WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: May 15, 2010. CONTACT: Kathryn DePalo at depalok. Florida Romance Writers of South Florida requests proposals for our Fun in the Sun Conference, January 20-24, 2011, for a four night cruise to Key West and Cozumel aboard the Carnival Destiny. Compensation for presenters will include a $50 discount off the FRW registration fee for each workshop. For additional information visit, http://www.frwriters.org/
ONLINE WORKSHOPS:
Yosemite Romance Writers: MAY 2010. Prose and Contests: Everything You Wanted to Know about Writing Contests but Were Afraid to Ask. DATE: 05/03/2010 – 05/28/2010. INSTRUCTOR: Amy Atwell. This class is geared for unpublished writers seeking feedback and/or a chance to final in the hundreds of writing contests offered through RWA® chapters. DEADLINE TO REGISTER: 05/03/2010. FMI: www.yosemiteromancewriters.com .
Yosemite Romance Writers: MAY 2010. Muse Therapy. DATE: 05/03/2010 – 05/28/2010. INSTRUCTOR: D.D. Scott. Course is all about injecting life into tired and/or stressed out muses. Discover what makes muses tick. What ticks them off. And what makes them dance like nobody’s watching. DEADLINE TO REGISTER: 05/03/2010. FMI: www.yosemiteromancewriters.com .
Yosemite Romance Writers: May 2010. Aim High, Shoot Straight: Setting and Reaching Your Writing Goals. 05/03/2010 – 05/28/2010. INSTRUCTOR: Kara Lennox. This course shows you how to formulate concrete, achievable goals and develop a step-by-step plan for achieving them. Learn time management, self-motivation, and problem solving skills. This is a workshop for serious writers who are committed to success. FMI: www.yosemiteromancewriters.com .
Outreach International: May 2010. GUERILLA TACTICS FOR WRITERS IN A SLUMP. May 3rd – 30th, 2010. Lori Wilde.
This workshop provides answers to questions that will catapult you onto the publishing fast track. Guerilla Tactics for Writers in a Slump will illustrate what’s holding you back and keeping you from being the writer you’re meant to be.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 1st, 2010. FMI: http://www.oirw.net/campus/currentcourselist.htm
Lowcountry RWA: May 2010. Creating Memorable Characters. May 5-28. Sue Viders and Rebecca G. Martinez. This workshop takes the writer through the various elements needed to develop a great character.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 2, 2010. FMI: http://lowcountryrwa.com/online-workshops/#MAY
Low Country RWA: May 2010. 8 Ways To Murder Your Manuscript Without A Conviction. May 5 – 28, 2010. John Foxjohn. Foxjohn’s eight steps of murdering a manuscript without a conviction encompasses eight major categories most writers do that contribute to rejections. Course covers where to start a manuscript, conflict, voice, editing, and other essential parts of writing. REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 2, 2010. FMI: http://lowcountryrwa.com/online-workshops/#MAY .
Low Country RWA: May 2010. Demystify the Query Letter. May 5 – 28, 2010. Beth Barany. This course breaks the query letter into small bits, practice each piece, and share the results for our current WIP for group feedback. Since the query letter is essentially a sales tool, this course discusses the mindset of the agent and the editor, and how to give them what they want. REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 2, 2010. FMI: http://lowcountryrwa.com/online-workshops/#MAY
Low Country RWA: May 2010. Pitch Perfect. May 5 – 28, 2010. Kerri Nelson. This course provides top notch coaching on how to get Pitch Perfect. Class will help students prepare two separate pitches along with guidelines of when and how to use them. REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 2, 2010. FMI: http://lowcountryrwa.com/online-workshops/#MAY
Romance Writers, Inc: MAY 2010. The Power of the Senses: Enhancing Author’s Voice, Characterization, & Conflict. May 3 – 28, 2010. Bill Haggart. This interactive workshop has participants identify their own sensory preferences, explore how sensory preferences influence a writer’s voice and Brand, examine how sensory preferences can help a writer decide how to use the senses, actually deepening a character’s POV, learn to differentiate Author Voice from the characters’ POV, and explore how sensory preferences can enhance believable conflict. Activities will be provided for writers to practice with the methods offered. FMI: http://www.coloradoromancewriters.org
The Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter of RWA: May 2010. Write Naked. May 3, 2010 through May 30, 2010. Wendy Lyn Watson. In this interactive workshop, you’ll engage in writing exercises aimed at identifying and developing your voice. You’ll leave with a better sense of what makes your writing your writing and a set of tools to help you make your voice even stronger. REGISTRATION: http://www.romance-ffp.com/event.cfm?EventID=85. FMI: workshops
The Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter of RWA: May 2010. Prune Your Prose: Ten Tips to Tighten Your Fiction Writing. May 3, 2010 through May 30, 2010. Linnea Sinclair. Don’t let your manuscript bomb because of easily overlooked errors, or for lack of sophistication and polish. Learn how to make every chapter count, every scene earn its keep, every main character memorable. Attendees need sample pages of their work-in-progress (including their first page) and must be prepared to share and improve. REGISTRATION: http://www.romance-ffp.com/event.cfm?EventID=90 FMI: workshops
Colorado Romance Writers, Inc: MAY 2010. Microsoft Word for Writers. May 3 – 28, 2010. Catherine Chant. This workshop teaches the aspects of the Word program that are most useful for fiction writers, and the subjects presented will help streamline on-screen tasks so you can think more about your story, not what the computer is doing (or not doing). Included in this workshop: proper manuscript formatting, creating headers/footers, working with page numbers, creating pre-formatted manuscript templates to use on all book projects, customizing toolbars, understanding and customizing the Auto-Correct feature, using the Work menu, formatting the query letter, creating a template for the query, printing envelopes, printing labels for SASEs, and backing up your computer files. REGISTRATION & FMI: http://www.coloradoromancewriters.org
Celtic Hearts Romance Writers: May 2010. To Be or Not to Be & Other Editing Quandaries. 5/3/2010 – 5/28/2010. Cindy Vallar. This workshop provides tips on what an author can look for to improve your chances at getting past the initial query. We’ll cover passive vs. active sentence construction, redundancy, weak vs. strong verbs, stating the obvious, synonyms, cause and effect, dangling modifiers, clarity of pronouns, author intrusion, speaker identification tags, adverbs and adjectives, head hopping, and more. REGISTRATION: http://www.celtichearts.org/workshops.html
Yellow Rose Romance Writers: May 2010. Get Your Foot in the Door: Query Letter and Synopsis Workshop. Starts May 31 for 2 weeks. Gemma Halliday. This hands-on course will polish and shine your pitch into an invaluable tool for getting your foot in the door. We’ll be honing your individual queries and synopses. Everyone enrolled will get individual critiques of their query and synopsis. REGISTRATION & FMI: http://www.yellowroserwa.com/workshops.php. Registration deadline is May 30, 2010.
Heart of Dixie RWA: May 2010. Snakebite Scenes and Hollywood Plots: Enhancing Action and Emotion in Romance. May 3 – 17, 2010. Carrie Lofty. You have the beginning. You know how it should end. But what about those pages in the middle? This course demonstrates how action can make your novel more exciting and more emotional. For plotters, pantsers, and everyone in between, this course can unblock your creativity and help you power through that draft, adding action and heart. REGISTRATION: http://www.heartofdixie.org by May 1. FMI: Online coordinator online
Heart of Carolina Romance Writers: May 2010. The Importance of Variation in Sentence Structure and Length. Sarah Winn. May 1-31, 2010. This workshop investigates how to and how much to vary the structure and length of sentences. Methods for analyzing the cumulative sentence will be expanded to give an easy tool to use on all sentences beyond the short and simple. REGISTRATION: www.heartofcarolina.org/online-classes
Hearts Through History Romance Writers: May 2010. Critique and Collaboration. Anthea Lawson. May 3-14, 2010. This course shares how to offer and listen to critique without losing sight of your authentic voice, how to tell when the symptoms of a problem are being addressed (and how to get to the core issues), and the most useful techniques for reading others’ work. The class includes basics of critiquing, recognizing and accepting your own strengths and weaknesses, the pleasures and pitfalls of writing together, how to get the most from your critique partners, and ground rules that every critique group should have. REGISTRATION: http://www.heartsthroughhistory.com/classreg.htm. REGISTRATION DEADLINE: April 30, 2010. FMI: HHRW Campus Coordinator: classes
Hearts Through History Romance Writers: May 2010. I Dinna Ken: Incorporating Dialect and Research into Manuscripts. Sandy Blair. May 3-10, 2010. Course provides guidelines for inserting dialect, foreign language and research into historical manuscripts, so readers becomes immersed in the period without becoming confused or overwhelmed, and so that you may retain as much color and detail as possible during the editorial process. REGISTRATION: http://www.heartsthroughhistory.com/classreg.htm. REGISTRATION DEADLINE: April 30, 2010. FMI: HHRW Campus Coordinator: classes
CONTESTS:
CONTEST: Romancing the Script. SPONSORING CHAPTER: Scriptscene Chapter of RWA and InkTip. DEADLINE TO ENTER: May 1, 2010 FMI: Entry form and rules, visit www.scriptscene.org. Questions? Contact coordinator Leslie Ann Sartor, RTS.contest@ gmail.com.
CONTEST: Ignite the Flame Contest. SPONSORING CHAPTER: Central Ohio Fiction Writers. DEADLINE: May 8, 2010. FMI: www.COFW.org.
CONTEST: The 18th Annual Lone Star Writing Competition. SPONSORING CHAPTER: Northwest Houston RWA. DEADLINE: Midnight June 6, 2010. All electronic entries. FMI: www.nwhrwa.com.
CONFERENCES:
SPONSOR: New Hampshire Romance Writers of America. TITLE: Spring Fling Conference. Pre-conference workshop with NY Times bestselling author Lara Adrian, a luncheon speech by RITA® Award winning author Kristan Higgins, a dozen workshops, book fair and signing. DATES: May 14-15. Sheraton Harborside Portsmouth Hotel, Portsmouth, NH.
DEADLINE TO REGISTER: May 1, 2010. FMI: www.nhrwa.com.
