Anchor Scenes: The Essentials of Story Structure
Stories don’t hold together without a compelling structure that underlies the whole—the essential scenes that every story needs to create drive, tension, conflict, climax, and resolution. In this workshop, we’ll dissect the core ingredient of each needed scene: change. By the workshop’s end participants will have outlined crucial scenes, know where to place flashbacks for potency, and be on their way to telling a story so riveting that it will hold a reader’s attention for hundreds of pages.
with Jessica Morrell
Lyrical Sentences: a strategy
Explore an infinitely variable sentence-level strategy that can deepen your writing, allowing your voice to shine through in a lyrical play with focus and detail while not sacrificing narrative pace.
with Finn Kraemer
The Sizzle: Tension and Suspense in Fiction
Fiction’s purpose is to jangle nerves, make hearts race, give goose bumps, and disturb sleep. Tension, along with suspense, jabs at the reader’s senses, keeps him turning the page, and insures that by the final scene his nerves are stretched to the point of unraveling. The workshop will explain the recipe for such suspense, and teach readers how to worry readers by using unanswered questions, language, peril, discomfort, prolonged dread, cliffhangers, fish-out-of-water scenarios, and other elements.
with Jessica Morrell
Break Open Your Novel
Why are you writing this book? A healthy plot hinges on your character’s internal and external goals. Whether you write YA, literary, mainstream, historical or fantasy fiction, setting these goals and knowing when and how to use them adds tension and depth to your story. Break open your plot and breathe life into your characters in this hands-on workshop with novelist and book editor Zu Vincent.
with Zu Vincent
On the Shores of Silver Books: Captivating the literary mind of the child
This generative writing workshop will discuss the art of writing for children, particularly children from ages 5-12, with an emphasis on children’s developmental stages. The creation of memorable characters, language, imagery, humor, and a sense of place that most supports children will be emphasized.
with Heather Altfeld
