Learn the tips and tricks used by the pros when designing a new world for their stories. It’s a crash course in worldbuilding for both new and experienced authors.
In a market dominated by antiheroes, is there any place left for the real deal? In this hands on-workshop we’ll build a few true and noble heroes, without making them boring, or jerks, or cartoons.
Writer's Craft: Character Creation – Who is that masked man anyway?
Summary:
Great stories need great characters. But how do you go about creating the backstory for them. Join award-winning author Maxwell Alexander Drake as he helps you answer this very question.
Description:
Great stories need great characters. But how do you go about creating the back-story for them? A back-story that will capture the reader's hearts and have them hoping that the characters succeed. Join award-winning author Maxwell Alexander Drake as he helps you answer this very question in his seminar "Character Creation – Who is that masked man anyway?"
Cartoonist, Author, and Hugo-Award-winning podcaster Howard Tayler opens the hood on the engines of funny.
Description:
Perhaps your friends think you're funny in person, but it's not coming through in your writing. Or maybe your friends don't think you're funny, and you feel like writing humor is hopeless. Regardless, this thing you're writing needs to be funny, and right now it's not. Howard will talk about how to figure out what's wrong, and how to go about fixing it. He'll briefly cover some of the latest science, and then drill down on how it translates into technique. Will this session be funny? Maybe! Okay, possibly. But you'll definitely be funnier for having attended it.
Learn to create broad story arcs that play out slowly over the course of a book (or series) that readers will love, and get tips for avoiding the dreaded "Will this EVER end?" scenario!
Explore what happens when the hero doesn't make it to the end of the story, and discover how to handle this scenario in a way that is still satisfying to the reader.
Writer's Craft: Dialogue, it is not just people talking!
Summary:
Join award-winning author Maxwell Alexander Drake as he gives you some insights on how to craft dialogue that will not only sound realistic, but be relevant to your story.
Description:
Dialogue - that is, well written dialogue in fiction - is one of the hardest things to master. That's because dialogue in fiction is not really people talking to each other. It is conversation with drama that also needs to move the plot of the story while giving the reader insight into the inner workings of your characters. Sounds like a lot? It is. Join award-winning author Maxwell Alexander Drake as he gives you some insights on how to craft dialogue that will not only sound realistic, but be relevant to your story.