With great excitement, I’d like to announce the debut of the Editor Unleashed Online Workshops.
Here we’re offering writers’ workshops that you can attend in the privacy of your own home, with workshop leaders (including yours truly) who are accessible and will strive to help you take your writing to the next level.
The current roundup of workshops will start January 12, so sign up now—there are only 10 spots available in each one. And be sure to read to the bottom of this post, there’s information on how you can win a free registration!
Marketing: Query Letter Clinic, with Maria Schneider
Description: No matter what you’re writing and trying to sell—a novel, a memoir, or a magazine article—the essential step in marketing your work is a compelling, well-crafted query letter.
In this workshop you will:
• Learn the basic template of a good query letter from relevant examples.
• Develop your lead paragraph into a compelling hook to attract agents and editors.
• Summarize your project into a coherent one-paragraph summary.
• Find out what biographical information to include and not include and what drives editors crazy.
• Finish the Workshop with at least one strong, polished query letter to start sending out to agents and editors.
Start date: Monday, January 12, 2009
Duration: 4 Weeks
Online writing: Blogging 101, with Maria Schneider
Description: Every writer needs to have an online presence today, and the very best way to get started building your web cred is with your own blog. Take this crash course in blogging and get started now.
In this workshop you will:
• Start your own hosted wordpress.com blog (set-up is free).
• Brainstorm names to help you start building your blog identity.
• Develop posts that are relevant to your readership.
• Learn good blog etiquette and tips for building your readership.
Start date: Monday, January 12, 2009
Duration: 4 Weeks
Fiction Writing: Make a Scene, with Jordan E. Rosenfeld
Description: Scenes are the building blocks of great fiction. This workshop will teach you the basics and then some for writing powerful, concise, page-turning scenes. This workshop is appropriate for writers of all levels.
In this Workshop you will:
• Learn how to construct the basic architecture of a scene.
• Develop your characters and their motivations.
• Make every scene count toward the overall plot.
• Learn the crucial scene types such as opening scene and flashback.
• Find out how to make more effective transitions between scenes.
Start date: Monday, January 12, 2009
Duration: 6 Weeks
Fiction Writing: Fiction Workshop Intensive, with Jordan E. Rosenfeld
Description: This workshop is for writers who have a complete or nearly complete manuscript for a novel or short story collection and are ready for an intensive group workshop experience.
In this workshop you will:
• Get highly individualized critiquing and feedback on a weekly basis from your workshop leader.
• Receive professional editing and formatting suggestions.
• Participate in group critiques.
• Workshop a novel chapter (of fewer than 3,000 words) or one short story per week.
Start date: Monday, January 12, 2009
Duration: 6 Weeks
Registration is simple: Go to the Editor Unleashed Workshop page for the details.
I’m offering a special contest for readers of this blog: I’m giving away one workshop registration for my Blogging 101 Workshop or the Query Letter Clinic Workshop. To enter, write a brief essay (500 words or fewer) about your writing goals for the coming year and post it here in the comments section. This contest is open until December 31. I’ll announce the winner January 1. Now get writing!
-Maria Schneider
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, this is a great idea! I would definitely sign up for that third one but I’ll be out of town at a convention that week and won’t have much computer access. (I have a desktop, not a laptop.)
Will you be offering that class again?
Goals? Goals remind me of soccer, which is a sport I detest. Let’s talk about missions! Writing missions for 2009 have to start with carving out more time to hammer out more words. I’ve about given up hope on making a “regular writing schedule,” but making better use of the time I do have is a must.
Second mission is to build a writing resume agents and editors will take notice of. The best way to do that is to get more short stories out the door and demonstrate a successful track record of getting work published. I’m taking aim at anthologies and A-list print and e-zines.
Third mission is to correct bad habits, whether it be an overuse of the word “slow” in every first draft I write or keeping stories off my desk and in slush piles. Time and again I read where successful authors send out their stories until they get accepted. I’ve got a terrible “3-strikes” mentality, where if I can’t get something accepted after the first few attempts, I feel it isn’t good enough and let it languish in electronic purgatory.
Fourth mission is to finish a final revision of my current novel, The Boar, get it out there for consideration and get started on the next one. I have a slew of notes and ideas for a science fiction story, but I’ve avoided getting the process started until The Boar is ready to leave the nest (or sty).
Fifth and final mission is to read more. I find I’m most creative when I’m reading. My own ideas sometimes flourish best in the fertile imagination of another writer. I’ll see a turn of phrase, discover a perfect analogy, find the seed of a brand new idea, or simply feel the flow of good writing and use that to help smooth the rough edges in my own.
–John
Computers products in our discount stores. Mega Sale, global discounts every week. Best prices, many gifts.
Please tell me how much these online workshops cost!
Thanks