Good fiction doesn’t just happen as a result of a good idea. Deconstruct the 3-act structure in this class and see how plot relates to character, suspense and resolution. You will learn how to assemble your book in logical progression instead of flying on a wing and a prayer.

A Journey Into Point of View with Gun and Camera - Join RITA winning writer Joanna Bourne for an in-depth investigation of using POV effectively. Registration limited to 20 participants.

New York City-based literary agent and popular teacher Katharine Sands takes participants step-by-step through the success checklist for the getting-published process. From content-creation to contract; first writes to last rights, you will learn essential secrets to practicing PitchCraft, including: what to do -- and what not to do -- when you set out to woo and win a literary agent, the easy-to-fix mistakes many writers make when querying agents, and seven surefire techniques that get you out of the slushpile. Learn how to: identify your selling points and sales engines, whet an agent's appetite, get editors to say "yes," make the perfect pitch, build a media platform, and create a writing career. Do you know how work is sold and how the writer is compensated? Do you know why the writing you do about your writing is as important as the writing itself? This comprehensive session answers these questions and provides key information on many other "must know" issues.

Join Michael Slade for all the ins and outs of writing thrillers and mysteries. Among the topics covered will be the three elements of suspense; five Ws and an H: Who is involved? Who is at risk? Where is it taking place? When will it occur? Why is it happening? How will it be resolved; ten rules for a thriller: how to perch readers on the edge of their seats; subgenres: soft-boiled, hard-boiled, and “Just the facts, ma’am.”; whodunit tricks and traps: creating a riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an enigma; sex and violence; injecting verisimilitude; genre bending, and much more.  
 

In this small group class, Jack Whyte examines the fundamental importance of word choice in determining the rhythms of prose. Registration limited to 20 participants.

To take your fiction to the next level, you need to elevate several critical success factors. In this class, we'll concentrate on plot, the central elements of structure, stakes, scenes and theme. We'll talk about opening with a disturbance, the "doorways of no return," organic scene structure, stakes, knock out endings, and more.

Enter with your novel manuscript (complete or partial) and exit with a plan for a systematic rewrite – Story, Structure, Subplots, Key Scenes, and Style – a plan that helps you fashion a manuscript you can submit for publication. Tools to smooth your way. Prompts to keep you writing. Guidance tailored to your needs, quirks, and work-style. Measure your progress in pages, insights, and joy. A hands-on experience with writing in the room. For a welcoming handout, email Robert Ray at rray77@gmail.com.

"The only job a writer has is to get people to turn the page because they want to know what happens next."  Simple maybe, but not at all easy. In this master class you will learn as many tools and techniques as time allows, to help you develop and deliver a professional movie script that can be read and taken seriously at the highest levels. Drawing on 25 years of personal experience writing for studios, networks and independents, and taking the best of the many different storytelling models and methods out there, Jeff Arch will show you how to fashion an idea and shape it into a script that people will recognize as coming from someone who knows what they're doing.  No one can guarantee a sale;  but you, the writer, can learn how to write in a way that gets respect and attention from the people who count. This class will help you get to that place.