The U’s year-long undergraduate novel writing class, the only one of its kind, has produced its first published student-written book. Laurel Myler, a U alumna and author of “City Ash and Desert Bones,” took the Honors Novel Writing Workshop two years ago from Professor Michael Gills.
“[The class] was kind of simultaneously a really horrible and really rewarding experience,” Myler said. “It was hard.”
The class is not for the faint of heart. Students are required to wake up at 4:30 a.m. five days a week to write two or three pages. By the end of the semester, they are expected to have a rough draft of a novel.
“They complete an endeavor that very few people ever accomplish,” Gills said. “They write the novel and in doing that, they can pretty much do anything they put their minds to. They have that confidence and ability to tackle the hardest task you can imagine. That’s going to stay with them the rest of their careers.”
Myler admitted that she struggled for a large portion of the class. In addition to the workshop, she was taking 17 credit hours and working 20 hours a week. Physically and mentally she could not wake up every morning at 4:30 and received special permission, which required a doctor’s note, to complete her assignment later in the morning.
According to Myler, her relationship with Gills was difficult. He pushed her to her limits and she pushed back. At her thesis reading, Gills told the audience he didn’t want to invite Myler back for the second semester.
After one semester of struggles, Myler told Gills she wanted to do the 16 ways to write a chapter challenge, which requires an author to write a narrative in 16 different variations.
“Only one other of Michael’s students has taken on that challenge,” Myler said. “It was hard, but it changed the project. It gave me places to go in the novel.”
She finished the challenge over Christmas break and in the following months her writing improved. Gills took her 50-page manuscript to a conference, where he handed it to his editor at Raw Dog Screaming press. Myler later received a call and was asked to produce to a full manuscript. After a year of editing, “City Ash and Desert Bones” was published and is now available online.
“Writing for me, it’s an escape,” Myler said. “I don’t like reality. I’ll be sitting somewhere like a restaurant, or waiting for someone or going to bed at night, and I’m thinking about my characters and this other world. I don’t know what other people think about because that literally occupies my mind all the time. I’m always thinking about my characters.”
The Novel Writing Workshop is offered every other year, and after an intense application process, only 10 students are selected to participate in the course. Since the workshop is part of the Honors College, students must be enrolled in the Honors program.
“I’m constantly impressed by University of Utah students, and not just honors students. They have an enormous capacity for critical and creative work,” says Sylvia Torti, dean of the Honors College. “Having these types of courses that hold the bar really high is what all of us [at the college] want and what many of our students want.”
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