Online Workshops: Many Different Courses
| Opportunities abound in 2010 for Writers interested in taking online classes related to their craft. See if any of the workshops noted below fit what you're looking for. Website addresses supplied for registration and fee information. Each has Beth Daniels, aka Beth Henderson, J.B. Dane, at the helm. |
April 2010 PLOTTING FOR PANTSERS: An Organic Writer's Guide to Avoiding Writer's Block (4-week workshop) Host: Low Country Romance Writers http://LowCountryRWA.com/online-workshops/ Fingers are flying, the story is just spilling out of them, line after line appearing on the monitor then – all of a sudden the story peters out. How does one to get from the last word written to the next thing that is supposed to happen when that something hasn’t occurred to the flying fingers yet? What’s a writer to do? I know how that feels because I’ve been there myself. In fact, I’m frequently in the same place, even after writing 26 books. While some folks recommend giving up the thrill that accompanies writing by the seat of your pants, I’m not one of them. I always hated outlining when we had to do it in school, and like any other Pantser, I cringe at the mere idea of outlining anything. However, that doesn’t mean I’m going to shun methods used by writers who do detailed plotting – and outlining -- prior to launching into the manuscript either because minimal outlining can be a last resort. There are various ways to go about plotting, and outlining is only one of them. Probably the most boring of them, too, and a creative mind can find other paths that work just as well – or better – for them. Therefore, the first thing to do is find and possibly explore some of those other paths, and in doing so, work a way out of the box canyon of writer’s block – or simply write more efficiently, effectively, and more swiftly. In "Plotting for Pantsers" we’ll go over: storyboarding, different degrees of outlining, piecemeal, timeline, 3x5 card shuffle, skeleton, brainstorming, secondary storyline, wall of notes, solar system, POVs, post-it, detail, the cast, digging deeper, jumping, fork in the road, Chinese menu, interview, and sensory doorway to your world. Yes, in some cases I’ve created a “name” for various ways I’ve worked my way around and out of writer’s blocks. But if I’ve done it – and done it repeatedly – others can, too! Having a work-in-progress that has presented some stumbling blocks would be nice, but it isn’t necessary to get the most out of this workshop. Quite possibly, with so many possible routes to take, deciding on which to try first will be the only problem. The course is four weeks long with lectures posted on Monday and Wednesday, and feedback on questions done prior to the next Monday’s posting. Also in April 2010 CHANGING GENRES: How to Decide What to Keep and What to Dump, What to Change, What to Enhance When Following Trends, Jumping into Different "Lines" or Going Down A New Road Host: Colorado Romance Writers coloromancewritersonlineclasses@yahoo.com The publishing world is in constant transition with different aspects in novels changing, sometimes over a decade, sometimes – it seems – nearly overnight. Will you be ready? Or are you already thinking of jumping from your current “ship”, swinging with the finesse of Captain Jack Sparrow onto the publishing vessel riding the waves to starboard or port? There are a number of reasons why writers decide to try something different. Some do it because the bottom has fallen out of what they were writing, some because they are excited about a rising trend. Whatever your reason for considering making the leap there are decisions to be made. And that is what this workshop is all about. Just because editors are no longer buying what you have been writing doesn’t mean you need to junk your style entirely. There are elements that travel well between genres, even if the genres stay within the romance marketplace or leap into an entirely different marketplace. Determining what can or should be kept and what needs to be altered, enhanced, dumped, or learned goes beyond simply decided to take the leap. This workshop runs four weeks and sets challenges twice a week. These challenges (or homework, if you will) address things like the marketplace, evaluating the elements required, making note of how many of them are already part of the writer’s style, deciding what needs to be learned/adapted/changed, and even confessing – or realizing – the reason a writer is considering leaping into a new field. In other words, “what’s it going to take and can I follow though?” I started out as a romantic-suspense writer, segued into being a romantic comedy author (of both adult and young adult books), fell into writing corrupted fairytale short stories, and have been world building to launch into the fantasy market, so I’ve been jumping genres throughout my twenty year career as a novelist. Sometimes what these changes were made unconsciously and not as thoroughly as time and more thought about the process now demands. But they’ve kept me in contracts, not to mention extremely versatile. All that is required of attendees is a vague idea of where they’d like to go, where they’d like to be as their writing career evolves. Both unpublished and published authors welcomed. May 2010 CURING THE "WHAT COMES AFTER THE FIRST THREE CHAPTER" BLUES: Dealing with the Middle of Your Story Host: Dunes and Dreams RWA Chapter www.DunesAndDreams.org The idea for your story has been brewing for quite awhile now. You knew how it opened, and we all know how they close – everyone lives happily ever after (except any villain that needs to be caught), girl gets boy, and wedding bells will or do or might ring. But now you’ve got those first three chapters…or first 50 pages…done and you’ve slammed into a very large, very firm, very unyielding brick wall. The dreaded writer’s block virus is far more deadly than any new strain of flu because there is no vaccine to prevent it. All you can do is work through it. How the heck do you do that when your mind has frozen or your story seems to be circling and circling without moving ahead? That’s what Curing the “What Comes After the First Three Chapters” Blues is all about. It’s dealing with the Middle of Your Story. FINDING a middle to your story. And not just one that suffices, but one that will have readers (which are what editors are, too) wanting to keep turning the pages. It’s going beyond the vague to the specific, moving from one scene to the next, making each one count whether the object is to build suspense or simply build a better love story. There is only one requirement: students must have at least three chapters (or 45 to 50 pages) of a story written or have a detailed, written plan/plot of how the story opens on through approximately the first 50 pages. We’ll be working on what comes after this part. Sharing will be urged, but won’t be required. The class will run four weeks. During that time lectures/suggestions will be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays. Comments from the instructor will be made on anything a student submits (be it for the entire class to view or just the instructor) before the next Monday’s posting. Also coming in May STEAMED UP: The Anatomy of Writing Steampunk Hosted by SavvyAuthors.com Toss another shovel full of coal on the fire, it’s time to get steamed up with steam punk, one of the newest “societies” around. What qualifies it as a society? Let’s see, there are graphic novels, jewelry, apparel, home accessories, music, movies, video games, roll playing games, and, oh, yeah, novels all circling around the essence of steampunk. And if you loved the Robert Downey Jr. SHERLOCK HOLMES movie, enjoy Victorian settings or alternative history in your reading material, and a touch of the paranormal or magic, steampunk may be just up your alley…or mews. It could certainly intrigue your writing muse! Now, while you may decide to reconfigure your computer to look like it was produced by a 19th century craftsman or want to don Victorian styled clothing when you sit down before it (in a comfy winged and tufted armchair, of course), if you are intrigued by steampunk’s growing popularity and are thinking of swinging aboard this particular locomotive, there are a few…well, quite a few, really…elements to take into consideration. And that’s what this workshop aims to do. We’ll look at the basic requirements for any steampunk tale. We’ll consider what’s been published, what’ s been filmed, where to search out the historical data necessary, how to warp it into what we need it to be, and…well, get ourselves really steamed up over writing what looks to be a very promising land for new manuscripts. There will be lists and lists and lists of books to read, be they the current crop of steampunk titles or the classics upon which the concept is founded – does the name Jules Verne ring a bell? Considering how “new” the genre appears to be, it’s been around in graphic novels, movies, and television series since before the 1980s. And in fantasy novels even longer. Steampunk is basically alternative history, taking inventions out of their time period and plunking them down in another, in time travel, the paranormal world, and in magic. And because the setting is frequently (but not always) Victorian England, things can get shrouded in fog. But that’s what this workshop aims to do: clear the fog over the anatomy of a steampunk novel, and create a visual guideline on how to write steampunk fiction. The workshop will run four weeks with two lectures per week. Assignments will revolve around feedback from participants as they read steampunk, watch steampunk, submerge themselves in steampunk. And there will be lists of research materials, novels, available videos, websites, magazines, all dealing with steampunk to aid writers as they dive into the genre. Writing level for the workshop is varied, only enthusiasm for new market opportunities is required. June 2010 PUZZLING OUT THE "Necessary" BITS Host: Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal RWA Chapter www.romance-ffp.com Have you gotten rejection after rejection on manuscripts that your beta readers love but editors quibble over. You know the kind of rejection: “Love your writing style but the story just isn’t right for us.” As nice as the compliment was, what you really want is a contract, right? So what the heck was missing or wrong to make the story not “right” for the publisher? This is the workshop where we dig into what’s being published to find the elements that slipped from our grasp before and make note them for inclusion in current or future projects. The one thing students will be required to have are one or two books in the same genre that they really love. Books written by other authors, that is. These can be two by the same author or they can be by different authors. Why do we need them? Because they are going to serve as the treasure map, the mine to be plundered. From the elements gathered from these stories a personal format for use in our own books will be built. Some of the things we’ll look at are: characters, settings, professions, technology, detail, backstory, tension level, comedy level, rise and fall of action, heat level of love scenes, dialogue/language, and anything else that appears pertinent based on what style and what genre each student is working within. The class would run four weeks with lectures and/or assignments posted on Mondays and Wednesdays. Comments from the instructor on posted questions or completed assignments would be answered prior to the next Monday’s lecture. This class is for unpublished and newly published writers and for those interested in switching genres or the style of story within a genre. Also in June 2010 HISTORICAL ANGLES: Writing Historical Fiction Host: Outreach International Romance Writers www.OIRW.com History, they say, is written by the winners. So how do YOU become a winner when it comes to writing historical fiction? In many ways, actually. There are subdivisions in the field that run the gambit from true-to-life depictions to twisted, altered versions of events and outcomes. This workshop looks at every angle from which a historical novel can be written and branches into the research necessary, the creation of believable characters, settings, details, and looks at some of the practitioners – the successful ones – in this very diversified genre. We’ll look at some movies and TV series, too, for visuals (though these will not be viewed within the workshop). Some of the diversifications include: a historical personage as the main character; fictional characters working with historical personages; and fictional characters within a real historical event or merely within a historical period/society. There are also the distinctions between brutal depictions of war (as in Bernard Cornwall’s Agincourt), a view from the other side (as in C.C. Humphreys’ Jack Absolute series), the many faces of historical romance, the historical setting in mystery, and alternative history in fantasy and science fiction. While this workshop deals with romance it is far from limited to just the romance end of the scale. The scope is the entire historical marketplace. A list of publishers of historical novels will be included in the workshop materials. Among things covered are: medieval and renaissance settings, the royals of Europe, European wars, the Colonies (U.S. and Australia), the American West and the Western, Victoriana, Holmes and his brothers-in-deduction, and the 20th century historical. The instructor is the author of six historical romances, holds a BA in History, and is a volunteer at one of her local historical sites. She reads voraciously in the historical fiction field, citing George MacDonald Fraser, Bernard Cornwall, C.S. Harris, Georgette Heyer, Kathleen Woodiwiss, and Laura Kinsale among the authors she not only reads but rereads. This is set up as a four-week long workshop with reading and searching assignments given once a week. The only prerequisite is an interest in writing historical fiction. The workshop is open to writers at all levels of their career, although beginners and intermediate level writers would be the main focus. July 2010 BREAKING THINGS DOWN INTO THREES: Plot Organization for Pantsers as well as Plotters Host: Low Country Romance Writers http://LowCountryRWA.com/online-workshops/ Plots require organization – even those written by Pantsers. Why? Because all storytelling requires a flow, a smooth transition from one scene to the next. Getting it doesn’t require an outline though. All it requires is a system. A system of breaking everything down into thirds. Three is a magic number. It’s used in art, music, interior design, and in literature. After all, doesn’t every story have a Beginning, a Middle, and an End? Three things. But we need to go further. Need to section the various elements of our storylines into smaller and smaller divisions of three. Many have already have done this in writing essays at school, or in a public speaking class. Opening either a essay or a speech by telling the audience what is going to be discussing or telling them about, then breaking the body of the essay/speech into sections, and finally recapping everything at the end. Look at it this way. What was said is: 1) here’s what has occurred before and what we need to change, 2) here is how we can change it or why we should change it, and 3) the problem is this because of this and that and we need to do this to correct it. Storylines in fiction do exactly the same thing, they simply use characterization, action and reaction to move along. Scenes can be broken down into threes; chapters can; POVs can. And in thinking by threes to create each tale, each element of a tale, story flow results. Participants should have a work in progress, but it can be in any state of development – thinking about, early chapters, middle, or heading toward the conclusion. Thinking by threes works at any level, including editing. It can also help identify things that aren’t really needed in the book, the sort of things editors delete. Lectures will be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays with responses from the instructor posted for questions or assignments before the next Monday’s lecture. This class is for writers at any point in their writing career from unpublished to midlist. AUGUST 30th through SEPTEMBER 26, 2010 THE "NEXT" BOOK Host: The Black Diamond Romance Writers www.bdrwa.com It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a series with continuing characters or stand alone titles, the one thing that a professional writer must always keep in mind is: What’s the NEXT book going to be about? Why? Well, it’s certainly going to be one of the things an editor will ask. In fact, the first thing my first editor asked me once I’d cried “YES!!!” upon being offered a contract was, “do you have anything else finished or in progress?” Fortunately, I could follow that “yes” up with a “yep” and get something else in the mail to her. The Next Book workshop is geared to thinking ahead. If you’re writing stand alone titles, then one of the things to consider is how you can write a similar book without repeating yourself. Readers like consistency and if you want them lining up to purchase the next title, you can’t disappoint them. So, what elements do you need to keep and which ones can be jettisoned, even temporarily. They could resurface in the next-next book after all. Writing a group of linked books, that is, a series of three to four (or more) books that revolve around different members of the same family or town or friends? You’ll need more than just a mention of or a cameo appearance by the characters who have yet to appear as the main characters, or who “starred” in a previous book. So what are those similarities and how do you keep them yet make them different? And what about those long running series? Did you have a preplan that would cover five, ten, twenty, titles with the same characters holding down the hero and/or heroine positions? How can you make each of those titles a reflection of what has come before and yet not bore your reader into turning elsewhere for their next purchase? The Next Book is an important element in the planning and execution of your current work in progress. It should be percolating in the back of your mind. And this class offers guidelines on what to clone, what to change, and finding the correct direction a writer should go as they work ever closer to turning The Next Book into the Current Project. This course is a 4-week workshop. Students should be currently working on a manuscript so that they have a launching pad to begin sorting out what elements are needed in the Next Book. Lectures will be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays. Students will be asked to share synopses with everyone through posts, then discuss what elements they plan to continue as well as ask the classroom at large what elements they recommend be kept. Comments from the instructor will be posted prior to the next Monday’s lecture. This class is for the unpublished, for the newly published, or midlist authors. Also in September HISTORICAL ANGLES: Writing Historical Fiction Host: Savvy Authors SavvyAuthors.com History, they say, is written by the winners. So how do YOU become a winner when it comes to writing historical fiction? In many ways, actually. There are subdivisions in the field that run the gambit from true-to-life depictions to twisted, altered versions of events and outcomes. This workshop looks at every angle from which a historical novel can be written and branches into the research necessary, the creation of believable characters, settings, details, and looks at some of the practitioners – the successful ones – in this very diversified genre. We’ll look at some movies and TV series, too, for visuals (though these will not be viewed within the workshop). Some of the diversifications include: a historical personage as the main character; fictional characters working with historical personages; and fictional characters within a real historical event or merely within a historical period/society. There are also the distinctions between brutal depictions of war (as in Bernard Cornwall’s Agincourt), a view from the other side (as in C.C. Humphreys’ Jack Absolute series), the many faces of historical romance, the historical setting in mystery, and alternative history in fantasy and science fiction. While this workshop deals with romance it is far from limited to just the romance end of the scale. The scope is the entire historical marketplace. A list of publishers of historical novels will be included in the workshop materials. Among things covered are: medieval and renaissance settings, the royals of Europe, European wars, the Colonies (U.S. and Australia), the American West and the Western, Victoriana, Holmes and his brothers-in-deduction, and the 20th century historical. The instructor is the author of six historical romances, holds a BA in History, and is a volunteer at one of her local historical sites. She reads voraciously in the historical fiction field, citing George MacDonald Fraser, Bernard Cornwall, C.S. Harris, Georgette Heyer, Kathleen Woodiwiss, and Laura Kinsale among the authors she not only reads but rereads. This is set up as a four-week long workshop with reading and searching assignments given once a week. The only prerequisite is an interest in writing historical fiction. The workshop is open to writers at all levels of their career, although beginners and intermediate level writers would be the main focus. October 2010 SELF-PUBLISHING FOR THE FRUSTRATED: Using Lulu.com's Print On Demand and Amazon's Kindle E-Books Host: Low Country Romance Writers http://LowCountryRWA.com/online-workshops/ With the belt drawn tight at numerous publishing houses, many writers are turning to the relatively inexpensive and fast Print On Demand (POD) publishers and to the e-book marketplace. Debate is fierce over whether becoming your own publisher is a smart option or a disastrous decision. Self-Publishing for the Frustrated is for published authors with backlists and unpublished authors interested in testing the waters with storylines that don’t meet the major publishing houses’ needs. Beth Daniels turned to POD when the rights to her backlist titles began reverting to her. But she also chose to self-publish a story she loved and had rewritten over and over for ten years based on editor suggestions and still hadn’t landed a contract. Another title appeared only as an e-book which made it impossible to take along to book signings…until she self-published it in print form. And when Amazon’s Kindle reader went into a second generation, she took the leap to be available in more than a single venue. This class if for anyone who is interested in, is toying with the idea of, or is gung-ho to take the leap into what might well define publishing in the 21st century: self-published and electronic books. Things to be discussed are editing, interior layout, cover design, distribution choices, pricing, and promotion for self-published and/or electronic books. The class has two available schedules: two weeks or four weeks. In either case, half the time is spent on self-publishing in print and the other on e-book preparation, for Kindle in particular. While Lulu.com is the instructor’s POD choice, other POD publishers will be discussed as well. Students can have a manuscript ready to load, or be interested in learning what they need to do to self- publish through a POD or Kindle, or simply be considering one or both of these options for their work. Also in October 2010 AND WITH A COMPOSITIONAL FLOURISH: Using Rhetorical Devises to Improve Your Prose Host: Passionate Ink RWA Chapter www.passionateink.org To paraphrase Cole Porter, advanced speech geeks do it, presidents and lawyer type creeps do it, Aristole and the Greeks do’d it, let’s do it, let’s…well, Cole says “let’s fall in love” but we’ll change that to “let’s write with flare.” In other words, let’s use the same compositional and speech tactics that have been getting results for over a thousand years. The things I term compositional flourishes. Some of them we’re all probably familiar with…onomatopoeia, alliteration, repetition, metaphor, simile, and of course the romance writer’s constant companion, euphemism. But how can we direct these specifically toward writing scenes fraught with sexual tension, love scenes, and erotica? That’s what this workshop is all about. Not only will workshop attendees rub shoulders with terms the Greeks flung about with careless abandon, they’ll see how each of the various tactics can work for them and improve their writing skills by reworking things, making lists of great word parings, and various other assignments. Using them also make for more fascinating reading material, although readers may not recognize the subtle touch of our pens. This is a four week course. Lessons will be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays and any feedback from the instructor on questions, etc., will be up given before the next Monday lesson is posted, if not sooner. On Fridays I will restrict things to comments and ask for feedback. There are around 45 different rhetorical devices, but the workshop will focus on the 16 that would work best for fiction writers, particularly romance writers. And yet another one in October 2010 IS THERE A SET DESIGNER IN THE HOUSE? Using Description to Enhance Your Fiction Host: Savvy Authors www.SavvyAuthors.com In the movie world there are folks whose whole job revolves around finding locations in which to film. They look for elements that will add to the script, and so do the wardrobe people, the professionals who choose the actors, the composer who writes the theme song and/or scores the soundtrack, the stunt coordinator who teaches the star to fake the slug in the jaw…. Well, it goes on and on. But when we write a book it’s all up to us. And we’ve got only one thing to use to bring it all together – words. This is a four week workshop for writers still working on their first manuscript and for those who want to improve their work through the use of description. Assignments will have participants making lists of words they have used, and ones they could use to improve the clarity of what they see in their heads when it needs to land on the written page. The emphasis will be on character tells, action sequences, verbal nuances, visuals with background, wardrobe and character description, plus sound, touch, scent, and taste. Lectures will be posted twice a week (preferably on Monday and Wednesday) with assignments posted for comment from instructor and other students Friday through Sunday. November 2010 STORY SENSE / STORY LOGIC Host: Yellow Rose RWA Chapter www.YellowRoseRWA.com It doesn’t seem to matter whether the story I’m reading is someone’s manuscript or a published book, the element that is very irksome to find missing is a sense of Story Logic, or Story Sense. I define Story Sense as the actions of the characters remaining true to how they are being portrayed. Story Logic is much the same thing, but has more to do with the way the plot plays out. For instance, if a hero is going to take on a terrorist or a mugger, he needs to have a background that included any martial arts he now unveils to save the day…and the writer should have alluded to his expertise early on, not waited to spring it on readers. Or perhaps the author is spinning a tale where characters are either older or younger than she is. In that case the twenty-something heroine can’t prefer listening to Cole Porter or Gershwin tunes or talk about Cary Grant movies, not even if she was brought up by her grandmother who enjoyed these things. She has to be a contemporary woman. Likewise, if a character is a decade or more older than the writer, it isn’t likely that they will head to a modern dance club, or suddenly go goth. Story sense and story logic go hand in hand, but they can easily be lost or overlooked. And they are far more subtle than the above obvious examples. The trick is to catch, recognize, and repair things before they leave home to nest on an editor’s desk. Because it is far easier to spot things in other people’s work, students will be urged to post their synopsis, or post a free-write in which they spin the elements, or steps, that they plan to take along the way. Lectures would be posted on Monday and Wednesdays with comments on pieces posted by students returned by the instructor before the next Monday posting. Each posting will be limited to 10 pages per week, though, as turnaround time would not allow for more than that. Ideally the class would run four weeks. The only requirements for students would be a willingness to share their storylines with the rest of the class, although lurkers would be welcome as well. ALSO IN NOVEMBER BREAKING THINGS INTO THREES: Plot Organization for Pantsers as well as Plotters Host: Savvy Authors www.savvyauthors.com Plots require organization – even those written by Pantsers. Why? Because all storytelling requires a flow, a smooth transition from one scene to the next. Getting it doesn’t require an outline though. All it requires is a system. A system of breaking everything down into thirds. Three is a magic number. It’s used in art, music, interior design, and in literature. After all, doesn’t every story have a Beginning, a Middle, and an End? Three things. But we need to go further. Need to section the various elements of our storylines into smaller and smaller divisions of three. Many have already have done this in writing essays at school, or in a public speaking class. Opening either a essay or a speech by telling the audience what is going to be discussing or telling them about, then breaking the body of the essay/speech into sections, and finally recapping everything at the end. Look at it this way. What was said is: 1) here’s what has occurred before and what we need to change, 2) here is how we can change it or why we should change it, and 3) the problem is this because of this and that and we need to do this to correct it. Storylines in fiction do exactly the same thing, they simply use characterization, action and reaction to move along. Scenes can be broken down into threes; chapters can; POVs can. And in thinking by threes to create each tale, each element of a tale, story flow results. Participants should have a work in progress, but it can be in any state of development – thinking about, early chapters, middle, or heading toward the conclusion. Thinking by threes works at any level, including editing. It can also help identify things that aren’t really needed in the book, the sort of things editors delete. Lectures would be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays with responses from the instructor posted for questions or assignments before the next Monday’s lecture. This class is for writers at any point in their writing career from unpublished to midlist. |
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NEW UPDATES! MORE WORKSHOPS!