bulgakov

Topic 23. Style. Part 2. Stylistic features of the works of the classics of literature

23.1. Stylistic features of Bunin's "Dark Alleys"

23.2. P.M. Bicilli. "Creativity of Chekhov. Experience of stylistic analysis»

23.3. «Peculiarities of the transmission of Dostoevsky's individual author's style in English translations (based on the novel "Crime and Punishment")

Topic 24. Style. Part 3. Stylistic mistakes

24.1. General issues of stylistic errors

24.2. Speech errors

24.2.1. Misunderstanding the meaning of the word

24.2.2. Lexical incompatibility

24.2.3. Misuse of synonyms

24.2.4. Incorrect use of homonyms

24.2.5. Incorrect use of ambiguous words

24.2.6. Speech deficiency

24.2.7. Speech redundancy

24.2.8. Incorrect use of new words (neologisms)

24.2.9. Misuse of obsolete words (archaisms) and historicisms

24.2.10. Incorrect use of foreign words

24.2.11. The use of jargon

24.2.12. Abuse of professional jargon

24.2.13. Abuse of dialectisms

24.2.14. Incorrect use of colloquial and colloquial words

24.2.15. Incorrect use of phraseological units

24.2.16. Cliches, speech stamps, language standards

24.2.17. Chancellery

24.2.19. Unsuccessful figurativeness, pretentiousness of speech

24.2.20. Trouble with speech

24.2.21. Abuse of the verb "to be"

24.2.22. An excess of pronouns

24.2.23. Absurdism, alogisms, ambiguities, reniks

24.2.24. Abuse of the passive voice

24.2.25. Abuse of adverbs

24.2.26. Abuse of adjectives

24.3. Factual Errors

24.4. Logic errors

24.5. Syntax errors

24.5.1. Errors in the structure of phrases

24.5.2. Errors in the structure and meaning of the sentence

24.5.3. Errors in a simple two-part sentence

24.5.4. Mistakes in a one-part sentence

24.5.5. Errors in a sentence with homogeneous members

24.5.6. Errors in the sentence with introductory words and introductory constructions

24.5.7. Errors in a sentence with isolated members

24.5.8. Errors in the transmission of direct and indirect indirect speech

24.5.9. Mistakes in a complex sentence

24.5.10. Mistakes in non-union complex sentence

24.5.11. Mistakes in a complex sentence with different types of connection

24.6. Grammatical errors

Lesson 25 Part 1. Typification of heroes. archetype

15.1. The concept of character and type. archetype

15.2. character typing process

15.3. Character types

15.4. Techniques for creating a type, image of a hero

15.5. From the article V.G. Belinsky"About the Russian story and the stories of Mr. Gogol"

15.6. Examples of character typing in literary works

Lesson 26 Part 2. Nomination rows

26.1. The concept of a character's nomination series

26.2. Nomination of a character in the works of Dostoevsky

26.3. Nomination of a character in Pushkin's prose works

26.3.1. Types of person names

26.3.1.1. Classification of person names in Pushkin's language

26.3.1.3. Features of naming a person in direct speech

26.3.1.4. Character self-naming

26.3.1.5. The role of appeal in a literary text

26.3.2. Ways to nominate a person

26.3.2.1. Semantic derivation (Metaphor. Elimination)

26.3.2.2. Morphemic derivation

26.3.2.3. Proper name

26.3.2.4. Borrowing

26.3.3. Nomination number of a person

26.3.3.1. Types of the nominative series of faces in Pushkin's prose

26.3.3.2. Nomination series of persons in fiction

Lesson 27 Part 3. Dossier. character planning

27.1. Dossier on the character

27.2. character planning

Topic 28. Character. Part 4. The image of the character. Image system

28.1. prototype, prototype

28.2. "Chekhov Detail" in the form of a character. Character "tags"

28.3. character `s name

28.4. Forms of addressing the character

28.5. Secondary information about the character. Prehistory and epilogue

28.6. Appearance. Hero portrait

28.7. The character's costume and nudity

28.8. Body, character metamorphoses

28.9. Defects and ailments of the character

28.10. Character behavior and gestures. Etiquette

28.11. Image system

Topic 29. Character. Part 5. Creation of character images by classics of literature

29.1. Dostoevsky

29.1.1. External portrait of the hero

29.1.2. Gesture and facial expressions of Dostoevsky's heroes

29.1.3. Character skins

29.1.3.1. Images of characters in the novel "Crime and Punishment"

29.1.3.2. Images of characters in the novel "Demons"

29.1.3.3. Images of characters in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov"

29.1.3.4. Images of characters in the novel "The Idiot"

29.1.4. Article by D.I. Pisarev "Fight for life"

29.1.5. Article by P. Weill "The Last Judgment"

29.1.6. The division of the heroes of the novel "The Idiot" into groups in relation to faith

29.1.7. Artistic motivation of the behavior of the heroes of the novel "The Brothers Karamazov"

29.2. Tolstoy

29.3. Goncharov. Heroes-antipodes

Topic 29A. The art of character creation. Part 1. Materials from foreign literary mentors

(For independent work. Machine translation of articles. 236 pages of text)

Topic 29B. The art of character creation. Part 2. Materials from foreign literary mentors

(For independent work. Machine translation of articles. 175 pages of text)

Topic 29B. Thesaurus of character emotions. Materials from foreign literary mentors

(For independent work. Machine translation of articles. 135 pages of text)

Topic 29D. Thesaurus of character skills and talents. Materials from foreign literary mentors

(For independent work. Machine translation of articles. 25 pages of text)

Topic 30. How Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" was made

30.1. Oppositions in the novel

30.2. Image system. Character system

30.3. Development of action

30.4. Story system

Topic 31. How to write a dialogue. Character speech

31.1. Dialogue vs Conversation: What's the Difference?

31.2. How to write dialogue

31.3. What properties should a well-written dialogue have?

31.4. How to create expressive literary speech

Topic 31A. Dialogue skill. Materials from foreign literary mentors

(For independent work. Machine translation of articles. 244 pages of text)

Topic 32

32.1. General provisions

32.2. story idea

32.3. Selection of material for the story

32.4. Story Composition

32.5. Beginning in a story

32.6. Story style

32.7. Detail in the story

32.8. The aesthetic concept of the story

3. Application for training

Please submit an application for studying at the Likhachev School of Writing in the form of a letter to the email address of the School: [email protected]

Sample letter of application for training:

“I, my name, want to take the 1st course (1st and 2nd courses) of study at the School of Writing. Please let me know the payment amount and bank details.

If you, as many busy people do, ask for a shorter study period, indicate this in your letter. Most students want to reduce the time in order to quickly engage in personal creativity according to the original template proposed at the Likhachev School of Writing (or the algorithm for creating a new literary work). It often happened that we sent the student all the topics of the 1st and 2nd courses (32 + 47 = 79 files with lessons) at the same time. This was done by those who wanted to use the materials of courses 1 and 2 as a ready-made library of literary skill, who did not intend to do homework (it takes too much time), or went on a long vacation - a convenient time to study courses. Or those who wanted to immediately start working on the template for their new major work.

4. The cost of training in courses, the cost of mentoring

Course 1. "Fundamentals of Literary Studies"

10,000 rubles for Russians, for foreigners and Russian immigrants - 200 US dollars

2 course. "Writing skill"

20,000 rubles for Russians, for foreigners and Russian immigrants - 400 US dollars

Mentoring means, first of all, the individual work of a literary mentor as a developing editor on the manuscripts of the works of an aspiring writer. The developing editor helps the author to choose the genre and the target reader (depending on the type of writing talent and the interests of the student), decide on the theme and idea of ​​the work, develop a literary history, build a plot and spin the plot, draw up a main and episode plan of the work, avoid failures and distortions in compositions (it’s just a disaster from compositions in works of modern literature), decide on the type of narrator, hone the style, dialogues, etc. In the course of working with a mentor, a novice writer, as a rule, joins the writing and editing environment for the first time, which makes him more confident and subsequently helps to communicate properly with publishing editors.

Mentoring- a troublesome, nervous, sometimes painful business, so it has happened more than once that, having assessed the creative possibilities of another novice writer, all our developing editors simply refused to mentor him, considering it a useless exercise. So the desire and financial ability of a novice writer to pay for mentoring is only half the battle. Why are there so few editors who want to lead the work of an aspiring author? The editor-mentor has to completely immerse himself in the author’s creative process, guide him, know the material thoroughly, prompt, inevitably share his own creative developments, select related materials, inspire (especially lazy and unorganized, which are a dime a dozen among beginners), cheer, praise, scold, wipe away tears and even, at times, act as a kind of personal psychologist. Regarding the work of a novice writer, the practical return on mentoring is many times higher than on training. The author literally every next month feels his own creative growth, sees the progress of his work in the right direction approved by the editor.

Separate from studies, mentoring for 6 months costs 48,000 rubles (8,000 rubles per month). For foreigners and Russian immigrants - 800 US dollars. During this time, you can write a short novel or thriller, or, at least, make very good progress: make a chapter-by-chapter, episode-by-episode or even scene-by-scene plan of the novel, and this is 75% of the work of writing a work.

For comparison. Literary mentoring on a manuscript by a novice author in the United States costs about 10 times more than in our country. Mentor Larry Brooks for 6 weeks(not 6-month, as we have!) mentoring on a manuscript of 75–90 thousand words takes 1950 dollars(data as of May 22, 2018). If the manuscript is larger, then the price of the development editor's work proportionally rises. (http://storyfix.com/story-coaching-services). I quote:

The Full Manuscript read/review – $1950 for manuscripts of 75K to 90K words; prorated for shorter or longer manuscripts (contact me for quote, which will pro-rate the base rate).

1. Includes 50 pages of line-level copy editing (to clarify any trends or issues that need addressing within the entire manuscript; this is not a copy-editing service, per se).
2. Feedback/commentary imparted directly onto the manuscript pages themselves (in red type).
3. A summary Coaching Document that includes peripheral issues such as alternative creative strategies and other relevant issues, including market- specific input. (This is a fixed-cost element of the deliverable service, and thus supports the fixed price for 75K word projects vs 90K word projects… both involve the same level of analysis and feedback.)
4. A reasonable back-and-forth exchange to clarify the feedback and explore your response to it.
5. Delivery window of six-weeks from receipt of manuscript(if I need more, based on backlog, we can discuss a reasonable timeline).
6. If a specific learning topic is shown to be in need of focus, I will provide you with one or more of my books (ebook version), depending on which title deals with the necessary tutoring.
7. You have the option of completing a Premium Questionnaire and receiving that feedback before submitting the full manuscript. This may allow you the opportunity to revise the story before submission, based on feedback received.

5. Payment procedure for training courses

Upon receipt of the letter of application for training, you will immediately be given the amount of payment and bank details. Pay - to a passbook or S.S. Likhachev's bank card in Sberbank of the Russian Federation.

If you wish to conclude a formal training agreement, all the above prices are increased by the amount of taxes and additional expenses (for an accountant, lawyer, etc.), that is, by about 50%. Likhachev Legal Company LLC, owned by S.S. Likhachev, will be a party to the contract for the provision of training services at the Likhachev School of Writing.

Staged (monthly) payment is possible, in 2-3-4 payments. In any case, you can agree on the payment procedure. The monthly payment procedure, of course, annoys the instructors of the School, but we remember that we live in a poor country.

For foreigners - payment in dollars and euros by special agreement. Payments are higher than for Russians.

The interests of the School are represented by Likhachev Legal Company LLC. The company has a foreign currency bank account. Individuals can pay for tuition via Western Union, and legal entities pay to the settlement account of Likhachev Law Company. In the latter case, a contract is concluded. If a student has the opportunity to receive a subsidy for studying at the School from an employer or sponsor, we can offer him to pay for tuition through Western Union, and we will provide (we will send by mail) a certificate from the Law Company that the student has paid for the tuition, and according to this certificate, he will be able to receive from his employer or sponsor reimbursement.

6. Benefits for students

A strong group of literary editors and proofreaders of the “old school” works at the Likhachev School of Writing. Our editors are both “developers” and “stylists”.

Students of the Likhachev School of Writing who complete the first two courses receive a 10-20 percent discount on stylistic editing and proofreading of their works. The application of a 10, 15 or 20 percent discount depends on the stylistic and grammatical quality of the manuscript. If the manuscript has 30-50 errors on one page (this is not uncommon), then, of course, students should not count on discounts of more than 10 percent. Once we received a manuscript of a novel so stylistically and grammatically "clean" for editing that we applied a 50% discount. But this happened only once in almost 4 years of the existence of our School of Writing Excellence.

7. You can get all the training materials at once

Particularly busy with work and family, students of the Likhachev School of Writing, who have no time to do their homework, have repeatedly asked to send materials for the 1st and 2nd courses of study at the same time - today there are 79 lessons (= 79 files). Since in this case the instructor of the Likhachev School of Writing is released from weekly work, we found it possible to make a serious discount: the 1st and 2nd courses combined in one package will cost 20,000 rubles. A novice writer will always have at hand a compact professionally made reference material that replaces hundreds of textbooks, dictionaries and reference books. There will be no need to climb the sites for years, collecting disparate, often unprofessionally prepared materials, sinning with millions of errors.

All discounts on stylistic editing and proofreading of manuscripts accepted at the Likhachev School of Writing apply to those who have bought the combined course of study.

Friends! Very friendly and experienced people work at the Likhachev School of Writing. We have seen all sorts of beginning writers in our lifetime: geniuses and madmen; literary hooligans and graphomaniacs; modest, very capable, but unsure of their talents; "strong middle peasants" and random people in literature; born creators, but unable to open up, because they are stewing in their own juice, embarrassed to show their manuscripts to the editor; very capable of literary work, real talents, but suffering from a lack of willpower and efficiency; those who need only a little help, and then they will climb on their own ... It is difficult to surprise us with anything. We will either find a common language with everyone who applies to the School and begin to cooperate fruitfully, or we will part without ceremony. We will not waste time on a mediocre or inadequate student: there is nothing more precious than time.