Finding Work for Your Inner Critic: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
Summary:
Join Forgotten Realms author & editor Erin M. Evans, and discover how to spot your story’s weaknesses and whip your prose into shape.
Description:
Before your story goes out into the world, make it the best it can be! We’ll discuss story structure and how to use it to find weak points, what the rules are and how to know when to ignore them, and the best ways to get your words into fighting shape. There will be an extended question and answer section for specifics, and if time permits, a chance to do guided line-editing on your own work.
Mastering Fiction: Brainstorming Your Way to a Breakout Novel
Summary:
In this seminar, learn techniques that can help you generate your Big Idea from the start, which will help to guide you to writing a novel that will stand out from the crowd.
Description:
Novels begin with an idea, and the bigger the idea, the more likely you are to attract the notice of agents, editors, and readers. In this seminar, learn techniques that can help you generate your Big Idea from the start, which will help to guide you to writing a novel that will stand out from the crowd.
Mastering Fiction: Connective Tissue—Advanced Techniques to Create Stories that Resonate
Summary:
Learn how to use viewpoint to strengthen the story as a whole, taking a story that feels loose and directionless and working with the material that’s already there to make it strong and vibrant.
Description:
In writing, there are many different techniques that are rarely discussed together. Foreshadowing, parallel threads, theme, tone, character building, and more. In this seminar, these topics are discussed from the viewpoint of strengthening the story as a whole, taking a story that feels loose and directionless and working with the material that's already there to make it strong and vibrant.
Mastering Fiction: It's All Entertainment—Crafting Stories that are a Blast to Read
Summary:
In this seminar, learn about the entertainment value of writing, and the techniques you can use to maximize each page for a more engrossing, emotional, page-turning read.
Description:
It's easy while writing to focus on the mechanics of writing and forget that fiction is a form of entertainment. Writers can become lost in topics of theme, characterization, plotting, or even the line-by-line writing, while forgetting to accentuate the things that make people want to read books in the first place. This seminar discusses the entertainment value of writing, and the techniques you can use to maximize each page for a more engrossing, emotional, page-turning read.
Mastering Fiction: Pattern Recognition—Challenging Your Readers to Create Stories that Compel
Summary:
In this seminar, learn how to draw your reader in by challenging their expectations, and take character building, plot progression, plot twists and setbacks, and world building to the next level.
Description:
The ability to recognize patterns is a basic human trait. We use it over and over again in our fiction. This seminar discusses how to use patterns to your benefit by both setting and breaking expectations. Learn how to draw your reader in by challenging their expectations, and take character building, plot progression, plot twists and setbacks, and world building to the next level.
Mastering Fiction: Plotting Techniques of the Professional Writer
Summary:
In this seminar you’ll learn about plotting techniques, from basic structural concepts, initial plotting and eventual refinement, how to break writer’s block and how to avoid it in the first place.
Description:
Plotting is one of the more difficult disciplines to master in writing. Some writers have an innate sense of what makes a story work, but most writers, particularly those early in their apprenticeships, will benefit from plotting. This seminar focuses on various plotting techniques, from basic structural concepts, initial plotting and eventual refinement, how to break the dreaded writer’s block and how to avoid it in the first place.
Mastering Fiction: Tension on Every Page—Ways to Create a Page-turning Novel
Summary:
In this seminar, learn about the different types of tension and how to maximize them to keep your reader glued to the page.
Description:
Tension is one of the basic building blocks of modern day fiction. If you know how to lay the seeds of tension, and how to coax them, you can transform your fiction from merely noteworthy to exceptional. In this seminar, the different types of tension are discussed, as well as ways to maximize them to keep your reader glued to the page.
In this seminar, learn how to structure scenes that work, whether you’re writing a short story or the next breakout novel.
Description:
Well-structured scenes make for compelling storytelling. How can you construct powerful scenes? And how do you string scenes together to create a vivid and stirring piece of writing? In this seminar, you’ll learn how to structure scenes that work, whether you’re writing a short story or the next breakout novel.
Networking and Promotion for Creators in the Online Age: Twitch TV, Podcasts, and Patreon
Summary:
Speculative fiction author, professor, podcaster, and TwitchTV channel host Gregory A. Wilson discusses how to leverage different creative backgrounds and fan bases into a successful online presence.
Description:
Networking and promotion have always been critically important aspects of the life of a creator, making it possible for them to spread the word about a given work to a larger audience. With the advent of the Internet, online promotion via website and Facebook became ubiquitous, but we've now entered the second wave of online promotion, with new models rising to the fore. Speculative fiction author, podcaster, and TwitchTV channel host Gregory A. Wilson (author of the graphic novel Icarus, The Gray Assassin Trilogy from The Ed Greenwood Group, and co-host of the critically acclaimed Speculate! podcast) discusses how to leverage different creative backgrounds and fan bases into a successful online presence, and how mediums like TwitchTV, podcasts, and Patreon are changing the game for creators.
Each attendee reads something they've written, & our panel of experienced authors provide on-the-spot feedback. It’s a fantastic opportunity to get personal feedback on your work!
Description:
Each attendee reads something they've written, and our panel of experienced authors provide on-the-spot feedback. It’s a fantastic opportunity to get personal feedback on your work! Only participants will be allowed in the room during the Read & Critique session. Each attendee should come prepared with a few pages of their writing (typically 5-10 minutes worth). Attendees should also bring material for taking notes. Attendees who are unable able to read their own work should talk to the facilitator at the start of the session and we'll make special arrangements for you.Writer's Craft: Writing What You Don't Know