Writing Classes
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Writing Classes |
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Minneapolis WorkshopsAll Minneapolis workshops are held at:
Spend two intensive days getting to know your book—what it is about, how to structure it, how to plan to finish it! You’ll learn a step-by-step plan, including flexible timelines, chapter grids, storyboarding, and other techniques. You’ll look at ways to flow chapters, find holes in your material that need filling, organize research and concepts, construct plots, and bring your book into manifestation. You’ll also learn what editors and agents look for and gain essential tips on editing and evaluating your book in all its stages. Designed for nonfiction authors who have a book concept or a work in progress, and for novelists who need a fresh look at their material. Bring an SASE to Saturday’s class and up to fifteen double-spaced pages of work, and the instructor will mail you feedback. Bring a bag lunch. Self-Editing for Book Writers Take the next step in polishing your book before sending it off to agents or publishers. We’ll learn basic self-editing techniques for nonfiction and fiction writers and put them into practice on your manuscript. Bring whatever you have written and be prepared for book refinement and fun! Writing through Healing, Healing
through Writing This weekend retreat allows you sacred time to explore how writing can be an essential healing tool during any transition—from starting a new job to ending a relationship, from serious illness to surviving the loss of a parent. It will give you tools for telling your personal story and serve others by creating fiction, memoir, articles, or poems for the growing inspirational publishing market. Exercises and discussion focus on the qualities of healing and how writing heals on multiple levels. Explore, through writing, the profound and everyday experiences that help you realize how precious life is. Includes short excerpts from well-known authors who have written about loss, illness, and recovery. Bring a bag lunch. Writing Your Life: How to
Plan, Develop, and Write a Memoir Whether you are trying to write the story of your life for publication or as a family legacy, this workshop by the author of two memoirs will show you how to organize your stories into a readable, interesting work. You will be introduced to a simple formula that successful authors use to plan, organize, and write a book, and you will learn book-writing techniques such as the value of themes and how action and reflection balance one another in memoir and creative nonfiction. Exercises will help you put your learning into practice immediately. Writer's Wheel of Ten: Essential
Tools to Make Memoir and Fiction Come Alive Spend a lively day exploring the ins and outs of ten essential writing tools that professional writers never leave home without. Even one, well used, will bring new vibrancy to a not-quite-there-yet memoir, short story, or novel. Fun writing exercises, short readings, discussion will help us see new levels of these basic tools—how to use them, how they influence a writer’s voice and the success of a piece of writing, and why they must be considered for any good storytelling (true tales, faction, or fiction): action, dialogue, pacing, point of view, backstory, chronology, setting, motive, closeness/distance, and change. Bring a bag lunch and short piece of writing in progress to use during the exercises or start something new in class. For all skill levels.
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Connecticut/New York Area WorkshopsClasses are held at:
Whether you're a nonfiction author, memoirist, or novelist, and whether you have a book almost finished or merely a concept for one, this 3 week class will help you get to know your book - what it is about, how to structure it, how to finish it! You'll learn a step-by-step plan (including timetables, chapter grids, story-boarding, and other techniques) and ways to flow chapters, find holes in your material that need filling, organize research and concepts, and construct plots. You'll also learn how to package your book for agents and publishers and gain essential tips on editing and evaluating your book at all stages. The Wheel of Ten: Essential
Tools to Make Memoir and Fiction Come Alive Spend a lively day exploring the ins and outs of ten essential writing tools that professional writers never leave home without. Even one, well used, will bring new vibrancy to a not-quite-there-yet memoir, short story, or novel. Fun writing exercises, short readings, discussion will help us see new levels of these basic tools—how to use them, how they influence a writer’s voice and the success of a piece of writing, and why they must be considered for any good storytelling (true tales, faction, or fiction): action, dialogue, pacing, point of view, backstory, chronology, setting, motive, closeness/distance, and change. Bring a bag lunch and short piece of writing in progress to use during the exercises or start something new in class. For all skill levels. Telling Our Stories: Exploring
the Personal Essay
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