YES, MOLECULE

A 12-Month Online Novel Generator


“Everything in the world began with a yes. One molecule said yes to another molecule and life was born.”
—Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector

Yes, I want to write a novel. Yes, I want to draft my novel in ONE YEAR. Yes, I want monthly classes to motivate, inspire, and equip me. Yes, I want to hear from four different working novelists about their varied strategies and processes. Yes, I want a writing community where we cheer on, support, and hold one another accountable. Yes, I want to feel nourished and engaged, and develop approaches I can return to throughout my writing life.

YES, MOLECULE is an intensive, one-of-a-kind 12-month novel-writing course created by four award-winning and bestselling novelists and friends. We know how difficult and rewarding the novel-writing process can be, and we know that writing in community can make a daunting prospect more joyful and enriching. YES, MOLECULE is designed to offer writers the manifold types of support and stimulation writing a novel requires: intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic, structural, and communal. 

We invite writers committed to making significant progress on a novel to join us in a year-long intensive online course. Each month you’ll take part in an inspiring, practical class and meet with an accountability group to support your progress. We welcome writers of all experience levels and backgrounds, as long as you are serious about producing a draft of a novel (or making major headway on a draft of a novel) over the course of one year. This class will require considerable writing and reading. Students should be prepared to commit to writing 15–20 new pages every month and reading up to 100 pages every month.

Each month includes: one 3-hour class, optional office hours with the month’s lecturer, and a small group (cluster) meeting scheduled with your peers. Our schedule builds from beginnings to middles to endings. This is not a traditional workshop based on a critical model. Though there will be monthly opportunities to give and receive feedback, YES, MOLECULE is conceived with a radical YES philosophy. YES feedback is not critical, but encouraging: meant to help a work become the best version of itself. Our intention is to identify the particular strengths of a particular writer, helping that writer discover their original and truest voice, and explore their wildest, riskiest, most essential material. Instead of learning by a set of given rules, what is possible when your wildest and most original instincts are celebrated, nourished, and given space and direction to grow? 

By joining YES, MOLECULE, you’re saying yes to a year of writing, accountability, and support. 

Here’s what that looks like in 2027:


  • Monthly 3-hour Zoom class including craft mechanics, guided generative prompts, discussions of preassigned readings (craft essays, novel samples and examples), assignments, and practical tips and strategies
  • Monthly office hours with The Dream Side 
  • Opportunities for feedback, discussion, and support within a small accountability group (cluster)
  • Support and materials for conducting your small group, including how to receive and offer constructive feedback
  • Structure and support to generate up to 240 pages of new writing towards your novel draft
  • Three one-on-one meetings with a Dream Side mentor: one at the start of the year, one at the middle, and one at the end, when you’ll share 20 pages of your novel and discuss next steps
  • Skills and strategies you can carry into your writing practice beyond the course

Each writer will be expected to:


  • Share 15 to 20 new pages with a five-person cluster every month
  • Quickly read and give encouraging YES feedback to writing submitted by fellow cluster members every month
  • Facilitate cluster meetings twice a year

Your Instructors


Learn more about The Dream Side — Meng Jin, Rachel Khong, Susanna Kwan, and Shruti Swamy — here. 



Course fee & Application information


Participation is by application and acceptance only. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and admission is not guaranteed. Enrollment is limited to 20 writers to keep the experience personal and supportive. The deadline to apply is November 16, or until the class is full — whichever comes first. We encourage you to apply early, as spots may fill before the application deadline. Once the class is full, additional applicants will be placed on a waitlist, or invited to join the asynchronous cohort.

Course fee: $5,000 
($2,500 deposit at acceptance, $2,500 by January 5; tuition is non-refundable once paid)

Scholarship & Asynchronous options


We want this course to be accessible, and are able to offer four needs-based scholarships at $167/month. These are reserved for writers who would not be able to join without financial support. Because we have a limited number of scholarships, these opportunities are competitive. If the cost is not a barrier for you, we ask that you leave these spots available for those who truly need them. You’ll have the option to indicate in your application if you’d like apply at the scholarship rate. 

This year, we are also introducing an asynchronous version of the course at $100/month for those who are looking for a more accessible, self-directed option. Asynchronous students will receive monthly class recordings and will be placed in small clusters that will meet independently each month. This flexible, more affordable format is designed for writers who want to undertake the sustained, rigorous work of the course while working around their own schedules. Each month, students will be expected to watch the class recordings, submit 15–20 pages of their novel, give YES! feedback to cluster members, and meet with their cluster. Please note there is one live gathering for the asynchronous cohort, an orientation on Wednesday, January 6, 5 p.m. Apply directly for the asynchronous cohort here.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: November 16, 2026 (applications close at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time)  
ONLINE INFO SESSION: October 6, 5 p.m. PST (Register here)


A NOTE ABOUT RECORDING: This course is conducted on Zoom and will be recorded. Recordings may capture student’s video, audio, chat messages, and shared resources, and will be shared with enrolled students in this course. Recording makes it possible for The Dream Side to offer a more financially accessible version of this course.

Live participation—whether through video, voice, or chat—is deeply appreciated and helps create a vibrant, dynamic class environment. Students who prefer not to appear on video may keep cameras off, adjust their Zoom display name, or request reasonable edits. 


Class Schedule*


All meetings will take place over Zoom.
Three-hour lectures held Sundays 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. PST
Optional office hours held Tuesdays, 5 to 7 p.m. PST
Small group meeting (cluster) to be scheduled with your group
*Class topics subject to change, but these are the actual dates: 

Jan 5
INTRODUCTION AND ORIENTATION

BEGINNINGS

Jan 10 
DISCOVERY / total POSSIBILITY / modes of COLLECTING / cultivating attention

Feb 7
FIRST SENTENCES / first paragraphs / first pages / hearing a VOICE

Mar 7
NOT KNOWING / following trails / FASCINATION / getting lost / RESEARCH

Apr 11
DRIVING QUESTIONS / secrets / ENGINES / building a reality and BELIEVING

MIDDLES

May 16
SIGNS OF LIFE / maps and plans / STRUCTURE

Jun 13 
DEEPENING / expanding world through character / STAMINA

Jul 11
RIVERS / placeholders / MAKING THINGS HAPPEN

Aug 8
TENSION / suspense / OPPOSITES

ENDINGS

Sept 12 
LETTING GO / ego death / mystery and certainty / TRANSFORMATION

Oct 10
PLEASURE / pleasurable endings / CLIMAX AND SATISFACTION

Nov 7
DEVOTION / cultivation / seeing it through / HOW IT CHANGES YOU

Dec 5
PULLING A THREAD TAUTLY / stepping back to see / What did I make? Who am I now? / RE-VISIONING 

Dec 9
CELEBRATORY READING




Questions? 


Join us for our Zoom info session on October 6 (Register here.) Or send us an email: hello AT thedreamside.com