Thursday, February 26, 2009
Watch this site for more workshops. Descriptions will be posted as they become available.
Registration open to conference participants and general public
Preconference workshops offer conference attendees an extra full
or half-day of writing instruction. For writers unable to attend the
full conference, the workshops provide an opportunity to share in the
writing experience and to learn more about the writers' conference.
Whether you're planning to attend the conference or enroll
in a preconference workshop only, you may register
online. If you have questions, contact WIWA at writers@whidbey.com or call the WIWA office at 360-331-6714.
Full Day Workshops
Apprenticing the Masters -- Molly Dwyer
Funds for Writers - the Magic and the Myth -- C. Hope Clark
How To Write the Commercial Novel -- Bill Brooks
Half Day Workshops
Mythic Structure: A Novel Idea -- Nancy McCurry
Submitting Queries and Synopses to Agents -- Chuck Sambuchino
What Writers Need to Know About Publishing -- Jerry Simmons
Full Day Workshops
9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Limited to 15 participants
Price (lunch included):
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Also attending conference - $ 100
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WIWA member not attending conference - $ 135
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Non-WIWA member not attending conference - $ 150
Apprenticing the Masters -- Molly Dwyer
What makes it work? What keeps us turning pages? Why has it lasted? Good writers are influenced by good writing—we learn from outstanding literature. In this workshop, we'll analyze a selection of audio excerpts with an eye to understanding what makes for remarkable storytelling. We'll explore the expertise and creative insights of the greats, and write variations and improvisations of our own: mimicking, imitating, deviating, discovering our capacity for creativity and daring through mindful apprenticeship. (for all levels)
Funds for Writers - the Magic and the Myth -- C. Hope Clark
C. Hope Clark, editor of FundsforWriters.com, elaborates in an all-day workshop about the variety of funds open to writers. The course provides resources, examples and success stories of writers in their use of income opportunities Hope classes as "funding streams." In the second half of the day, Hope takes the writer through the grant world from how to find grants to what is expected of a successful grant applicant.
How To Write the Commercial Novel -- Bill Brooks
The author of 21 novels, Bill Brooks has taught workshops all across the country, including at the famed Chautauqua Institute in New York, Writers of the Flathead in Montana and the Literary Mountain Fest in North Carolina. Bill says of his workshops, “I teach the aspiring novelist the nuts and bolts of constructing a commercially viable novel based upon my own experiences of writing and selling fiction to more than half a dozen major New York publishers including, Harper Collins, Dell, Tor/Forge, Kensington, Zebra and Pinnacle. There is a big difference between the 'literary' novel, which a lot of aspiring writers desire to write, and the genre, or category fiction novel, which most writers write for a living."
In this workshop, you will learn the critical elements required for the genre novel including: the need to establish an immediate emotional connection between the reader and your protagonist, how to develop the central conflict that is the engine that drives fiction, the importance and role of creating believable scenes, a swift and sure fix for dialogue problems and how to bring your characters to life through dialogue as well as action, the importance of beginning and endings, and conflict resolution.