The Part-Time Author Mindset

Let’s slay those gremlin’s keeping you from your writing!

Do you have a job, family, extracurricular activities that seem to get in the way of writing?

Are you discouraged because you never seem to have the time to write?

Are you looking to work past writer’s block? 

Is imposter syndrome hindering you from moving forward with your story?

This workshop will provide you with some tools, and hands on experience, to help you:

• Identify what type of writer you are (Plotter/Dreamer (panster) etc), your motivation, and how to accept your individuality as a writing tool. (Down with imposter syndrome!)
  • Identify your strengths and weaknesses so that you can keep your writing passion alive
• Set realistic goals for yourself that are attainable but allow forgiveness when they may not be achieved.
• How to take advantage of the time you have and minimize distractions
• Embrace failure! Identify what you can be grateful for and have learned from it
• Move past writer’s block

By the end of the workshop you will have a plan in place to take you to the next step in your writing life.

Dream To Draft (3 hours)

Do you have an idea for a fiction novel but unsure where to start? Are your characters begging to be brought to life? 

Or

Have you started your novel but it’s a bunch of ideas/scenes that don’t seem to tie together? Do your characters seem to do things you don’t want them to?

This workshop will provide you with some tools, and hands on experience, to:

• Identify what type of writer you are (Plotter/Dreamer (panster) etc) and what that means for your writing life.
  • Identify your strengths and weaknesses so that you can keep your writing passion alive.
• Identify what your story is really about.
• Develop your idea into a plot.
• Start developing your characters.
• The basics of discovering settings and senses without overloading the reader.
• Create a Book Bible to keep your characters/locations/timeline straight.

Recommended Experience Level: New and emerging fiction writers.

Develop Those Characters (3 hours)

Learning who your characters really are.

Do your characters seem boring, unengaging for readers or less interesting than you’d like them to be?

Do your characters seem to do things you don’t want them to?

Do you feel something is missing from your story but unsure what it is?

Characters are the building blocks for a great story and to have a great story you need great characters.

This workshop will provide you with some tools, and hands on experience, to help you:

• Identify who your characters are.
• How to make them more engaging to readers
• How to keep track of all of your characters, their habits/mannerisms, life events.

By the end of the workshop you will have a deeper understanding of at least one of your characters.

Recommended Experience Level: New, emerging and seasoned writers.

Slaying Your Manuscript (Self-Editing) - (3 hours)

Congratulations you have a draft of your novel! 

It’s time to slash, invigorate, and finesse your words, into a well rounded story.

This workshop will provide you with some tools, and hands on experience, to help you:

• Identify what to filter out of your novel.
• How to show a reader what is happening versus telling them. 
• You don’t like to be told what to do, why would a reader?
• Assess your dialogue and emotion mechanics
• For example, are all of those adverbs necessary?
• Use the five senses.
• Analyze your word choice and potential use repetition
• Identify if your exposition is getting in the way of your story.

Recommended Experience Level: New and emerging writers. Participants will find it easier if they have the entire manuscript available on a laptop/device so we can edit in real time! However, at least a first chapter printed or on a device will work as well.

Introduction to Self-Publishing (2-3 hours)

Are you considering publishing a novel, a book of poetry, a children's book - a book of any kind?

Unsure if you want to approach a traditional publisher or take the self-publishing path?

During this workshop you will learn and discuss:

• A comparison of the self-publishing industry and traditional publishing
• Advantages of being a self-published author
• An overview of how to self-publish
• Some resources available to self-published authors
• My mistakes and learnings as a self-published author

Recommended Experience Level: Anyone interested in exploring the basics of self-publishing

Hook Those Readers (1 hour)

Learn How to Captivate Readers So They Binge Read Your Book Down

Do you find your story is slow in some places?

Do you want to create a story that keeps readers interested and can’t put the book down?

This workshop will provide writers with some tools, and hands on experience, to help them:

• Create an opening sentence(s) that hooks the reader.
• Create hooks/cliffhangers at the end of chapters that intrigue readers to keep reading.
• Understand story elements that readers thrive off (part of handout)
• Examples of hooks/cliffhangers (part of handout)

By the end of the workshop writers will have had the opportunity to:

• Draft a captivating first sentence(s).
• Draft chapter endings for their story that will hook a reader.

Recommended Experience Level: New, emerging and seasoned writers. Although all genre writers are welcome, the focus will be on thriller/mystery.

**small group of max 10 to allow for collaboration**

Writing A Blurb (1-2 hours)

Grab A Reader’s Attention Before They Open The Book

Are you curious how to create a book blurb similar to those that grab your attention?

This workshop will provide writers with some tools, and hands on experience, to:

• Understand how less is more when it comes to the back cover of a book.
• Review blurbs that work and those that may not.
• Choose what details should be included in the blurb.
• Craft a concise and gripping book blurb.

By the end of the workshop writers will have had the opportunity to:

• Draft and edit your book blurb

Recommended Experience Level: New, emerging and seasoned writers with a minimum of one draft of a novel complete.

Researching for Fiction

Finding the truth without going down research rabbit holes

Fiction novels are routed in truth and as authors we are often faced with questions as we write:

• From ‘’how does X work?””to “What did a middle-class teenage boy wear in 1950s England” etc.
• Are there Medical, historical and criminal elements that require a foundational understanding to create an authentic world in your story?
• Are you curious about human behaviour to help make your characters relatable/believable?

This workshop will provide writers with some tools, and hands on experience, to:

• Identify what aspects of your story may require research.
• Conduct basic research to support creating an authentic world and characters.
• What tools you have at your fingertips.
• How to identify when you are “going too far”down the research rabbit hole.
• How to try and distinguish authentic/true sources of information compared to a random google search.
• An overview of taking your research to the next level (in-depth)