NEW DATE AND VENUE: May 12: Ponte Verde, FL
Florida Heritage Book Festival Novel Workshop: How to Turn Your Idea Into a Novel
This day-long workshop is hosted by the Florida Heritage Book Festival folks.
Ideas hit us all the time, but we don't always know how to turn those ideas into a novel, or what's the best way for us to develop those ideas. In this workshop, you'll learn multiple ways to break down your idea and turn it into a solid plan for your novel. You'll work on exercises designed to help you:
- Brainstorm your idea
- Find your protagonist and antagonist
- Create compelling characters
- Find your core conflicts and use them to build your plot
- Develop your setting
- Determine the key turning points of the plot
- Discover your theme
- Find the right structure for your writing process
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June 14-15: Orlando, FL
SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Workshop: From A-Z
Another great conference for those writing for children and teens. These are both day-long sessions, so they're very intensive.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop with Michael Stearns
Young Adult Novel Intensive with Lisa Yee and Kait Feldmann
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August 9-11: Cincinnati, OH
10 Minute Novelists Conference
This is the inaugural conference of the popular Facebook writing group with over 10,000 members. I’ll be joined by writing and publishing gurus James Scott Bell and agent Donald Maass.
I’m also presenting two workshops here:
Planning Your Novel in Ten Easy Steps
Writing a novel can be a daunting process, but a little planning can go a long way to making that process easier. Even determining a few key turning points in the story can keep you focused, whether you prefer to outline every scene or pick a story direction and write toward it. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to create the critical elements of a novel’s plot, how to use goals, conflicts, and stakes to build a story and develop characters, and how to approach a novel in a way that will make it easier to write and be more marketable to agents, editors, and readers.
Revision Readiness: How to Revise
Revision is part of writing, but sometimes knowing where to start can be overwhelming. It can be even harder if you need to trim down a large manuscript or change a major storyline. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to approach your revision with a plan, focusing on macro, medium, and micro issues to tighten you novel on a layer by layer basis. You’ll also learn how to mentally approach revisions, and how to strengthen your story from the top down.
Lots of fun stuff coming up, and I hope to see some of you there!
