It's Midnight at SavvyAuthors in 2023
(For those who have taken my workshops before, the following will be similar in content. However, each will include a specific focus and edited lessons and handouts. Further, if you've taken a class with me before and would like to keep developing that project, you can either take this class and ask more specific questions, or elect to sign up for a coaching package.)
How to World-Build through Your Characters
03/27/23-04/23/23
The process of world-building can go on forever. However, using character as your defining touchpoint in world creation can help to tame your creative impulses and focus them in a way that will make your world feel like a living landscape.
In this course, we’ll discuss how to think about your world-building in a way that will keep it internally consistent. Moreover, you’ll learn strategies to filter your world-building through character and the cause and effect of interaction between the people that live in your world.
Together, we can create worlds that readers won’t want to leave.
Syllabus: This is a four week course that will meet twice per week with discussion and exercises. We will cover the following topics:
Creating Distinct Character Voices
08/07/23-09/03/23
Have you gotten feedback that all of your characters sound the same, or that your characters aren’t distinct? There’s hope!
In this workshop, we split the rendering of character into two parts: Development of character and dialogue/description. First, to craft your characters, you must explore your character as a fully-realized person, and then, you have to put that person down on the page for the readers to experience.
Syllabus: This is a four week course that will meet twice per week with discussion and exercises. We will cover the following topics:
Spinning Gold from Old Yarns: Adapting Fairy Tales and Public Domain Classics into Original Fiction
11/06/2023-12/02/2023
From well-worn fairytales to far flung fantasy, the tradition of drawing from beloved stories to create new and striking iterations has a long history. At the core of this story obsession are familiar tropes and relationship dynamics that keep us coming back to similar stories time and again.
In this class, we will break down some of these tropes and discuss various strategies for spinning your own versions of these yarns and making them golden. Furthermore, throughout the class, we look at case studies of books and occasionally visual media that employ different methods for adapting older stories into an engaging tale that will draw in readers and keep them wanting more.
Syllabus: This is a four week course that will meet roughly twice per week with discussion and exercises. We will cover the following topics:
The process of world-building can go on forever. However, using character as your defining touchpoint in world creation can help to tame your creative impulses and focus them in a way that will make your world feel like a living landscape.
In this course, we’ll discuss how to think about your world-building in a way that will keep it internally consistent. Moreover, you’ll learn strategies to filter your world-building through character and the cause and effect of interaction between the people that live in your world.
Together, we can create worlds that readers won’t want to leave.
Syllabus: This is a four week course that will meet twice per week with discussion and exercises. We will cover the following topics:
- The difference between elements within and without your world
- Using causal ripples to move between character creation and world-building
- Critical questions for creating belief systems and intergroup conflict
- World-building within contemporary settings
- Layering details about your world into your manuscript
Creating Distinct Character Voices
08/07/23-09/03/23
Have you gotten feedback that all of your characters sound the same, or that your characters aren’t distinct? There’s hope!
In this workshop, we split the rendering of character into two parts: Development of character and dialogue/description. First, to craft your characters, you must explore your character as a fully-realized person, and then, you have to put that person down on the page for the readers to experience.
Syllabus: This is a four week course that will meet twice per week with discussion and exercises. We will cover the following topics:
- What is character voice?
- The difference between and purposes of various types of dialogue.
- How to layer distinct details into character personality
- How to depict detail through voice and action
- How to pace and cue dialogue
- How to use conflict to better distinguish character traits
Spinning Gold from Old Yarns: Adapting Fairy Tales and Public Domain Classics into Original Fiction
11/06/2023-12/02/2023
From well-worn fairytales to far flung fantasy, the tradition of drawing from beloved stories to create new and striking iterations has a long history. At the core of this story obsession are familiar tropes and relationship dynamics that keep us coming back to similar stories time and again.
In this class, we will break down some of these tropes and discuss various strategies for spinning your own versions of these yarns and making them golden. Furthermore, throughout the class, we look at case studies of books and occasionally visual media that employ different methods for adapting older stories into an engaging tale that will draw in readers and keep them wanting more.
Syllabus: This is a four week course that will meet roughly twice per week with discussion and exercises. We will cover the following topics:
- How often-retold stories come to “feel true”
- Ways of working with or against “narrative fidelity” in a familiar story: Reinvention, Recreation, Subversion, and Kitchen-Sink
- Making use of emotional resonances within stories from affect saturated symbols and objects
- Familiarizing yourself with major tropes used in fairytales
- Creating a coherent in-narrative world for your adaptation
- Planning your adaptation through structure, theme, and reference
I offer both standard workshops through discussion-board venues such as SavvyAuthors as well as personalized workshops and author coaching. For the latter, please contact me with your interests, and we'll see how we can best get you on track.
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