July/August: Summer Break
September 13, 2010: How to Make Your Reader Care
Description: If you have a wonderful story to share but can’t engage your reader emotionally, your story has fallen short of its potential. This workshop will discuss techniques for drawing your reader in and keeping them involved, whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction.
Speaker: Renee Gray-Wilburn: After five years of writing for publication, Renee has accumulated over 125 published pieces, including numerous articles for Focus on the Family’s children’s and parenting magazines; several short stories and devotionals in anthologies such as the Cup of Comfort series, Life Savors, and Guideposts Incredible Prayers; and magazines such as Grand, KidZone, Christian Communicator, Quiet Hour, and Devotionals. In addition, she has co-authored eight children’s curriculum books for David C. Cook and Group Publishing, and writes regularly for several organizations. Her company, A Way With Words, has provided editorial services for publishers, independent authors, and businesses for over ten years. These services include basic proofreading to content editing for any industry or genre of writing. In addition to writing and editing, Renee endeavors to teach and inspire others in their writing journey through writing workshops, her blog, and her online picture book critique group--Picture This
October 11, 2010: Tools to Avoid Clichés
“I think my whole generation's mission is to kill the cliché.”—Beck Hansen
Description: Is your writing mission to kill those dreaded overused ideas and trite phrases. We all know we're not supposed to use clichés, but how can writers avoid them? Evangeline offers practical tools to transform clichés into memorable word pictures.
Speaker: Evangeline Denmark has storytelling on her heart and in her blood. The daughter of novelist, Donita K. Paul, Evangeline grew up living and breathing good stories. She has co-authored two children's books that are under contract with Waterbrook Press. Evangeline is an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers, serving as chapter secretary.
November 8, 2010: The Last Class on Show vs. Tell You'll Ever Need
Description: If you write fiction, you've doubtless heard someone say, "Show, don't tell." But what does that mean? Telling is the act of stopping your story to spoon-feed backstory or explanations to the reader (who probably couldn't care less). Showing is the act of illustrating that information in a way that doesn't stop the story and does engage the reader. Telling is much easier. Anyone can do it--but "anyone's" story would be weak. Showing is harder but a hundred times more effective. Learning to spot telling, and to convert it to showing, can be confusing. Come hear the best way to learn how to see it--and some fantastic ideas for how to transform it.
Speaker: Jeff Gerke has been called the de facto gatekeeper of Christian speculative fiction. After writing his own speculative fiction and spearheading the launch of a fiction imprint dedicated to Christian speculative fiction at a major Christian publishing company, Jeff branched out on his own to launch Marcher Lord Press, an Indie publishing house billing itself as the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction. His fiction how-to book, The Art & Craft of Writing Christian Fiction, is available through Amazon or Marcher Lord Press and his new craft book from Writer’s Digest Books is due out in late 2010. Jeff lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, teenage daughter, 9-year-old son, and 2-year-old adoptive daughter from China.
December: Christmas Break
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