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Craft & Editing / Publishing / Marketing |
Craft
What
if your body, mind, and spirit could work together more effectively?
Can you access your intuition easily? Do you often battle
procrastination and unwanted thoughts?
10:00AM – 10:50AM This session will explore what makes a good opening for narrative works (novels, short stories, narrative nonfiction, essays, memoir, reported pieces). I begin with a short exercise to read an opening and explore what makes it "good" (with guided questions about stakes, theme, and meaning). Then, we go deeper into that piece (not reading it, but with an outline) of how the stakes are set in the opening and what the writer does to fulfill the promise to the reader. Then, participants will reflect on a work-in-progress with an exercise (slightly adapted) from Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses. By answering foundational questions about their writing piece, they'll be able to see whether their opening presents the stakes, theme, and deeper meaning of their whole piece.
11:00AM – 11:50AM We will share a PowerPoint and discuss different systems for writing with others, the benefits of coauthoring as opposed to writing individually, the business aspects of co-writing, and experience and advice we feel could benefit the writing community. ELIZABETH KASPER & EMILY JOHNSON are both lifelong readers and writers. They have been co-writing novels for three years and have learned much about fiction and publishing along the way. Elizabeth is a freelance writer and editor working on an MA in Communications and an MFA in Writing and Publishing, and Emily is working on degrees in both Photography and Marketing while sharpening her craft of fiction and selling antiques. 1:30PM – 2:20PM This interactive presentation will explore generating poems from various media such as newspaper articles, news segments, and general research. It will dig into topics such as "finding the character" for each news piece, as well as guided instruction for how to create poems from photos. This presentation will encourage audience participation and there will be time reserved for participants to write, as well as a Q&A session at the conclusion.
2:30PM – 3:30PM Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, or of writing the best poem. Sticking to facts is essential to writing a news story or autobiography, but in poetry is, very often, counterproductive. There is always a gap between the poet and the poem’s narrator or speaker: it might be narrow as eye of a needle or a broad chasm. Using a narrator whose veracity the reader has reason to doubt lends the poet the freedom to cultivate fields that might otherwise remain fallow. We’ll talk about various types of unreliable narrators and read examples that illustrate them. Workshop attendees will write in class using voices that differ from their own and have the chance to read their work aloud.
| Editing / Publishing / Marketing 9:00AM – 9:50AM Podcasting is a great way to build your audience, visibility, credibility as a thought leader, make connections and promote your books and causes plus get speaking gigs.
10:00AM – 10:50AM You've finally finished your manuscript and now you're ready to tell Oprah all about it. Not so fast. The best writing is REwriting. In this session, you'll learn practical ways to put your writing on a flab-burning diet so that your copy is tight, trim and hot—and all without even having to step onto a treadmill. There will be several writing (and rewriting) exercises.
11:00AM – 11:50AM Whether you write fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or something else, you can make money and win lifelong, hardcore fans by selling your books in person. There's a lot to gain, but it's more—much more—than just signing copies. So, how best to do it?
1:30PM – 2:20PM Giving books away is a commonly utilized method for marketing. But there are smart ways to do—and not-so-smart ways.
2:30PM – 3:30PM Learn about the basics of using the program Scrivener to best organize your ideas, as well as outline and draft efficiently. We’ll cover the basic features of the program, as well as ideas and strategies for best using this tool as a poet or fiction writer.
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