Critical Questions: Thinking Through Your Novel for Revisions (or Drafting)

With: Leah Henderson

Wednesdays, October 14 - November 4, 2026, 7:00 - 8:30 PM ET

All sessions are recorded

Price: $399 workshop early bird through September 17, 2026

Have you completed a first draft and are stuck in revisions, still unsure what your protagonist needs or wants? Maybe you’re partway through your manuscript and feeling a little lost?

This workshop will help you examine the purpose and role of your beginning, middle and end. While it is perfect for authors who have completed a messy first draft, all authors can benefit from this workshop designed to help you ask and answer the critical questions at the heart of your novel. Join award-winning author and MFA instructor Leah Henderson for this deep dive that uses prompts, questions, texts and exercises to help you develop, reflect upon, and enhance your current project.

What To Expect:

Each of your four sessions will focus on four different story elements:

  1. Before the beginning

  2. The beginning

  3. The middle

  4. The end. 

You’ll study what goes into strong opening lines, paragraphs, and scenes as well as what holds a reader’s attention through often murky middles. You’ll examine how to create intentional and memorable endings. You’ll delve into character, setting, pacing, plot, emotion and other key elements that come together at each stage of the writing process to help you create engaging stories. 

This workshop is designed to help you understand your story and your characters better in order to help you convey the essence of what it is your story is trying to say. Understanding your story helps you fulfill promises and endear readers from the beginning to the end of your work.  Get the clarity and focus you need to help you move your story forward.

Leah Henderson is the author of many critically-acclaimed books for young readers including The Courage of the Little Hummingbird, Your Voice, Your Vote, The Magic in Changing Your Stars, A Day for Rememberin’, and Together We March. She holds an MFA in Writing and is on faculty in Spalding University’s graduate writing program. Because she has serious wanderlust, when she isn’t creating stories, she’s off someplace in the world getting lost, then found, discovering new ones.

You’ll Complete This Workshop With

  • Knowing what's at the heart of your story

  • A deeper understanding of your plot, characters, and story

  • New tips and techniques to enhance your works in progress, specifically around revision

  • A better grasp of what holds a reader's attention

  • Richer scenes and passages in your work in progress

This Workshop Is For You If

  • You're struggling to get to the heart of your story; you know something is just missing

  • You’re feeling a little lost with your manuscript

  • You’re an author in any stage looking to improve your craft

  • You’re an author looking to hone your skills

Register Now