Write That Story! Workshop
Duration: 6½ Weeks
Cost: $50 $40 US (Canadian residents may pay in CDN funds.)
Participants: Limited to ten
Next Start Date: Spring 2008 (exact dates TBA) (please email me if you are interested in this workshop)
Registration Deadline: TBA
Format: E-mailed materials and assignments, moderated private message board, and weekly chat sessions (optional)
Objectives: Complete a first draft and one full revision of a short story (up to 5000 words) and critique up to three stories from fellow workshop participants.
Suitable for: Beginning/Intermediate writers with a story idea to work on during the workshop.
Mentored by: Sherry D. Ramsey (read Sherry's bio)
Many writers and hopeful writers have drawers, notebooks or computer files full of great ideas and half-written, almost-finished, or barely started stories. For a myriad of reasons, these ideas and stories that initially seem so wonderful never make it to "The End." If you're one of those writers, the Write That Story! Workshop is for you.
This workshop is designed to help you write a complete short story and finish a full initial revision of it. Although it requires a fairly time-intensive six and a half weeks, participants will emerge armed with a story, considerable feedback and constructive criticism, and tools and advice to keep improving their work.
Click here to read what past participants have said about this workshop.
Workshop Outline:
- Introductory materials help you formulate/evaluate your story idea.
- Week One: Start Writing! Initial decisions you must make and how to start your story strong.
- Week Two: Keep Going! What to focus on as your story moves along and how to keep it flowing smoothly.
- Week Three: Stay in Flow! Catching story problems early, making the most of character development.
- Week Four: Wrap it Up! Coming to the end of your story and checking for story integrity; creating strong endings.
- Week Five: Revision. A complete guide for editing and revising your story.
- Week Six: Critiquing. Providing useful feedback for your fellow writers and using their comments to improve your own work.
Prerequisites:
- Participants must have a working e-mail address.
- Participants must have or formulate an idea for the story they will write during the workshop.
- Participants should have a reasonable facility with the English language in written form.
- Participants should reasonably anticipate having the time during the course of the workshop to complete the writing assignments and critiques and ideally participate on the message board and in the chat sessions.
- Participants must submit a brief introduction upon registration.
- Participants who wish to take part in the weekly chat sessions should be able to use MSN messenger or compatible program (e.g. Trillian).
- Participants should have the ability to offer and accept constructive feedback on workshop stories (we'll provide guidelines for giving and receiving critiques).
What will I get from this workshop?
Materials: You'll receive weekly articles, examples, checklists and guidelines to help you write each stage of your story.
Support: Weekly feedback from your mentor on your assignments. Participants who make use of the message board and chat sessions have the opportunity to discuss ideas and problems with their peers and with the mentor, and to widen their circle of writing friends.
Motivation: The combination of assignments, deadlines, feedback and encouragement should push you to keep at and finish your story, the major stumbling-block for a large percentage of writers.
Free E-Workbook: At the end of the workshop, you'll receive all the workshop materials and additional information (like reading and software recommendations and a set of creative writing prompts) in a free e-book (.pdf format) for future reference and guidance.
workshops
Write That Story! Workshop
