| 2010 WOTR Conference Schedule |
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Click here for complete workshop descriptions and presenter bios.
SATURDAY WORKSHOPS Snap, Crackle, Pop: How to Jack up the Tension in Your Stories Presented by Larry Brooks - Session 3
Tension is the
stuff of successful fiction, even when the story isn't overtly tense. Because
without stakes and opposition, there's no reason for the reader to care about
or root for your hero ("liking" the hero is optional, these aren't).
In this workshop we'll go deep into the infrastructure of tension,
understanding how to manipulate context, pace, and point of view to optimize
the reader's emotional involvement. Or, better put, their anticipation, fear,
surprise, shock and awe, adrenalin, and the contemplation of what it all
means. The latter is what plunges the reader deeper into a story, and yet it
depends on that short list of emotional triggers to work. We'll also look at
the various types of tension -- emotional, intellectual, social, sexual,
and familial -- and how backstory comes into play to make them rock the
narrative boat.
Don't Bungle Your Middle Grade Novel: Avoiding Pitfalls Presented by Anjali Banerjee - Session 4
What’s
the difference between writing for children and young adults? Children and
grown-ups? What is a middle grade novel? Is it easy to write a novel for
readers aged 7 to 12? How do you begin? How long should your book be? What’s
hot and what’s not? Is your story original, unusual? If not, how do you give
your book a fresh spin? How do you develop a good hook or plot statement? What
about story arc, pacing? How do you develop characters in children’s books?
Theme, voice, tone? Anjali will discuss the common errors beginning writers
make, and how to avoid them.
Blogs and Social Media: What a Writer Needs to Know
Presented by Brad Fitzgerald - Session 3
The web is no longer a fad for part-time HTML hobbyists. Authors as much as anyone need to look at how they can leverage the internet to connect and communicate. This workshop will begin by exploring one of the basic building blocks of the internet - the blog. We'll look at the advantages and disadvantages blogs hold for writers. After finding out if creating a blog is right for you, we'll look at how you can choose what to write about. We will also look at ways social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more) can benefit authors. We'll examine ways writers can make money using the web, including the feasibility of income from blog-writing. Practical tips will be given as the important differences in writing for a web audience are considered. Lastly, we will touch on new experiments and opportunities for writers in an ever-changing online world.
Getting Published Through the Hidden World of Book Packaging
Presented by Adrian Liang - Session 1
While
traditional book publishers print most of the books that hit the bookshelves,
sometimes you’ll find a book packager behind an innovative book or concept.
Book packagers can be a combination of agent and publisher, selling concepts to
publishers and then developing the book all the way through delivery of printed
books to a publisher’s warehouse. But each book needs an author, and this is
where you come in. Adrian Liang, associate publisher from book packager
becker&mayer!, speaks on how packagers partner with authors to develop
concepts with a hook, to sell a book concept to a publisher, and to create that
book. She’ll also discuss how authors work with editors and licenses, and how
authors can develop a reputation for professionalism that will boost their
success throughout their writing career.
The Novel: Launches and Landings Presented by Samuel Ligon - Sessions 1 & 2 (2-hour workshop)
In this
workshop, we’ll examine the points of entry of various novels, paying attention
to how the novels launch, what role voice plays in preparing the reader and
previewing the action to follow, and how plot might arise from the voice/mood/tone
established in a novel's very beginning. We’ll also discuss the overall “shape”
a novel might take and how it needs to close—unlike a short story, which so
often moves toward a kind of opening and then quickly closes. But not a
novel. A novel has to open, yes, and open and open, but unlike a story, it
also has to close to feel “whole” or “complete.” Many novels lose steam or have
trouble in this closing movement. “Nearly all novels are feeble at the end,”
E.M. Forester writes in Aspects of the Novel. “This is because the plot requires to
be wound up.” Here, Forester is talking about “the losing battle that the plot
fights with the characters.” So, yes, plot. And character. And, certainly
voice, which informs both. Far too much to talk about in such a short time. So
we’ll be looking primarily at beginnings and a little at endings (which will
also require discussion of middles)—as a way to examine how various writers
have shaped their novels, our discussion informed specifically by points
of entry.
Presented by Philip Garrison- Session 1
In this workshopyou’ll learn how to
select subject matter that matters by exploring your feelings and experiences
and finding your unique voice. We’ll focus on how to make sensory detail vivid in your first draft, how
to handle digressions, and how to avoid being predictable. You’ll learn to edit
drafts by knowing what to leave in – and what to leave out, and how to sequence
your work to enhance its impact. You’ll also learn the importance of
multi-tasking, how to keep a journal that works for you, and the tricks of
reading – or writing – in the margins.
Breaking In: What Your Query Letter Really Says Presented by Sally Harding - Session 4 Using the query letter as a jumping off point for a discussion of the marketability of manuscripts, this session will give an agent's view of book concepts and how to successfully position them. Will your query letter entice an agent or acquiring editor to ask for sample pages? Queries offer valuable clues about writers and their work - clues that help agents and editors decide whether to invite submission or reject on the spot. Literary agent Sally Harding of The Cooke Agency reveals the clues in order to show how agents and publishers may be interpreting your query, and she'll offer suggestions on how to get your foot through that first literary door.
Presented by S.R. Martin - Session 4
Using Martin's family memoir On The Move: A Black Family’s Western Saga as a model, this workshop will explore some of the functions that internal stories--stories within stories--can perform in a memoir. Some of these functions include a) enhancing the point of view, the narrative voice of the whole work, b) increasing the range and variety of voices, or personae, in the primary story of a memoir, c) adding to the internal complexity and interest of the overall story, and d) grounding the memoir in concrete, detailed experience. By examining several internal stories in On The Move, this workshop will reveal insights into how stories can work in a memoir.
Getting Started with Your Nonfiction Project Presented by Rebecca K. O'Connor - Session 2 Do you have a true story or a topic that you keep thinking would make a great book? Find out how to take your idea and develop it into an interesting hook that will ultimately become the book you've been meaning to write. Don't have an idea yet? Finding a great topic is easier than you think. We will discuss where to look and how to make sure your topic is book worthy. This workshop will also touch on research, outlining, investigating the market and the importance of creating a good proposal.
Presented by Randall Platt - Session 3
So what if you can’t draw? You’re a writer, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do all you can to etch the best character you can. Don’t let your characters fall into the pit of stereotype. With fun exercises, we first create stereotypes and frankly discuss why we think that way. How do we keep our own preconceived and maybe even biased opinions about certain types away from the characters we create? Can we, should we, create characters outside our own experience? Finally, we will re-create our stereotyped characters, making them real, unforgettable and unique.
Presented by Eugenia Toledo - Session 2
This workshop will explore the concept of the prose poem. The prose poem has been practiced in many countries. In Spain, it was cultivated by Juan Ramon Jimenez y Luis Cernuda. In France, by Charles Baudelaire. In Latin America, by Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz. Today the poet Grannina Braschi from Puerto Rico writes the most pivotal poems in the USA. The prose poem is not "narrative poetry" or "poetic prose." It's a genre that walks the thin line between poetry and prose. Is this a liberating form? What does this mean? It means free from form and structure. It means not to be concerned with plot or conflicts. But it does retain the language, the repetition and the imagery of poetry, and its point of view is more reflexive, emotional and turned inward. A prose poem is self contained work. Robert Hass talking about the poetic form said, "It almost seems like photography to me ... ." The students will discover through exercises some aesthetics ideas of the genre. We will redefine and reevaluate the nature of the prose poem, including writing our own.
SPECIAL SESSIONS NEW THIS YEAR! WORKSHOP FOR HIGH SCHOOL WRITERS Join our energetic and extensively published presenter, Randall Platt, for a two-hour morning session at the conference AND attend the keynote kick-off talk by New York Times best-selling fantasy author Terry Brooks - all for just $40. [NOTE: Open to high school students, grades 9 through 12 only.] So, You Want To Be A Writer: A Workshop for Teens Who Love to Write Presented by Randall Platt - Saturday, May 15, 10:15a to 12:15p This is a two-hour workshop for teens who are interested in becoming writers. We begin by sharing goals and dreams by filling out a "Goaltending" worksheet. Young writers will be encouraged to talk about what they are working on. Next, we will get an overview of what the current state of publishing offers and explore the various genres and venues they can write for now, not someday, not when they have "grown up." Then we will move on to a writing exercise meant to get the creative juices flowing. This is a fun one and kids will be encouraged to share with the group if they wish. We will learn how to create interesting characters, how to find our own distinct voice and how to keep a plot moving ... all the while learning about staying focused and on target with our writing goals. Just about every working writer will tell you they knew from a young age they wanted to write and this is where it can begin.
Nonfiction Roundtable: Concept Feedback Session Led by Adrian Liang, associate publisher for the adult books division at becker&meyer!, a nonfiction book packager outside Seattle that creates books for publishers worldwide. Saturday, May 15, 1:00p to 2:15p [NOTE: Lunch hour, so bring your brown bag lunch. Everyone is welcome whether you share a book concept or not.] Ms. Liang will give feedback on nonfiction excluding memoirs. Please bring a written 3-4 sentence description of your book-length project and give it to the room monitor before the meeting begins. You may remain anonymous if you like (your name and the project title are not needed). The editor will read these out loud to the group and make comments on the appeal of the concept and perhaps make suggestions. Please note, this is not a pitch session where you might ask the editor to consider your project for publication. If interested in pitching the editor, please sign up for one of our agent and editor appointments. (See below.)
This year, we offer individual pitching appointments with both an agent and an editor. If appointments fill up on Saturday, we will also offer appointments on Sunday morning. To find out more about this year's guest agent and editor and how to sign up please click here. PLEASE NOTE: Agent appointments with Sally Harding are currently full. Appointments are still available with editor Adrian Liang.
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