About Choicevector
Narrative
craft, taught honestly.
Writing a novel is harder than most books about writing will admit. Choicevector exists for people who already know that — and want to work through it anyway.
We focus on one subject: how stories are built from the inside out. Structure, character motivation, scene-level decision-making — the mechanics behind fiction that holds together.
Our courses are designed for remote learners across New Zealand who need flexibility without losing rigour. You study at your own pace, but the material never talks down to you.
Where the idea came from
Choicevector started in 2024 after its founders spent years watching talented writers abandon manuscripts not because they lacked imagination, but because they had no reliable way to diagnose what was wrong with a scene or a chapter. Most craft resources either oversimplify or bury practical advice under theory.
The name refers to the moment in a narrative when a character's choice creates the next possible directions for the story. That decision point — and what makes it feel earned or hollow — is at the centre of everything we teach.
Every course module is built around a specific craft problem, not a vague principle. You'll look at real manuscript examples, work through structured exercises, and get clear feedback on what's actually happening in your draft.
Location
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Format
Fully remote, self-paced
Subject focus
Novel narrative craft
The people behind the courses
Instructors who write and edit
Each instructor comes from a working background in fiction — editing, publishing, or sustained novel writing. They teach what they've had to figure out themselves.
Fourteen years in fiction editing and novel coaching
Orla Dempsey
Lead Narrative Instructor
Orla's background is in structural editing for literary fiction. She focuses on pacing and the relationship between scene-level tension and long-arc momentum.
Published novelist with focus on character psychology
Bram Velthuizen
Character & Dialogue Instructor
Bram has published three novels and spent years teaching character motivation in workshop settings. He's particularly interested in how dialogue reveals psychology without stating it.
Síofra Ní Bhriain
Plot Architecture Instructor
Síofra works from a background in script development and novel revision. She teaches writers how to identify where a plot's logic breaks down and how to rebuild it without scrapping the whole draft.
How we approach the work
These aren't principles we put on a wall. They're the decisions that shape how each course is structured and how feedback is given.
Specificity over encouragement
Generic praise doesn't help a writer fix a broken chapter. Every piece of feedback in our courses names the exact problem and suggests a concrete direction — not a vague "keep going."
Craft before inspiration
Waiting to feel inspired is a reasonable way to never finish a novel. We teach the technical decisions that make writing possible on ordinary days — structure, habit, and knowing what you're trying to solve in a given scene.
Remote learning done properly
Flexibility shouldn't mean shallow. Our courses are designed so that someone studying from home in Palmerston North gets the same rigour as they would in a face-to-face workshop — just without the commute or the fixed schedule.
Honest about difficulty
Writing a novel takes a long time and involves a lot of failure. We don't promise shortcuts. We do promise that the problems you're running into are solvable, and that understanding them clearly is most of the work.