Writers Workshops
Suggested Writing Seminars/Workshops: (for up to an hour):
Downloadable pdf with bio and workshops:
1. The Original Idea—The Heart of Your Story and Key to Selling Your Book: Can you say what your book is about in 25 words of less? This is essential to both writing a tight book and then selling it. We’ll discuss ways to find and state your original idea so that you stay on course while writing the book and with which you can excite those you tell it to when trying to sell it.
1A. Idea Workshop: Can you say what your novel is about in one sentence? Participants will get the opportunity to write their idea down and have it discussed. We’ll find out what you really meant to write and the level of interest it generates. All will profit, not just the person whose idea is discussed, as this workshop will show you how to focus your creative energies. (Should follow The Original Idea workshop)
2. Conflict: The Fuel of Your Story: Conflict drives your story. Not only must conflict escalate throughout the entire novel, every single scene must have conflict in it. The Conflict Box is an effective technique for focusing your story on the protagonist, antagonist, their goals and finding out if you have the necessary conflict lock.
3. Outlining and Plot: The Events of Your Story: Before you begin writing your book, you should spend some time outlining and developing your story. We’ll discuss types of outlines along with techniques for efficiently developing the strongest possible story based on your original idea. The creative process before the actual start of the book will be covered. From the exciting opening that grabs the reader through the escalating conflict to the climactic scene and ending with the resolution—the entire structure of the novel with be covered with emphasis on hooks, the remote control effect, building suspense, and having satisfying endings.
4. Pacing & Tone: The Speed and Emotion of Your Story: You control the pace of your story, gradually accelerating the entire book as you move toward the climactic scene. You also have to factor in what tone you want to consistently achieve in your story. Combining the two gives you a way to overlay your plot with symbols and motifs.
5. Characters: The People of Your Story: The most critical component of a novel is character. How do you go from flat two-dimensional characters to vibrant three-dimensional ones? Templates to develop characters and the concept of character arc and change will be discussed.
6. Point Of View: The Voice of Your Story: This goes beyond just first person, third person and omniscient voices. The point of view you write in is your voice as a writer and often the issue lies deeper than simply a mechanical device. For example, voice dictates what you can say about your characters and what you can’t. It also sets you apart from others and makes you distinct.
7. Unity: Your Story As A Whole: You pull all the building blocks of writing a book together in Unity. Characters, point of view, plot—all must support the main plot.
8. Setting, Dialogue, Writer’s Block and Re-Writing: Setting is the where and when of your story. This is often the twist writers give to ideas that have been done before to make their story unique and stand out. Dialogue serves multiple purposes and in a novel is much different than that in real life. Writer’s Block introduces you to way to overcome inertia and regain creativity and tap into the power of the subconscious, often a writer’s greatest ally. And once the book is done, comes the infamous rewrite. How to make your book stronger and stronger after the first draft.
9. Selling Your book: Your Story Becomes Product: A writer friendly approach to marketing your book efficiently and then understanding the flow of a query at a publishing house and how decisions are made whether to buy a book. Cover letters that grab the reader, how to do a one page synopsis, and other practical matters will be covered.
10. Marketing Yourself and Your Book: Nine out of ten first published novels fail. Often this is because the author thinks they have ‘succeeded’ simply by being accepted for publication. We will discuss what you can do to be a success in this business and cover a variety of techniques from book-signings, media outlets, publicists to other innovative ways.
11. The Publishing Business for the Writer. Fee-charging agents; sell-through and sales numbers; E-books; print-on-demand; shrinking mid-lists; corporate mergers; self-publishing; what does all this mean to the writer who often feels on the outside? You hear agents and editors talk about the business but it’s important to understand a writer’s point of view.
11A: Pitch Sessions. Similar to the Idea Workshop but more focused on seeing how writers would approach editor and agent one on ones and giving them critical feedback to improve their pitches. Should be done early in the conference schedule to prepare for agent/editor one on ones.
12. The Military for Writers: An introduction to the military from conventional warfare, through Special Operations, the War on Terror, weapons of mass destruction and insight into the men and women who make up our armed forces—all tailored for the writer who might need research in this area.
13. He Said, She Said, They Wrote: Collaborating without Killing Each Other
What happens when a perfectly nice romance writer agrees to write a book with a grim, paranoid action adventure novelist? She learns the difference between a Glock and an MP5, and he learns there’s more to shoes than matching the belt. Covers the process (e-mail), the pros (NY Times best-selling book), and the cons (urge to drive six hundred miles to beat writing partner senseless with keyboard) of collaborating, using details from his work with Jenny Crusie.
14: Sex & Violence: Putting Action On The Page: Most writers have difficulty when approaching action scenes, particularly those involving sex or violence. Techniques for writing effective action scenes will be covered.
Suggested Writing Seminars/Workshops (for over an hour to two hours):
15. The Original Idea—The Core of Writing and Selling Your Book and Idea Workshop: Can you say what your book is about in 25 words of less? This is essential to both writing a tight book and then selling it. We’ll discuss ways to find and state your original idea so that you stay on course while writing the book and with which you can excite those you tell it to when trying to sell it. After the formal presentation, volunteers will get the opportunity to write their idea down and have it discussed. We’ll find out what you really meant to write and the level of interest it generates. All will profit, not just the person whose idea is discussed, as this workshop will show you how to focus your creative energies.
16. Outlining, Plot, Conflict and Writing Scenes: The Events of Your Story: Before you begin writing your book, you should spend some time outlining and developing your story. We’ll discuss types of outlines along with techniques for efficiently developing the strongest possible story based on your original idea. The creative process before the actual start of the book will be covered. From the exciting opening that grabs the reader through the escalating conflict to the climactic scene and ending with the resolution—the entire structure of the novel with be covered with emphasis on hooks, the remote control effect, building suspense, and having satisfying endings. Conflict and writing scenes will also be covered.
17. Character and Point of View: This goes beyond just first person, third person and omniscient voices. The point of view you write in is your voice as a writer and often the issue lies deeper than simply a mechanical device. For example, voice dictates what you can say about your characters and what you can’t. It also sets you apart from others and makes you distinct. The most critical component of a novel is character. How do you go from flat two-dimensional characters to vibrant three-dimensional ones?
18. Selling Your book, Marketing Yourself and Your Book and the Publishing Business for Writers: A writer friendly approach to marketing your book efficiently and then understanding the flow of a query at a publishing house and how decisions are made whether to buy a book. Cover letters that grab the reader, how to do a one page synopsis, and other practical matters will be covered. We will discuss what you can do marketing-wise to be a success in this business and cover a variety of techniques from book-signings, media outlets, publicists to other innovative ways. Then on to the business: Fee-charging agents; sell-through and sales numbers; E-books; print-on-demand; shrinking mid-lists; corporate mergers; self-publising; what does all this mean to the writer who often feels on the outside? You hear agents and editors talk about the business but it’s important to understand a writer’s point of view.