Each workshop is 6 weeks long and is limited to twelve people. (It will take you about four hours per week to do each of these.) These are the starting dates of upcoming workshops.
All have openings. For sign-up and more information about each workshop, click the Online Workshop tab at the top of the page.
Starting July
Class #22… July 8th … World Building
Class #23… July 9th … Plot Your Novel
Class #24… July 10th … Designing Book Covers
Class #25… July 11th … Designing Book Interiors
Class #26… July 12th … Essentials
Starting August
Class E-1… August 5th... Promotion
Class #27… August 5th … Ideas to Story
Class E-2… August 6th... Promotion
Class #28… August 6th … Openings
Class #29… August 7th … Genre Structure
Class #30… August 8th … Pitches and Blurbs
Class #31… August 9th … Cliffhangers
Starting September
Class #32… Sept 2nd … Essentials
Class #33… Sept 3rd … Plot Your Novel
Class #34… Sept 4th … World Building
Class #35… Sept 4th … Pacing
Class #36… Sept 5th … Designing Book Covers
Class #37… Sept 6th … Designing Book Interiors
Starting October
Class #1… Oct 7th … Pitches and Blurbs
Class #2… Oct 8th … Promotion
Class #3… Oct 9th … Genre Structure
Class #4… Oct 10th … Openings
Class #5… Oct 10th … Cliffhangers
Class #6… Oct 11th … Pacing Your Stories
Starting November
Class #7… Nov 4th … Essentials
Class #8… Nov 4th … Ideas to Story
Class #9… Nov 5th … Plot Your Novel
Class #10… Nov 6th … Designing Book Covers
Class #11… Nov 7th … Designing Book Interiors
Class #12… Nov 8th … Promotions
Starting December
Class #13… Dec 2nd … World Building
Class #14… Dec 3rd … Pacing Your Stories
Class #15… Dec 4th … Cliffhangers
Class #16… Dec 5th … Genre Structure
Class #17… Dec 5th … Pitches and Blurbs
Class #18… Dec 6th … Promotions
Sign-up and more information under Online Workshops tab at the top of the page.
It’s a great time to be a new writer. As a spec fic writer I have to say I consider Dean and Kris (in my opinion) what Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore were for the first Golden Age of Spec Fic –they helped alot of writers and careers (including a young Ray Bradbury!). I’ve heard them called Science Fiction’s ‘First Couple’. I think you two are their replacements for this the SECOND Golden Age of fiction. And this Golden age is better than the first one!
now back to work for me!
Wow, thanks, George. Even being considered in the same paragraph with Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore is an honor. Thanks.
I don’t think that’s exaggeration at all. In any given time, there are a select crew of old guard writers who not only offer newer writers advice, but go out of their way to help newer writers get the information they need to get solidly launched.
Yeah, you two are definitely on that list, Dean.
I routinely run into other writers who follow your work – I mention Kris and Dean, and get sage nods in response. Or, I ship newer writers who haven’t yet heard of you over to here, to get some basic education.
The work you both do supporting other writers is awesome, and we appreciate it!
Thanks, Kevin. Glad we are able to help some. Thanks!
My pleasure Dean. I don’t make the comparison lightly, it sort of dawned on me in the past week. I am basically absorbing all the info on your site and your wife’s site. And at night I’ve been reading about ‘the pulp years’ and these stories of Kuttner and Moore. One was Kuttner standing by Bradbury’s desk reading his material as the newbie writer finished it and then helping him correct it and even market it. I feel like you guys are like that for us. Your writing amazing fiction but you are both taking the time to light the path for us too, I find it extremely generous. Your writing on aspects of the new publishing world, and your wife’s writing on contracts, agents, the business –its a treasure trove.
You’re so right! I wish I had thought of that comparison.
Hi Mary Jo. I didn’t really think it so much as it just came to me. I’ve scoured the Net and really, what Dean and Kris are doing is unique. I have yet to find another couple of sites like theirs. A friend of mine asked ‘what about Konrath’s site’? Konrath’s great but I don’t get the mentoring vibe from him. I mean Dean and Kris set up online and in person seminars for writers even! Of which I hope to join a bit later.
Add me to the choir. It was your site, Dean, and Kris’s that showed me how I could go about publishing fiction and what to watch out for. Sarah Hoyt and her blog-followers provided encouragement, but y’all provided the business ideas and patterns. I’d never really considered publishing my fiction until I started reading your blogs earlier this year, and now I should have a short-story collection out as an e-book later this month.
I have to chime in here.
Dean’s blog completely changed everything for me. I hem-hawed around with writing for about 10 years — from 2000 to 2009. At the end of 2009, I told my wife I was thinking about getting back into writing, and she drew the proverbial line in the sand: do it, or don’t do it, she didn’t care, but she was tired of watching me start then quit then start then quit. (I hadn’t realized she’d noticed!)
I’d been following Dean’s blog for a while, read his goals and motivation posts (which I hope you update this year, Dean!), and made 2010 the “Year I Got Serious.”
By the end of April, I was ready to quit again.
After a few weeks of thinking about it, I realized I was doing the same thing I’d been doing the last ten years: outlining, writing slowly, rewriting. Basically, I was caught in all sorts of myths.
So in the middle of May 2010, I read EVERY POST on this blog, beginning with the first one. It took me several hours. I made notes, and notes about my notes, and then spent the rest of the day thinking about it. Like I said, I was caught in all the myths, so it was really a leap of faith moment for me. But I realized that I’d been doing the same thing for 10 years with no good result, so what did I have to lose writing a story a week and following Heinlein’s rules to near perfection?
That changed everything for me, and since May 2010 I’ve written dozens of short stories, several short novels, and three full novels. About 1,000,000 words. I’ve never had so much fun or have been so happy as a writer since that day.
It’s a long way off, but I hope in 20 years or so, I’ll be in a position to pay it forward and do what Dean and Kris are doing.
So: Thanks Dean!
Thanks, Jeff, but always remember the key is that you did it. I just held up a few signs with suggestions, you took the jump, you did the work day-in-and-day-out and that’s the key.
One fine day, a ton of years ago, one afternoon at Damon and Kate’s house, I tried to thank Damon Knight for all the help he had given me. He chuckled in Damon’s way and said, “I didn’t write any of your stories, you did.” And then he changed the subject. But I got his point.
But I could tell he was pleased that I tried to thank him. And I am pleased, Jeff, that you are thanking me and Kris. But honestly, we aren’t writing your stories or doing the hard work you are doing.
So thanks. Now go back to work.
Here’s another NYTimes article that fits what you guys are talking about. The article starts slow, not getting to the heart of the issue till near the end.
Booksellers Resisting Amazon’s Disruption
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/technology/shunning-amazon-booksellers-resist-a-transformation.html
This is a Charlie Rose episode that goes to the heart of what you guys have been talking about. The myths, the fears, the whine of elitism, and of course Charlie is clueless as usual. HA!
A discussion about the history and future of books
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12634