2015 Willamette Writers Conference

This practical lecture and lab for advanced and beginning writers covers the essentials a writer needs to know in order to create quality memoir and fiction. We’ll discuss the seven basic plots, character, structure, and scene. The four-part pyramid will be supplied in handout form, including supporting documentation. There will also be interactive exercises so that writers can import their own projects into the handouts and examine their work more carefully. Writers should leave with a much clearer sense of their own plot, the roles of their characters, how to structure their project more effectively, and where they need some more work on their ratios of scene and exposition. This is an exciting and inspiring workshop that should spark those fires of creativity.

.This is a practical lecture and lab for advanced and beginning writers covering the story essentials a writer needs to know in order to create quality memoir and fiction.  We’ll discuss the seven basic plots, character, structure and scene.  The four-part pyramid will be supplied in handout form including supporting documentation.  There will also be interactive exercises as part of this class so that writers can import their own projects into the handouts and examine their work more carefully. Writers should leave with a much clearer sense of their own plot, the roles of their characters, how to structure their project more effectively and where they need some more work on their ratios of scene and exposition.  This is an exciting and inspiring workshop that should spark those fires of creativity.  

This workshop will cover different strategies and formulas for constructing proper loglines, what to include and what not to include, the difference between loglines and taglines, and how to write ones that grab attention and sell! We'll go over loglines from Hollywood hits and writers
should be sure to bring their own loglines which we will workshop and rework in class!

World building is an art that sets fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction writers apart from all other genres. We long to create a world of wonder that will enchant and enthrall our readers, but how do we make these worlds believable, and how do we keep from drowning in the details? Explore the key elements of world building and gain tips for making these elements real in your writing. Learn a unique method to determine which elements will best enhance your story and showcase your characters. This interactive class starts with practical examples from Tolkien, Avatar, Shogun, and the author's own works and then has a 'lab' portion where the participants use a unique method to determine which world building elements are most important to their own books.

How do you write action and fight scenes that are gripping and realistic? How do you convey the pulse-pounding experience of combat if you’re not the sort of person with experience throwing punches or firing guns? Fonda Lee, author of Zeroboxer, and a black belt with over fifteen years of martial arts experience, offers guidelines and tips for writing edge-of-your-seat fights that feel real. The audience will come away with an understanding of 1) what makes action scenes effective using examples from both prose fiction and film 2) cliches and mistakes to avoid and 3) how to use writing techniques such as point of view, tone, and sentence construction to enhance the effectiveness of action scenes. This workshop will be of particular use to genre writers (thrillers, fantasy/science fiction) as well as more advanced writers.

Participants must have a completed novel-length manuscript that they are willing print out, bring to the class, and analyze for its overall structure on a scene by scene basis. More and more, agents and publishers are looking, not for a diamond in the rough, but a fully formed story that will need minimal editing to bring it to market. Give your manuscript an edge against the competition by exploring the deeper structure of your full draft and considering the range of options that will make your plot memorable and your conflicts so deep and rich they will command the attention of agents and editors. Participants will come away with 1) An understanding of what makes a scene work in the context of their book. 2) A method for laying out scenes for book length fiction 3) Several strategies for analyzing the plot arc, character development, theme development, and emotional strength of their story 4) A file folder with the first 10 scenes of their novel laid out in post-its ready for further revision This workshop is designed to feed into the following proposal for a workshop though the two can be taken separately

If you have written ten, twenty and even more drafts of a project, you likely know the utter frustration that comes with overworking the material. Are you stuck in a deep rut and don’t know it? And if yes, how do you get out? This workshop teaches the two-draft formula for creating a final solid manuscript that you can submit to your editor. With support teachings from the work of Jane Smiley, Stephen King and Robert McKee, I’ll be providing a break down of the tools that a writer needs to apply to each draft. We will spend the first 90 minutes on Draft One and in this segment, break out a pyramid of writing priorities that the writer needs to know (punctuation, grammar, spelling, diction, story, character, plot, setting, theme and complexity), and practical strategies for getting the climax and ending within a reasonable time frame.

In Draft Two, we cover your approach to the draft, including how you need to develop a detached perspective that allows you to ask important questions about the exposition, rising and falling action and the climax. We’ll also be talking about the need to deepen your second draft through something know as the negation of negation, where a writer applies a specific formula of increased drama for an improved impact on the reader. Writers will leave this workshop with a comprehensive plan for the first two drafts that works. Watch your confidence as a writer soar with this vital information and get back to enjoying the process of creation rather than being buried by it.

Participants must have a completed novel-length manuscript they are willing to print out, bring to class, and revise in a series of exercises. Every writer has that bottom drawer manuscript—a diamond in the rough that just needs a little something to bring out its best qualities and give it the edge in a competitive market place. This workshop will help you look with fresh eyes on a full manuscript and consider a range of possibilities to strengthen the plot, clarify the characters’ voices, enrich the setting and develop the theme. Participants will come away with 1) An understanding of the underlying structure of their story 2) A scene written from an alternate point of view 3) A list of potential new plot complications based on the stetting of their story 4) A list of potential new plot complications based on the theme of the story 5) A map for a potentially different structure for the story.

Many writers have a difficult time balancing exposition with forward moving action,
especially with the rumination required in creative non-fiction.  This class is a hands-on writing class where I will teach the eight-step concept and then prompt writers to follow it on the subject of their own choice. This class teaches how to get into a rhythm of detailed setting observation, physical observation, and internal observation—touching on each for a beat—while also moving the essay forward in time.  Writers will leave with a new formula for writing that allows more balance of the external with the internal, and an understanding of the methodology behind this formula.  This workshop allows writers to immediately learn and then apply the technique to their own projects.  Your creativity sparks will fly!