Upcoming Workshops in 2010
February 19: Highland Park Literary Festival, The Hero’s Journey workshop
February 20: Marketing ad Publicity, co-presented with Nikki Duncan at NTRWA in Colleyville
The Differences between Marketing and Promotion, Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone, and Managing Your Time
It’s never too early to begin marketing yourself and promoting your stories, but knowing how and where to begin can be tough. In this workshop, Nikki and Misa will discuss the differences between marketing and promotion and share tips that they’ve learned along their paths to publication and things they’ve picked up since their first sales. Tips will include marketing ideas for print books and ebooks, for online and on paper, as well as when to know you are doing all that you can.
April 10-11: DFW Writer’s Conference, Grapevine Convention Center
On-Line Workshops:
February 5-26 : Goal, Motivation, Conflict and Disaster ~ Low Country RWA chapter online workshop
May 3-30, 2010 : The Scene Workshop ~ Black Diamonds RWA chapter online workshop
July 7-30 : Enneagrams ~ Low Country RWA chapter online workshop
August 5-27 : The Nuts and Bolts of Publishing ~ Low Country RWA chapter online workshop
November 1-30 : Finding Your Voice ~ Low Country RWA chapter online workshop
Nov. 1-14 : The Nuts and Bolts of Publishing ~ Black Diamond RWA chapter online workshop
Course Description:
Understanding Scene: How Goal, Motivation, Conflict, and Disaster Factor into It
According to Dwight Swain, author of Techniques of the Selling Writer, a scene is identified by action. The sequel is the reaction. But what does this mean in terms of your writing? What goes into a scene? Heck, what IS a scene?
The short answer is:
A scene is a representation of a conflict as it plays out for the protagonist of the scene.
Every scene has 4 basic elements:
The point of view character’s goal, motivation
The conflict that stands in his or her way
The disaster, which brings into question whether the hero/heroine will succeed
A series of scenes and sequels combine to form your complete story
This online course will take you through the process of understanding the elements of a scene and will introduce the concept of sequel. You will use your favorite fiction to identify how authors use Goal, Motivation, Conflict, and Disaster, as well as write your own scene(s) using these crucial 4 elements. You will come away with a PDF file detailing everything discussed in the course.
Nuts and Bolts of Publishing
Course Description:
Did you know that there are more than 300,000,000 people in the US?
And did you further know that more than 80% of these Americans want to right a novel?
What makes you different?
What will help you succeed?
Knowledge is power. Knowing the facts about the publishing industry, from statistics (did you know that 1/3 of high school graduates never read another book?) to the low down on what happens after you get ‘the call’, will help you navigate the rocky terrain of your journey.
This online class will:
Give you the facts from what you’re up against,
What the competition is,
What to expect as you traverse the path to publication, and more.
Finding Your Voice
Course Description:
“Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such.” Samuel Butler
Finding your voice is perhaps one of the most difficult things a writer must do. It’s not as if you’ve lost it and it’s hiding under the bed, waiting to be rediscovered. And you can’t copy someone else’s.
Your voice is the single most important element in your writing because it makes your work distinctly yours.
It’s a combination of your style, your phrasing, your unique vernacular, and how you create tension and build plot. Put it in a blender, mix it up, and voila! you have voice.
This online workshop will be interactive and will take you through exercises to help you find your voice within the genre you write. Be prepared to share snippets of your WIP and/or writing exercises as you delve deeper into your voice.
Enneagrams: What Are They and How Can I Use Them in my Writing?
Course Description:
Enneagrams are a fun and effective tool to use when crafting your characters. Character growth must happen, right? But how do we stay focused on who our characters are and stay true to their personalities with that growth? People develop their personality types early in life and those traits stay with them. What changes is the understanding we have of the personality we’ve had all along. Our personalities frame how we respond to situations.
This is true for your characters, as well.
Is your hero a Reformer?
Or a Helper?
Or maybe he or she is a Motivator.
What is their shadow self?
Enneagrams help identify psychological motivations. They are used as a diagnostic tool to look at one’s emotional outlook.
This online workshop will teach you:
Enneagram Basics
How to apply them to crafting your characters
Help you use these identifiers as you traverse your turning points so that you stay true to who your character is as they grow.
Your character development will never be the same!
