Schedule
Dream It, Write It
Friday, November 4
Welcome & Conference Kick Off
Keynote Address with Jeff Leisawitz
Reception & Book Signing
Saturday, November 5
Session 1:
Masterclass with Jeff Leisawitz:
‘How to Activate the Magic in the Stories’
Session 2 options:
Crafting Lively Characters: Getting Them to Act Out with Susan Meyers:
Captain Hook to Iago, Cruella DeVille to Moby Dick - readers love to watch characters scheming, seducing, extorting, or otherwise acting out. And it’s not just the bad guys. Often, when the most heroic of characters falter, they appear most human — and interesting.
Dream Big, Dream Movie Script with Denise Frisino:
Writing a script, or converting your novel into a script, is a dream many share. Explore how script writing differs from novel writing. The basics of a movie script - storyline, characters, dialogue, pacing, format, and marketing - will be discussed.
What Good is Research? with Janee Baugher:
Want to conduct and incorporate research into your work? Learn the difference between primary and secondary research, and how to approach both types to better draft poems, stories, and essays. uniting research, exposition, and imagination.
Session 3 options:
Let's Jump Start That Novel with Mark Teppo:
It's time to start your novel, but the page is blank and you've got too many ideas. This workshop will help you draft a comprehensive plan to draft that novel. All in an hour!
Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Dreams Come True with Wendy Kendall:
A story's place, time, feel, and emotion, effectively woven into scenes turns “somewhere” into a memorable setting. Across genres, readers connect with characters in the framework of the world around them. Plot credibility relates to choices available in the fictional world.
Four Sentence Stories and Exercises to Boost Creativity with Tyrean Martinson:
In this class, writers will learn how to:
1. create a micro-fiction story.
2. utilize short writing exercises to hone their writing craft.
3. focus in on one or more senses to increase their sensory descriptions beyond visual description.
Session 4 options:
Writing Effective Scenes with Scott Driscoll:
A scene is a mini-drama that pushes a character with a desire toward a goal against opposition. This workshop will introduce practice exercises to give participants a chance to work on their own memorable scene.
Developing Character Relationships with Bronwyn Scott:
Learn how to design believable relationship development by using the Mark Knapp 10 step model of relationship evolution and the tools of relational dialectical tension.
Writing, and Changing, Our Lives with Carolyne Wright:
How can our writing help us witness and reflect on the extremities of history, meet the uncertainties of the present and future, and work toward change? We will read poems and prose of witness, and write our own responses to these turbulent and uncertain times.
Session 5 options:
Tension: A Story's Dynamic Uncertainty with Connie Connally:
Now that you've dreamed a story and have set out to write it, what will push the story forward and make the reader follow? Tension. In this interactive workshop, we'll explore how to use narrative tension to propel stories and captivate the reader.
The Art of the Plot with Bronwyn Scott:
Learn the essential elements of a plot and how to successfully outline the structure of your novel.
Pitch Your Book so that Publishers Pay Attention with Beth Jusino:
Thinking about pitching an agent or publisher? Not sure what they're looking for? Let's look at your fiction or nonfiction work through a publishing lens, identifying the elements of a great verbal pitch and query letter, and the things that make your project unique, marketable, and irresistible.