Workshops

Information is still being gathered for this page and is subject to change.

Please stop by often for updates.

Join us to learn and network with fellow writers and industry professionals.

Workshops are subject to change.

Agent Panel

Jessica Berg, T.S. Ferguson, Cathie Hedrick-Armstrong, Bowen Gillings, Elisa Saphier

Share an hour with our attending agents and learn about them and their agencies.

Editor Panel

Nicole Luongo, Anna Michels, Kelly Stone, Drue Vanduker

Share an hour with our attending editors and learn about them and their publishing companies.

Dawn Alexander

From Cardboard Cutouts to Compelling Characters: Using Authentic Action to Bring Life to Your Story – Craft of Writing – All Levels

What can movement reveal to the reader about a character’s personality, emotional turmoil, or deep feelings? How do body language and action beats round out a character? How do you transform your characters from action figures and puppets to engaging, believable beings? In this workshop, we’ll actually walk through scenes to show how actions and reactions can enrich your characterization. You’ll learn to ensure every movement—from the way a character holds a coffee cup to how they throw a punch—is intentional and authentic.

Turn That Spark Into a Blaze: 7 Steps to Craft Compelling Conflict – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Conflict ignites every scene in your novel. But how do you stoke those fires to keep your readers engaged and your plot moving? In this workshop, you’ll learn that conflict isn’t about confrontation; it’s about character choices. This 7-step method will guide you in turning up the heat on your characters with intense stakes and escalating tension. Get ready to light up your manuscript with the tools to craft a story so powerful, it will burn in the minds of your readers long after they turn the final page.

Beyond the Bedroom: Using Physical and Emotional Intimacy to Create Authentic Character Relationships – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Creating authentic character relationships is essential in every genre—whether you’re crafting a swoon-worthy romance, developing a fierce rivalry, or building a deep friendship. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to layer both physical and emotional intimacy from first glance to Happily Ever After. You’ll leave with a clear guide for developing believable relationships that resonate with readers and intensify the emotional engagement of your story.

Debbie Maxwell Allen

Rock Your Reader Magnet – Business of Writing – All Levels

Build your fan base the easy way

Scrivener 101 – Writing Tools – All Levels

Get up and running with Scrivener–today (for those just starting out, or who feel they aren’t using Scrivener’s full features)

Scrivener 102 – Writing Tools – All Levels

Advanced techniques for the motivated writer (customization for those already using Scrivener)

Story Bible Magic – Writing Tools – All Levels

Using Google Notebook LM: easily create an up-to-date story bible with one of Google’s newest (and little-known) offerings

Carol Berg

The Ins and Outs of Writing Series – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Whether mysteries, romance, fantasy, science fiction, or historicals, readers love a great series. What does a writer need to keep in mind when deciding whether a WIP is a standalone, or a classic trilogy, or one episode of a never-ending adventure? We’ll look at what distinguishes each type of series, and how we can make sure our readers will have a satisfying experience with each book, while eagerly anticipating the next installment. We will look at the importance of endings and beginnings, points of view, and character issues, information tracking, and how to keep plots going from book to book without frustrating readers. With plentiful examples and some interactive exercises and brainstorming, we will explore the ins and outs of developing a vibrant series.

Writing Worlds That Work – Genre-Specific – All Levels

How can we make our fictional world–especially those we invent–real and immediate? Let’s discuss the building blocks of believable societies, how to avoid common world-creation mistakes, and how to get our readers to see and experience that world without boring them with long passages of description.

Words, Words, Words – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Words are the building blocks of prose. Vivid, precise nouns and verbs imbue prose with energy and originality, help create a believable fictional setting, and bring flat characters to life. But how do you choose the right words? We will address how to find and select nuanced words, as well as how to avoid those that sap prose of energy and drive readers crazy. We’ll address the sensitive topics of adverbs, anachronisms, and weasel words, and explore the role of word choice in persona voice and fictional world building.

Jessica Berg – Agent

Why the First 10 Pages Make or Break Your Novel (with Live Editing) – Craft of Writing – All Levels

What agents look for in the first 10 pages (and what makes them stop)

The 5 elements your opening must establish immediately
Common pitfalls that sink submissions in the first chapter
How to hook readers without gimmicks
Live editing session: real-time critique of opening pages
Takeaway checklist to self-evaluate your own first 10 pages

Casey Cowan – Editor

This Ain’t Your Granddaddy’s Western (with Reavis Wortham?)– Genre-Specific – All Levels

A look at how Westerns are evolving through crossovers with crime, horror, fantasy, and sci-fi. We’ll explore the future of the genre, with examples from writers like Craig Johnson, CJ Box, and Marc Cameron, and modern media like The Mandalorian and Bone Tomahawk.

Book Cover Design…You’re Not the Audience – Business of Writing – All Levels

A workshop on effective book cover design: what works, what doesn’t, and how covers communicate professionalism and genre promise to readers.

Ana del Valle

AI is Here—Now What? – Writing Tools – All Levels

All content is in alignment with the Author’s Guild Guidance on AI & the US Copyright Law for AI-Assist The AI Revolution: Cutting Through the Myths This workshop tackles the biggest misconceptions keeping writers stuck or scared when it comes to AI. We’ll explore why so many are freaking out, what the law actually says, and how to move forward with confidence. Topics include: The truth about AI and creativity: what’s hype, what’s real Copyright law and publishing guidelines you need to know What ChatGPT is (and what it’s not) How to use ChatGPT for true AI-Assist, not AI-generated shortcuts Live demo of Olivia AI: Outlining Expert & Story Strategist. Whether you’re curious, cautious, or ready to dive in, this session will give you the clarity and creative confidence to step into the future of writing, ethically and powerfully.

Story Spark + AI Education: A Hands-On Story Building Workshop – Writing Tools – All Levels

All content provided is in alignment with the US Copyright Law & the Author’s Guild Guidance for AI Assist

Story Spark combines AI education, copyright essentials, and hands-on practice with Simone AI. Pressure-test your novel idea for market positioning, build a logline, synopsis, and opening scene, and walk away with a writing roadmap that fits your life. (ChatGPT Plus required).

Creative Writing Before & After AI – Writing Tools – All Levels

*All content provided is in alignment with the Author’s Guild guidance on the use of AI, and the US copyright Law

How AI Is Changing the Way We Write — for the Better The creative process has evolved. In this eye-opening session, we’ll explore how AI is transforming the way writers approach the page — and how you can use it to think deeper, move faster, and write smarter. You’ll learn: The before and after of creative writing in the age of AI How modern tools can elevate story development, not replace it Why AI is a creative multiplier — not a threat Live demo of Olivia AI, a story strategist and outlining expert designed to help writers structure richer, more compelling novels in record time This session will reframe how you think about your writing process and show you how to partner with AI to unlock your full storytelling potential.

Aaron Fors

Lost in Translation: Writing distinct cultures, languages, accents, and soundscapes in your worldbuilding (Or: I Guess the Elves are British) -Craft of Writing – All Levels

A constructive, positive critique group may be the most overlooked (and free!) way to make your manuscript stand out in this ultra-competitive market. Learn the types of critique groups, guidelines for review sessions, tips for being an effective reviewer, and why critiquing others’ writing is one of the best ways to improve your own skills.

Lending a Voice to Your Voice: Mastering the Author-Narrator Relationship (with Chris Mandeville)– Business of Writing – All Levels

A writer and her narrator (and best pals) Chris Mandeville(writer) and Aaron Fors(Narrator) talk about the ins and outs of producing an audiobook. How to find potential narrators, how to audition and select a narrator, the research, preparation, artistic calibration, and retake/pickup process, the release, the works. How to build and maintain a relationship and workflow that produces the best product and what to expect. Having just finished work on a 143,000 word audiobook together, we’ll use our process as a template to talk in-depth, as well as drawing from our diverse experiences.

Becoming Your Characters: Narrating Your Own Audiobook—the Crash Course! – Business of Writing – All Levels

Humans hear emotions first, then pitch and rhythm, and only then words. I want to give writers the most fundamental and powerful performance tools their creative cousins, actors, use to bring words to life. This will cover performance and speech skills that will render their text clear and easily understood. Emotional, expressive and analytical tools that bring their characters to life, vocal tools that will render their characters distinct from each other and grounded in the character’s truth, and recording and editing technical how-to that will make the final product polished and professional quality on any budget. If you only had a few hours to take someone from 0 to a world class actor, how would you do it? That’s what we’re going to find out. Realistically, acting is like playing the violin, with a very high skill-cap, but progress can be fast with the right tools, the most precious thing that will come from this is the continuing education tools, resources, drills, and understandings that will have would-be author/narrators growing for years to come.

Bowen Gillings

Newcomer’s Briefing – Business of Writing – All Levels

Be the Author YOU Want to Be – Writing life – All Levels

What does it mean to be an author? Learn to navigate the pressures of peers, marketplace, and the publishing industry to become not just the author you dream about, but more importantly, the author you can live with. We examine author lifestyle/work-life balance and explore expectations versus personal goals. Most workshops and writing books tell authors how to reach an industry defined version of success. This workshop guides writers to wrestle with their writing process, and to identify who they are as a writer without judgement. We look at publishing’s expectations of writers. The intent here is for writers to understand that success is a target THEY create.

Pippa Grant

Inventing a New Author You – Business of Writing – All Levels

Things aren’t rolling along quite the way you’d like in your career? In this workshop, I’ll offer practical tips on identifying your goals, evaluating how your current brand meets those goals, and steps to take for launching a new brand. We’ll discuss everything from re-branding within the same pen name to modernizing your catalog’s packaging to launching an entirely separate pen name.

They Want to Hear From You! – Business of Writing – All Levels

Pippa Grant launched her pen name with a newsletter plan, and that plan was crucial to the rise of her brand from complete unknown to Amazon Top 10 bestselling author within 16 months. This workshop is a guide on to how to attract readers to your newsletter, why you should send newsletters regularly, and how to identify newsletter content that you’ll want to write.

Cathie Hedrick-Armstrong – Agent

Pitch Perfect – Business of Writing – All Levels

Crafting the perfect live pitch to make the most of your one-on-one time with an agent/editor

Kevin Ikenberry

Decision Making for Authors – Business of Writing – All Levels

Writers who treat their work as a business must make clear-eyed, professional decisions. This class helps you use data instead of emotions to guide your next steps in all aspects of writing life.

Protagonists: The Center of Your Story – Craft of Writing – Beginner

A protagonist drives the story and is the center of everything. This session teaches how to build a protagonist from backstory through emotional journey, assembling a cast that supports their arc while making them sympathetic, believable, and charismatic.

Emotional Resonance: Or How I Made My Dad Not Talk To Me For a Week – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Readers connect through emotion. This class explores how to use tropes, the mirror effect, self-realization, and comparison to foster emotional depth and connection. Examples will focus on popular literary and cinematic characters and why these “tricks of the trade” work so well, and how writers can use them to great effect.

Story Structure: A Master-Level Class in One of Writing’s Most Daunting Subjects (2 hours) – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Whether a writer is a plotter or a “pantser”, the task becomes easier with a clear grasp of story structure. This course compares ancient and modern structural techniques, showing their similarities and differences in order to simplify the writing process and find the necessary beats all powerful and resonant stories contain. The course breaks down the most common frameworks and provides insight to story flow, character growth, and the emotional connection to readers.

Jenny Kate

BookTok and Instagram for Writers (2 hours) – Business of Writing – All Levels

Marketing 101 for Writers – Business of Writing – All Levels

Marketing (After Dark) – Business of Writing – All Levels

Sam Knight

♪ ♫ Do you want to kill a snowman? ♪ ♫ – Craft of Writing – All Levels

We don’t buy the book because the protagonist is a twenty-something drop-out who no one believes in. We buy it because we want to see the monster! What makes a great monster? Its strengths and weaknesses–in other words, how to kill it!

Short Stories: Good for the Novelist, Good for the Career, Good for the Soul – Craft of Writing – Beginner

Short stories are an oft overlooked gateway to many advantageous things in a writer’s career. I will offer up some really good reasons to consider publishing a few: making new connections, learning new genres, experimenting with (and improving) writing styles, and more.

Mary Robinette Kowal

MICE Quotient – Craft of Writing – All Levels

In this workshop, we learn about the simple organizational structure of the MICE Quotient. Pretty much every story, fictional or nonfictional, can be explained through this fairly simple organizational structure. Together we learn how to make this structure work for you when writing.

Middles and Try-Fail Cycles – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Middles are often seen as the sagging portion of any story line, when in reality most of any piece of writing is spent in the middle. In this workshop, we learn how to set up and depict interesting try-fail cycles for your characters.

Mira Landry

Kelley Lindberg

Critique Like a Boss: Get the Most from Your Critique Group – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Editing Beyond “Gut Feel”: A Checklist for Success – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Revising your work (or critiquing others’) can be overwhelming. Without specific elements to look for, it’s easy to fall back on our “gut feel,” which is hard to articulate and even harder to trust. Learn to evaluate 17 storytelling aspects to edit and strengthen any manuscript, including your own!

Off to a Great Start—Powerful Openings – Craft of Writing – Intermediate

Your opening sentences lay the groundwork for the entire work. That’s why the beginning often needs the most revision after your first draft is finished. Whether you’re just starting out or deep in revision mode, learn how to grab your reader, plant your story’s roots, and make promises you can keep. [IF 2-HOUR VERSION IS SELECTED, PLEASE ADD:] In the second hour, we’ll select a few audience members’ first pages, then use what we’ve learned to critique and strengthen them as a group. So bring your own first page, and we just might look at yours!

Tell Me a Secret: How to Interview Anyone About Anything to Strengthen Your Fiction – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Google’s fine for the basic facts, but you’re not writing a basic story. First-person interviews help you uncover the realistic details, unexpected twists, unique perspectives, and heart that can elevate your story. Learn how to painlessly interview anyone about anything, from private investigators, to scientists, to rock stars.

Stant Litore

0 to 60: Write Pacing Your Readers Won’t Forget – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Keep your readers on the edge of their seats. You’ve got great characters and a good idea for your plot, but your story builds tension too slowly; even you get bored in the middle, and you’re the one writing it. How do you avoid the slow start, the overly predictable middle, the boggy subplots, and the unsatisfying ending? Pacing is not just about action. It’s about the way you dance with the reader – where you drop clues, where you misdirect, where you cut between scenes, when you throw in unexpected complications, and how you raise the stakes. It’s about knowing when to delay and when to deliver. So how do you rev up the speed at just the right moments, give just the right amount of pause for breath, and play with readers’ expectations in ways that build suspense and give your readers surprises they’ll be discussing for days? Jump into Stant Litore’s exhilarating crash course on pacing in fiction.

Beat Writer’s Block and Reignite Your Creativity – (2 hours) – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Unblock your writing and recapture the playfulness of fiction. Maybe you just can’t start. Maybe you complete a first draft only to discover that it feels like a betrayal of your vision, a pale imitation of the story you had in mind. Maybe your drive toward perfection keeps you continuously editing the same scene; you just can’t get it right. Maybe you don’t know where your story is going anymore, or maybe you’re waiting for time to get magically freed up so that you can devote long afternoons or long days to creating your story. In this class, Stant Litore shares approaches that will help you unblock your writing and rekindle your creativity. What we forget easily is that storytelling is play! Besides tackling the various causes of writer’s block, discover exciting ways to find new characters, plots and subplots, and ways to reignite your love of language, your love of story, your sense of wonder, and your courage as a writer.

Write Lore Your Readers Won’t Forget (2 hours)– Craft of Writing – All Levels

Our mythologies shape and define us. Explore techniques for designing the stories behind the story you’re telling – the stories that your characters either carry in their hearts or resist with all their capacity. Lore is the engine that your characters (and readers) use to interpret the story they’re in and the life they’re living. Come join Stant Litore in exploring how to share the lore of your fictional world with the reader in entertaining and surprising ways.

Nicole Luongo – Editor

The Art of the Elevator Pitch – Business of Writing – All Levels

An editor-led workshop and deep dive into how editors pitch their books in-house — from editorial board meetings to formal sales presentations — featuring a group activity at the end of the session, “Pitch Wars,” in which attendees will split into teams and role play as editors pitching a book at a seasonal Sales Launch.

David Lyons

The Human Side of Crime: Survivors, Detectives, and Emotional Intelligence – Craft of Writing – All Levels

The impact of homicide cases on survivors and the concept of “no closure”.
Using emotional intelligence to write believable investigators, villains, and survivors.
Q&A: How do you create characters who feel real while drawing from real human suffering?

Fact vs. Fiction: Writing Authentic Investigations – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Understanding the basics of criminal investigations and avoiding the “TV version” of crime. • Using real case files, FOIA requests, and verified sources for accuracy. Q&A: How can writers responsibly use real case material without risking harm to survivors or investigations?

Ethics and Responsibility in Crime Writing – Reality Track/How-To – All Levels

The dangers of misinformation, leaked evidence, and irresponsible speculation.
How to portray suspects, victims, and survivors with respect while still telling a gripping story.
Q&A: Where’s the line between dramatization and exploitation?

Chris Mandeville

Best Practices: Author Bios & Photos – Business of Writing – All Levels

Your author bio can be a valuable tool for connecting with readers. Or it can bore them to death. Too much info, or the wrong info, and you may lose a potential reader of your work. But a good bio can spark the beginning of a great author-reader bond. This workshop provides an easy-to-use M-PACT system of “best practices” for creating an author bio. M-PACT prompts us to consider the desired Message of a bio, be Professional, be Appropriate for the audience/venue, practice Consistency, and edit until your bio is To the point for achieving your goals. In addition, this class covers how to curate a great author photo, using the M-PACT system as a guide. In conjunction with the guidelines and system, this presentation employs examples and advice from current bestselling authors. Attendees leave with proven “best practices” for crafting professional bios and winning headshots.

SEND IT!?! What do Do—and What Not do Do—When an Editor or Agents Wants Your Manuscript – Business of Writing – Intermediate

You’ve pitched your project to an editor or agent, and you’ve received the magic words: send me your manuscript! After you’ve done your happy dance, you might be inclined to panic: wait a minute, what exactly am I supposed to send? What if I need more time? What if it’s no good? What if I make a bunch of rookie mistakes and I BLOW THIS CHANCE??? Fear not, intrepid writer. This workshop provides a comprehensive guide to getting your workshop from “send it” to pro-level submission. With advice from industry experts, real-world examples, and a detailed checklist, you’ll have everything you need to whip your manuscript into shape, craft a compelling synopsis, write a stellar cover letter, and submit your requested materials like a pro.

Baby Got Back(story) – Craft of Writing – Beginner

Learn how to create complex, multi-dimensional characters by developing their backstories. This class introduces tools and techniques for building backstory and includes interactive group exercises so attendees can “try on” the methods presented.

Lending a Voice to Your Voice: Mastering the Author-Narrator Relationship (with Aaron Fors)– Business of Writing – All Levels

Bob Mayer

The Original Idea: The Heart of Your Story and Key to Selling Your Book and Conflict: The Fuel of Your Story – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Can you say what your book is about in 25 words of less? This is essential to 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 an approach with which you can excite those you tell your idea to when trying to sell it. 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.

Novel Writing Seminar (2 hours) – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Join New York Times best-selling writer Bob Mayer for an all-day workshop on writing the novel, beginning with the original idea and core conflict, developing plot and character, working with point of view, and pulling everything together selling your book and the business of writing.

The Creative Process for Writers – Writing Life – All Levels

Why do we write? How do write? How do we create something out of just our minds? The longer I’ve been writing for a living, the more I’ve been focusing on process. It’s unique for every writer, but the most important aspect of what we do. We have to understand how our minds work, how we create, how we process an idea, story and put them into our writing. A topic rarely covered, but I’ve found it’s the most fundamental thing a writer needs to understand.

Anita Mumm

Through Animal Eyes: Adventures in Writing the Nonhuman – Craft of Writing – Intermediate

This workshop will help writers explore ways to bring animals and other non-human subjects into their adult, young adult, or middle grade fiction. A series of exercises help participants connect more deeply with the natural world and share your insights and experience with others.

The Joy of Revision: Essential Self-Editing Strategies for Prose that Pops – Craft of Writing – All Levels

This hands-on workshop teaches writers to look at their fiction or creative nonfiction as an editor would, on two levels: developmental editing (the big picture: characters, backstory, pacing, etc.) and line editing (the rhythm and flow of the prose). Participants will learn what agents and publishers consider red flags in a writing sample and how to avoid them; how to make their opening pages multi-task to capture a reader’s attention; and how to tighten their prose without losing its poetry. Targeted exercises will show how to recognize common pitfalls and craft a much stronger final draft. Along the way, writers will discover that revision can be fun!

A Feast for the Senses: Writing to Immerse Your Readers – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Adding more sensory detail to your writing can take it from ordinary to exceptional. In this workshop you’ll learn to use mindfulness and amplified awareness techniques to experience your surroundings through each of the five senses. Then, using examples from contemporary writers in a variety of genres, we’ll explore ways to translate that sensory awareness onto the page to create vivid scenes, memorable characters, or a particular atmosphere. Novelists and short-form writers alike will gain tools for creating a richer experience for readers.

Taryn Skipper

Book Clubs for Writers: Why and How – Writing Tools – All Levels

Not every reader is a writer, but every writer benefits from reading. Book clubs are a fabulous way to reap the benefits of reading, studying and discussing books with readers. We’ll talk about how this will improve your writing, even if you never discuss your own book or genre. We will dive into lessons taken from a few successful book clubs lasting over a decade: the mechanics of a successful group, different styles and formats for book clubs, what keeps them thriving, and what they have in common. You’ll leave with a good idea of what kind of book club might work best for you, how you can expect it to improve your writing, how to set one up, and how to keep it alive after the novelty wears off.

Strong Character Voice: What It Is, What It’s Not, and How to Achieve It – Craft of Writing – Beginner

Maybe you’ve heard an agent or editor ask for stories with strong voice. But what on this blue-green Earth are they talking about? After briefly defining Authorial Voice vs. Narrative Voice vs. Character Voice, we’ll demystify what agents and editors mean when they talk about “voicey” characters, and focus on how to infuse more character voice into our manuscripts. We’ll study examples of strong voice and learn to create distinguishable voice for each character without going overboard and veering into caricature. You’ll come away with clear, actionable steps they can take to spot opportunities to add voice and to develop and improve character voice in their stories.

Time to Get Creative: Time Management and Productivity for Writers – Writing Tools – All Levels

The business world is bursting with gurus hawking their systems and claiming they’ll change your life. Many of them have useful ideas, but most of them aren’t quite applicable to a creative lifestyle, especially for those of us who are neurodivergent, part-time writers with day jobs, primary caregivers, multi-passionate, or not quite raking in enough royalties to hire help. Learn what today’s popular theories have in common and how to tweak useful systems to a creative lifestyle. Creatives aren’t always motivated the same way as business bros, and creative success isn’t measured by the same rubrics. Whether you’re hyper-focused or bouncing between projects, there are productivity methods to help you!

Make It Make Sense: Logic, Logical Fallacies and Character Motivations – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Get into the head of your evil mastermind villain and use logic to help shape your protagonist’s arc. We’ll learn the basic structure of an argument, the difference between validity and soundness, and why it matters to build believable characters with motivations we don’t second guess. I’ll introduce several logical fallacies—ways people make illogical arguments sound good—so that your characters can act illogically in a believable way and justify bad (perhaps valid, but unsound) choices or manipulate others.

Jessica Snyder

The Six Foundational Elements of Romance Fiction – Genre-Specific – All Levels

This course teaches romance fiction from a structural standpoint. You’ll learn about goal, motivation, and conflict, which are the cornerstones of fiction writing. But then we dive deeper to cover character arcs, flaws and stakes, which are vital in character-driven stories like romance. You’ll understand how each element hinges on the others to build the infrastructure of your story, and you’ll gain the confidence to utilize these elements to improve your own books. Recommended prework is to watch the 2010 film The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. It’s not required, but that’s the film we’ll use for a deep analysis at the end of the presentation.

Ten Editing Hacks – Craft of Writing – Beginner

This presentation puts self-editing tasks into an easy-to-follow list format. You can check off each item before submitting your manuscript to anyone from critique partners to agents and editors. Most of the tasks are quick and use shortcuts in Word such as Find and Replace. Others are a bit more work-intensive, like culling extraneous adverbs or removing filter words and writing in deeper POV but will ultimately strengthen your story.

Back Cover Copy That Sells – Craft of Writing – Beginner

Write your back cover copy using the plug-and-play elements that hook readers like character, conflict, stakes, tropes and even psychology. We’ll dig into best-selling blurbs to see what makes them work and you’ll leave with a template to follow for future blurbs.

Laurie Marr Wasmund

Corral the Right Point of View – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Lassoing the correct point of view for your story is a must for any author of fiction. Who is telling the story and why? It isn’t always simple to decide. We’ll look at the differences between points of view; how to understand the rhetorical situation of a piece; narrative distance; and the importance of voice. Description: Every fiction writer must choose a point of view, but the definitions and characteristics of each point of view aren’t always clear to the novice writer. As I like to say, point of view in fiction is sort of like marriage. You want to know exactly what you’re getting into before you commit, because it’s hard to get back out. The best way to do this is to experiment, explore, and play with the possibilities beforehand—like with dating. A solid point of view leads to an engaging and energetic voice and a memorable character for your readers. In my years of writing, I have used multiple points of view in my works, including the rarely-seen second person (short story, “Lessons in Impromptu Fantasy,” published in CIMARRON REVIEW). I’ve rewritten, experimented, and learned from my mistakes and successes.

Book Fair Business – Business of Writing – Beginner

Congratulations! You book has been published, and you’re ready to sell at your first book fair. Whether it’s local with only a few authors or one of the major “cons” or regional events, you’ll want your work to stand out from the crowd. How do you draw attention to yourself and your book(s)? What kind of sales pitch will bring and keep customers at your table? How do you speak about your book to the general public? In this workshop, we’ll discuss the secrets of successful sales at book fairs.

Tough Talk: Writing Effective Dialogue – Craft of Writing – All Levels

Dialogue is a powerful writing tool; however, literary dialogue isn’t the same as day-to-day speech. Learn techniques used by dramaturges to develop effective dialogue, ratchet up tension through dynamic speech, and make dialogue sound realistic to your readers’ ears. Find out how to manage dialogue “tags” for effect and “invisibility.” Participants are encouraged to bring works in progress that they can edit during the session.

Self-Publishing: Is It Your Friend or Foe? – Business of Writing – Beginner

This course is designed as an introduction to the ever-evolving indie market. It focuses on defining and clarifying terms of the indie/self-publishing world and on answering questions of those who have one toe in the water but are reluctant to dive into the ocean. Ample time is given for questions and the sharing of experiences between participants.

Reavis Wortham

Things No One Told Me – Writing Life – All Levels

It’s an informal discussion about what I learned after my first novel was accepted for publication. Writing is the easy part, but there’s a whole world of work and experiences that follow. This one is like those old-fashioned magazine articles called, “This Happened to Me.”

Editor-Agent Sweet Spot (with Anna Michels) – Business of Writing – All Levels

My Sourcebooks editor, Anna Michels and I will talk about that sweet spot between the editor and author when working on a novel, from ideas, to writing and acceptance, and finally, to covers and audio book talent.

Johnny Worthen

Morning Meditation and Writer Wellbeing – Writing Life – Advanced

Join author Johnny Worthen for discoveries in eastern philosophy with their application to the life of an author with its many disappointments. Sessions include directed mindfulness meditation and lecture on concepts that directly speak to the writer’s journey. Classes build upon previous one, but all are welcome to each and all. There’s much to gain. Day one: Basics – the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Noble path Day two: Block – The Five Hindrances and the power of RAIN Day three: Third Person Limited – Non-Identity and the muse Each class meets in the morning before regular programming Though classes are meant as a three day seminar, attendees can come to any of them without prior or later attendance and still get useful information.

The Super Power of Writing Sprints: Smash Writer’s Block – Craft of Writing – Intermediate

For those of us who overthink our writing process, writing sprints can help us break through our writer’s block, self-doubt, and paralyzing perfectionism. In this improv-writing workshop, we’ll use writing sprints (timed writing exercises) to glide right past writer’s block, dive deeply into characters, and more. Bring pen & paper or your laptop, and be prepared to let your mind surprise you with fresh, uninhibited writing.

The Gooey Guts of Horror – Genre-Specific – All Levels

A class about the most visceral genre – HORROR. We’ll discuss its evolutionary origins, compare it to its sister genre, then explore it, categorize it and wrestle with it to explore techniques to effectively use horror in our own writing.

Deeper Reading for Deeper Writing – Reality Track/How-To – Advanced

Consciously or unconsciously meaning is hidden beneath signs and facades in literature, layered in word choice and focus. Through shared reading, discussion and meaning and themes, we will learn to consciously see what our subconscious feels within a text, those elements that unite and undercut, but always elevate craft into art. Once you understand deconstruction, your reading and your writing will never be the same.