All Passionate Ink workshops are held on our writers’ forums. Non-members are given access to the workshop sections, and all messages are archived on site and can be forwarded to the attendees email if they choose.
Passionate Ink 2010 Online Workshops
Permission to Forward Granted
Passionate Ink Presents
Compositional Flourish…Using Rhetorical Devises to Improve Your Prose Presented by Beth Daniels
October 4, 2010 – October 31, 2010
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
More Information: workshopchair@passionateink.orgTo 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 would be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays and any feedback from the instructor on questions, etc., would be up given before the next Monday lesson is posted, if not sooner. On Fridays I would restrict things to comments and ask for feedback.
There are around 45 different rhetorical devices, but the workshop would focus on the 16 that would work best for fiction writers, particularly romance writers. A brief syllabus is noted below.
Syllabus
Week One 1st Lecture: Introduction to the workshop and two rhetorical tactics given
2nd Lecture: Two more tactics explained and assignment givenWeek Two 3rd Lecture: Another two tactics presented
4th Lecture: Yet another two tactics presented and assignment givenWeek Three 5th Lecture: Two tactics presented
6th Lecture: Still another two tactics presented and assignment givenWeek Four 7th Lecture: Two tactics presented and short assignment given
8th Lecture: Final two tactics and commentsBeth Daniels currently writes as Beth Henderson and J.B. Dane, though she answered to Lisa Dane and Beth Cruise in the past as well. She has worked with editors at Berkley, Zebra, Leisure, Harlequin/Silhouette, and Simon and Schuster’s Aladdin Paperbacks, done e-books for a now defunct company (not her fault, she says), and began her writing life with hardcover books slated for library use with a publisher that got out of the romance business (again, not her fault). More recently she’s had a number of articles about writing picked up by e-zines, saw a short story published in a mystery and suspense magazine that turned up its toes the next year (really, really not her fault), and has a story in the MOTHER GOOSE IS DEAD anthology slated for publication by Dragon Moon Press sometimes in 2010.
For over a dozen years Beth taught college level composition, both in the classroom and online, and a credit course on Novel Writing. Five of her former Novel class students are now published.
Twenty-six of Beth’s manuscripts have appeared in print or e-book format. These have been historical romantic adventures (6), romantic comedies (10), romantic-suspense (3), and young adult romantic comedy (7). Her titles have appeared in 12 different languages in over 20 countries. At the moment she is working on various manuscripts and attempting a collaboration with another RWA member on a contemporary/fantasy/romantic adventure. She also ventured into self-publishing to keep her out-of-print backlist in print, but previous e-books in print, and in frustration, to move beyond a manuscript she’d been reworking for editors for a decade with no bites, released a previously unpublished historical romantic adventure set in the American West.
She is currently/or has been a member of/or about to renew membership in Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Novelist Inc., and Historical Novelist Society.
Website: RomanceAndMystery.com
To Pay Online : Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to workshops@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – Compositional Flourish” as the subject. In the “message” section, and be sure to include Your Name and Email Address.
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to
Passionate Ink Workshops
c/o Robin L. Rotham
P.O. Box 2412
Norfolk, NE 68701CHECKS MUST BE RECEIVED PRIOR TO THE START OF CLASS
The Depths of POV Presented by June Diehl
September 6, 2010 to October 3, 2010
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
More Information: workshopchair@passionateink.orgThe Depths of POV focuses on the more advanced questions the writer should ask when deciding POV: Which POV is right for this story and why? How to pick the right POV character or characters? How deep should the POV go? When and how might I break POV rules? How is POV related to the other story elements? How can POV strengthen characterization? Reinforce setting? Add to the plot and subplots? Enhance the theme? The workshop explores the advantages and disadvantages of the subtypes of POV and includes examples of each type from published works. The workshop will also cover deep POV.
Syllabus:
WEEK 1
Introduction and why POV is important
Brief recap of POV to establish common terms and definitions
How to make POV choices – What questions you should be asking?
Why bother with second person POV?
Advantages and disadvantages
Revisiting First Person POV
Why choose this POV
Advantages and disadvantages
Single versus MultipleWEEK 2
Expanding Third Person POV
Limited/Close
Camera/Objective
Unlimited/Omniscient
Classical versus Modern
Single versus Multiple
Advantages and disadvantagesWEEK 3
Distance and POV
POV and the Art of Keeping Secrets
Story structure and POV
Use POV to strengthen characterization
Reinforcing setting with POVWEEK 4
Plotting and POV
Maintaining theme with POV
How exposition is affected by POV
The author’s place in POV
Breaking the “rules” of POVP. June Diehl is the Editorial Director and Senior Editor for Virtual Tales, the Senior SF Editor for ePress-Online. She coaches writers who are challenged by obstacles and guides them to realize their writing dream. The author of THE MAGIC & THE MUNDANE: A Guide for the Writer’s Journey, she teaches/mentors writing classes online at Writer’s Village University and for Pearls of Writing as well as having conducted workshops on various elements of fiction writing and on getting published. She is enrolled in UCLA’s Writing Program, focusing on long and short fiction. Ms. Diehl has published poetry, short stories, and articles online and in print. She’s finalizing a novel and working on several others. The author lives in Virginia with three cats and a dog.
To Pay Online : Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to workshops@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – POV” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members .
To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to
Passionate Ink Workshops
c/o Robin L. Rotham
P.O. Box 2412
Norfolk, NE 68701CHECKS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE FiRST DAY OF CLASS
Past Workshops
All’s Fair in Love and War: Making Your Romance and Plot Merge Presented by Alicia Rasley
August 16, 2010 to August 29, 2010
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
More Information: workshopchair@passionateink.orgRomance and Plot are like opposites who attract; on further acquaintance, and a lot of interaction, it becomes clear that they’re similar in fundamental ways, and spark each other to change, and are meant to be together. In this short interactive workshop, we’ll work through the major romantic and external plot opportunities and turning points, and bind them into a coherent whole. This process is a whole lot like sex. Without bodies. But fun even so.
Alicia Rasley is a nationally known writing workshop leader, an award-winning novelist, an acquiring editor with a long background in line-editing, and an experienced teacher of college and professional writers. Her writing book, The Power of Point of View, was released in 2008 by Writer’s Digest. Her many writing articles are free at her website, and she blogs about editing and writing at Edit Torrent.
To Pay Online: Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to workshopsATpassionateinkDOTorg with “WORKSHOP – Worldbuilding” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.
COST: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to Passionate Ink Workshops c/o Robin L. Rotham P.O. Box 2412 Norfolk, NE 68701
Check MUST be received by the class start date.
Word Choice Workout Presented By Natalie and Matt Duvall
August 9, 2010 – August 15, 2010
Cost : $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
More Information: workshopchair@passionateink.org
When should you say writing implement instead of pencil? When should the wind rip through the trees instead of blow? When is a word more than a word? When it’s written on paper! The key to invigorating your prose lies in a few simple steps.The Word Choice Workout teaches fix-up strategies and steps to prevent the boring from overwhelming the bland.
Syllabus
Introduction – The Difference a Word Can Make
Part One – Redundancy in Word Redundancy
Part Two – Slang: To Use that Jawn or Not
Part Three – Jargon: Not Just for Osteopaths
Part Four – Words That Just Seem That They are Just Unnecessary
Part Five – Adverbly
Part Six – The Curse of the Blah
Part Seven – Creating a Character LexiconParticipants should have completed a first draft (or more) of at least one manuscript so that they will have a piece of writing to use during the class.
Natalie Duvall (www.natalieduvall.com) is a high school English teacher. Whenever a student slips out a four letter word, she shouts back, “Word choice!” In addition to years spent molding the vocabulary choices of America’s youth, Natalie holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in writing. She is currently working on her MFA, also in writing. She’s presented several writing workshops, both online and in traditional classroom settings. Her previous presentations include workshops for the Central Pennsylvania RWA and Lowcountry RWA and presentations at the New Jersey Romance Writers of America Conference and Seton Hill University’s Annual Writers’ Retreat.
Matt Duvall (www.thewriteway.org) was a professional wrestler who appeared on World Wrestling Entertainment TV shows and was included in Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine’s Top 500 wrestlers for 1996. He has a master’s degree in writing and is currently working on his MFA (also in writing). His short fiction has been published in a number of venues, including The Palace of Reason, Dark Krypt, and Chizine.
Lessons from the Old Storytellers: Building your Worlds Presented by Masha Holl
June 28, 2010 – July 25, 2010
Cost : $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
More Information: workshopchair@passionateink.org
First came storytelling: that is the oldest profession in the universe… Weaving tales of far-away, imaginary lands, greater-than-life heroes, and beautiful-as-the-dawn heroines was once a craft passed from parent to child, from master to apprentice. What can we, the modern storytellers, learn from the old masters? What does telling a tale have to do with writing a novel? Lessons from the Old Storytellers: Building your Worlds reveals some of their secrets and teaches how a modern writer can learn from the ancient craftsmen.Masha Holl was raised on magic tales, Russian literature, Mozart, Verdi, and French cuisine. Today, she writes romantic science fiction and fantasy—that’s spaceships, alien universes, and very close encounters—to the sounds of Metal Rock. Romance brought her to America, and here she stayed, so expect love and happy endings in her stories.
She studied language and literature first in Paris (France, that is), and then at the University of Wisconsin, where she was awarded a Master’s degree. She has taught Russian and French language and culture both to bored and to excited college students, and she is always eager to share her love of the writing craft with whoever will listen to her speeches. And don’t even get her started on myths and folklore.
Her novella The Brightest Heaven, and her short story The Joining, are available from The Wild Rose Press. You can find excerpts on her website at MashaHoll.com.
To Pay Online: Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to workshops@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – Worldbuilding” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-membersTo pay by check, print this page and send with a check to Passionate Ink Workshops c/o Robin L. Rotham P.O. Box 2412 Norfolk, NE 68701
BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS WITH YOUR CHECK.
CHECKS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE START DATE TO BE ADMITTED TO THE WORKSHOP
Designed to Sell… How to Enhance Your Writing’s Curb Appeal Presented by the Grammar Divas
June 7, 2010 – June 27, 2010
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
More Information: workshopchair@passionateink.orgIn today’s buyer’s market, anything you can do to enhance your manuscript’s appeal puts you one step ahead of everyone else trying to sell. By taking a look at your writing with a fresh eye, you’ll discover ways to make the most of your writing’s appearance, readability, and impact.
The Grammar Divas (an English teacher and a professional copywriter) share episodes of popular writing improvement shows such as Dream Words, This Old Sentence, Extreme Makeover: Paragraph Edition, Trading Spaces, Fun Shui, and Designed to Sell. You leave the workshop with decorating ideas, remodeling projects, and prose improvements that can make your manuscript appealing to a potential buyer… an editor!
Don Your Hardhats… Right now, in hundreds of editors’ and agents’ offices sit hundreds of manuscripts. What makes them pick one over another? Good question. In today’s ever-tightening market, anything, anything, you can do to enhance your manuscript’s appeal puts you one stepahead of everyone else trying to sell.
Your book might simply need a new coat of paint or some landscaping and clean-up. Maybe it requires basic updating or routine maintenance. Or, maybe, we’re talking about a much-needed complete makeover, a complete remodel. We’re not talking about plot redesign, character makeovers, voice transformation, or style changes. Not the meat of your story. Not what makes your house a home. No, the Grammar
Divas are talking about the words, the sentences, the paragraphs, the punctuation, the grammar, the usage… literally, the structure of your manuscript.
Because it doesn’t matter what you hang on the walls or how you furnish your home. If the basic structure sucks, no buyer is gonna wanna read it
At the first lesson students are to submit a 750-word sample from their WIP for the Grammar Divas to edit so students can see where they need improvement in relation to this class.
Grammar wasn’t Annie Oortman’s first love (actually, it was a cute boy in her second-grade class named Henry Talley) or even her second (avoiding barn work). However, after getting an A for content but an F for readability on a third-grade book report, she learned having great ideas was one thing, communicating them well on paper another. Annie became a disciple of the church of Proper Grammar and card-carrying member of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (www.spogg.org).
Nowadays, she diagrams sentences for fun (yes, for fun), corrects her children when they say “I did good on the test” (I did well.), and argues with fellow grammar devotees on the acceptability of ending a sentence with a preposition (don’t do it). BTW, Annie is hoping to see her name on the cover of a fiction novel soon… very soon. (And, if you’re wondering, Henry Talley never even noticed Annie as he had a mad crush on blonde-haired, blue-eyed Libby Boxler.)
Darlene Buchholz fell in love in the first grade with a boy named Neil. He shared his crackers and milk at recess after someone took her snack and never got caught. She’s loved romance and intrigue ever since. By the third grade, she discovered Nancy Drew mysteries and developed a great passion for perky heroines who drove convertibles (proof they were in charge of their own lives). She wrote her own one-hundred-page mysteries, giving the heroine a much better hero than wimpy Ned Nickerson, who seemed more fashion accessory than hero. What woman wouldn’t prefer a cowboy or a cop named…well, Neil, of course?
Darlene never thought of grammar as a challenge. It was, instead, a tool to help her express the ideas she felt passionate about. She served as a peer mentor in junior high and high school. Becoming a high school English teacher was a natural for Darlene. She loved sharing ideas expressed in great literature and exposition. Now, family raised, Darlene has decided to write stories again. She writes romantic suspense, and sometimes her heroines drive trucks rather than convertibles. Her heroes are still cowboys and cops. She hopes to publish soon. BTW… Darlene disagrees with Annie about the acceptability of ending a sentence with a preposition. Yes, you can! No one, absolutely no one, including Annie, says: On what did you step? Not in casual conversation and not in situations where you’d like to impress the committee in charge of awarding you a grant or a fellowship. We all say: What did you step on?
To Pay Online: Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to workshops@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – Designed to Sell” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to
Passionate Ink Workshops
c/o Robin L. Rotham
P.O. Box 2412
Norfolk, NE 68701BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS WITH YOUR CHECK. CHECKS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE START DATE TO BE ADMITTED TO THE WORKSHOP.
Intensive Pacing Workshop– 5 Days to the Page Turner (and Fast Is Not the Only Pace That Turns Pages!)
Presented by Alicia Rasley
May 26, 2010 – May 30, 2010
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
Pacing is the art of making things happen so that the reader keeps reading. Easy to describe, hard to do. But in this fast-paced pacing workshop, you will get targeted tips to help you improve your story’s pacing, whether it’s faced, measured, or leisurely.Day 1: Determining the appropriate pace for your story.
Day 2: Macro-pacing 1: The Three Acts and how to pace them.
Day 3: Macro-pacing 2: The Turning Points and pacing.
Day 4: Mid-level Pacing: Designing scenes for pace.
Day 5: Prose and Pacing: Pacing up your language.Alicia Rasley is a nationally known writing workshop leader, an award-winning novelist, an acquiring editor with a long background in line-editing, and an experienced teacher of college and professional writers. Her writing book, The Power of Point of View, was released in 2008 by Writer’s Digest. Her many writing articles are free at her website, and she blogs about editing and writing at Edit Torrent.
More Information: workshopchair@passionateink.org
Special workshop to fund the Passionate Ink Perseverance Fund* – WRITING EROTIC ROMANCE with Angela Knight May 3, 2010 – May 31, 2010 $25
In this class, New York Times bestselling author Angela Knight will discuss the techniques of writing erotic romance she used to make the leap to New York publication. She’ll cover creating heroes heroines and villains for erotic romance, as well as how to structure a plot that combines sexuality, sensuality and conflict to create a story readers can’t put down. She will discuss creating intense internal, external and romantic plots for erotic romance, as well as how to write multiple love scenes in such a way that each one is different and advances the plot.
About the presenter : Angela Knight is the New York Times bestselling author of books for Berkley, Red Sage, Changeling Press, and Loose Id. Her first book was written in pencil and illustrated in crayon; she was nine years old at the time. A few years later, she read The Wolf and the Dove and fell in love with romance. Besides her fiction work, Angela’s publishing career includes a stint as a comic book writer and ten years as a newspaper reporter. Several of her stories won South Carolina Press Association awards under her real name.
In 1996, she discovered the small press publisher Red Sage, and realized her dream of romance publication in the company’s Secrets 2 anthology. She went on to publish several more novellas in Secrets before editor Cindy Hwang discovered her work there and asked her if she’d be interested in writing for Berkley. Not being an idiot, Angela said yes.
Whatever success she has enjoyed, she attributes to the marvelous editors she’s had over the years. David Anthony Kraft and Dwight Zimmerman at Comics Interview taught her the nuts and bolts of fiction writing. Alexandria Kendall of Red Sage discovered her talent for romance writing and encouraged her to believe in herself. And she will be forever grateful to Berkley editor Cindy Hwang, who has been unfailingly supportive.
Angela lives in South Carolina with her husband, Michael, a polygraph examiner and hostage negotiator for the county’s Sheriff’s Office. The couple have a grown son, Anthony.
You can find out more about Angela at her website – http://www.angelasknights.com/
For more information: workshopchair@passionateink.org
To Pay Online : Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to perseverance@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – Perseverance” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.
Cost: $25 To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to Passionate Ink Workshops – Perseverance c/o Robin L. Rotham P.O. Box 2412 Norfolk, NE 68701*100% of all entry fees from this workshop will go to fund the Passionate Ink Perseverance Fund. The purpose of the fund is to assist those RWA members who may be facing difficulties paying their Passionate Ink chapter dues. Payments from the fund will be governed by the chapter’s bylaws, and policies and procedures manual. All funding will come from directed donations.
Twelve Foolproof Ways to Polish Your Manuscript (and Improve Your Writing!) with Lynn Kerstan
April 26, 2010 – May 16, 2010
$15 for PI Members and $20 for Non-members
All you really need to know about cleaning up your messes and learning how to avoid them in the first place.
Lesson topics include:
Dialogue tags;
Using character names and pronouns;
“Invisible” Words;
POV: Establishing, Changing, and Cheats;
Scene Openings and Transitions;
Character “Voice”;
Decluttering;
Common Grammar Goofs;
Powering Up Your Prose;
Dead Matter;
Descriptive Lumps;
Adverbs;
iagnosing Your Weaknesses;
Playing to Your Strengths.Lynn Kerstan, former college professor, folksinger, professional bridge player, and nun, is the author of nine Regency romances, eleven historical romances, and several novellas. She is presently developing a paranormal series.
A five-time RITA Finalist (one win), she is regularly featured on awards lists. Since Romantic Times launched its “Top Picks” feature, every Kerstan novel has been a Top Pick. The Golden Leopard and Heart of the Tiger were selected by Library Journal for its “Five Best Romance Novels of the Year” lists in 2002 and 2003, and Dangerous Passions was named to Booklist’s Top Ten Romances of 2005 list.For many years a teacher of English literature and writing at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and the University of San Diego, Kerstan now conducts popular fiction workshops for writers groups, conferences, and on-line classes.
She also does line-editing and copy-editing for Red Sage Publishing. An Internet junkie, she blogs with Anne Stuart, Maggie Shayne, Patricia Potter, Tara Taylor Quinn, and Suzanne Forster at www.StoryBroads.com.
To Pay Online: Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to workshops@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – Revision and Polishing” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.
Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members
To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to:Passionate Ink Workshops
c/o Robin L. Rotham
P.O. Box 2412
Norfolk, NE 68701More Information: workshopchair@passionateink.org
Sex & Violence (Without the Sex) and Alpha Male Warriors with Bob Mayer
April 4, 2010 – April 18, 2010
$15 for PI Members; $20 for Non-membersWriting action scenes requires being in real time and real people. This presentation will focus both on how to write action scenes effectively, but also understanding the subtext to the scene in terms of reality, personalities, and effect on plot and character. Tactics, weapons, hand-to-hand, etc. will be covered. The mindset of a warrior (and the coward) approaching and involved in action scenes will be discussed. Lessons will be presentations with questions to be asked afterward and answered in next lesson.
Six lessons:
1: Character: Who are these people and why are they fighting?
2: Plot, Setting and Point of View in Action scenes.
3: Writing Action
4: Weapons, tactics, martial arts, and how to kill with your pinkie.
5: The mind of the Warrior.
6: Wrap up and final questions answered.NY Times bestselling author Bob Mayer has 40 books published. He has over three million books in print and is in demand as a team-building, life-change, and leadership speaker and consultant. Bob graduated from West Point and served in the military as a Special Forces A-Team leader and a teacher at the JFK Special Warfare Center & School. He earned a black belt in martial arts while living in the Orient. His latest book is Who Dares Wins: The Green Beret Way to Conquer Fear & Succeed. He teaches novel writing and improving the author via his Warrior-Writer program. For more information see his website.
For more information: workshopchair@passionateink.org
Understanding Men
Title : Understanding Men
Date : March 1, 2010 – March 31, 2010
Presenter: Dr. Debra HollandDo you wish you had a better understanding of men? Now is your chance to improve your real-life relationships with men and enhance your male characters all through taking the same course.
In the five week online class, you will learn how the male brain and hormones makes a man think, feel, and behave, especially in relationships. We will also discuss how men are portrayed in romance novels versus how men are in real life.
For the first time, Dr. Holland will also add a segment covering the anatomy and physiology of male sexuality, as well as male sexual responses, attitudes, and behavior.
Dr. Debra Holland
Debra Holland, Ph.D is a popular psychotherapist, consultant, and speaker on the topics of communication skills, relationships, stress and trauma, and dealing with difficult people. In this class, Dr. Debra will considerably expand on the workshop she has given at the 2001 National RWA Conference and around the country to various RWA chapters and conferences. Although this class is geared to writers, non-writers will also find the class helpful in improving their relationships with men.For more information about Dr. Holland, see her website http://www.drdebraholland.com/
The Art of a 3-Line Pitch
Title : The Art of a 3-Line Pitch
Date : February 15, 2010 – February 20, 2010
Presenter: Cindy Carroll
Cost: Free for Passionate Ink Members; $5 for Non-membersWhat’s your three line pitch?
If someone asks you need to be able to tell them what your story is about. For queries or agent/editor appointments the three line pitch works well to get your story across. This workshop will help you hone your three line pitch so you can grab the interest of readers, editors and agents.
Topics covered:
What is a three line pitch? – what it is and what it isn’t
Parts of the pitch (assignment) – what it should include
Staying on track – how using a three line pitch can keep you on trackFeedback provided for student assignments
Cindy Carroll
Cindy Carroll joined RWA in 1992 and started out writing novels but turned to scripts when an idea for one of her favorite television shows wouldn’t leave her alone. That first attempt, and her second teleplay for the same show, garnered her honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest 76th Annual Writing Competition in the screenplay category. She graduated from Hal Croasmun’s screenwriting ProSeries intensive in June of 2008. Her interview with David Rambo, writer/producer for CSI appeared in the summer special edition of The Rewrit, the newsletter for Scriptscene, Romance Writers of America’s screenwriting chapter. Currently working on the rewrite of her second feature, Cindy is also developing two new television pilots. Visit her at: http://www.cindycarroll.com/.
Power Promotion
Title : Power Promotion
Date : February 1, 2010 – February 5, 2010
Presenter: Robie MadisonWhen you know everything there is to know about your story, it’s hard to stay focused on the big picture.
This intense, hands-on 5 day workshop teaches you how to convert your creative concept into bite size promotional chunks that will allow you to effectively market your manuscript.
Learn: 4 pre-writing exercises to presenting character
3 pre-writing exercises to synthesizing your plot
and 2 key issues that help you identify the unique features of your story.Robie Madison
Award winning author Robie Madison holds an honors specialist degree in Classical Civilization and English and a Master of Education. She’s taught numerous courses at college, overseas and more recently online courses on writing. One of Robie’s greatest passions is traveling. In addition to their home base, she and her family have also lived in South East Asia and South Africa. Visit her at http://www.robiemadison.com.
Story Sense/ Story Logic
Title : Story Sense/ Story Logic
Date : January 4, 2010 – January 31, 2010
Presented by : Beth Daniels, aka Beth Henderson, J.B. DaneAs described by Beth Daniels :
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.
Beth Daniels currently writes as Beth Henderson and J.B. Dane, though she answered to Lisa Dane and Beth Cruise in the past as well. She has worked with editors at Berkley, Zebra, Leisure, Harlequin/Silhouette, and Simon and Schuster’s Aladdin Paperbacks, done e-books for a now defunct company (not her fault, she says), and began her writing life with hardcover books slated for library use with a publisher that got out of the romance business (again, not her fault). More recently she’s had a number of articles about writing picked up by e-zines, saw a short story published in a mystery and suspense magazine that turned up its toes the next year (really, really not her fault), and has a story in the MOTHER GOOSE IS DEAD anthology slated for publication by Dragon Moon Press sometimes in 2010.
For over a dozen years Beth taught college level composition, both in the classroom and online, and a credit course on Novel Writing. Five of her former Novel class students are now published.
Twenty-six of Beth’s manuscripts have appeared in print or e-book format. These have been historical romantic adventures (6), romantic comedies (10), romantic-suspense (3), and young adult romantic comedy (7). Her titles have appeared in 12 different languages in over 20 countries. At the moment she is working on various manuscripts and attempting a collaboration with another RWA member on a contemporary/fantasy/romantic adventure. She also ventured into self-publishing to keep her out-of-print backlist in print, but previous e-books in print, and in frustration, to move beyond a manuscript she’d been reworking for editors for a decade with no bites, released a previously unpublished historical romantic adventure set in the American West.
She is currently/or has been a member of/or about to renew membership in Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Novelist Inc., and Historical Novelist Society.
He lost the woman he loved once. Now he’s determined to win her back. No matter what it takes.” MR FAR FROM PERFECT by Beth Henderson has been described as “Outstanding! The characters are witty without going over the top and the situations between the two are funny… A great read!” Coffee Time Romance
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