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.
What a GREAT picture! Thanks for posting that.
Wow, that’s a historic photo, Dean. You look rather lawyerly in your suit. How many months/years were you out of law school at that point? Had you even met Kris yet?
Wait, what am I saying, stupid question, you were still married, according to photo caption. LOL!
That is a great picture. It takes me back, too. It was just a month or two after that (early summer ’85) when I met Robert Silverberg, at a private party (along with Larry Niven and I think Poul Anderson) which Jerry Pournelle had invited me to. I’d been working with Jerry on a project for Byte/McGraw-Hill.
I’d been to a couple of SF cons before that, but that’s about when I started thinking seriously about writing the stuff as well as just reading it. (But not seriously enough – then – to submit more than a few stories, and none to WOTF.)
Thanks for posting that.
That is a great picture–and yes, you do look very young.
Writers of the Future is a great contest (and the anthologies are awesome). I shortlisted with them a few years back and it was the inspiration I needed to “know” my stories were indeed ready to start submitting.
Old. You are an old guy, Dean. Old. Old!
Heh, heh, heh.
So I’m assuming the requirements were the same and this was your first break into the writer’s world at 34? I guess I assumed you’d been selling from an earlier age. Interesting how that also goes with the recent “first sale” survey putting the avg age at 37 (though I guess this was a short story and not a novel, but I assume you sold around there?)
Thomas, actually, I had sold about 50 poems to major literary magazines and two short stories to a smaller press (didn’t count in the rules) in 1974-76. I stopped mailing poems out and fell into the myths between 76 and 82. Myths about writing slow, about rewriting, you name it, I did it. Then in 82 I got serious and fired on the story per week and in 1983 got that story into the first quarter of WOTF and sold a couple others and the awards ceremony was in the spring of 1985 with the release of the book. By the time the book came out, I had sold about ten to fifteen short stories and was gaining speed. One month after that picture, my house burnt down and I lost it all. Luckily, the camera with that picture that Denie took was in the glove box of our car. (Yes, my wife was named Denie. Short for LaDene. We looked like brother and sister people said. Dean and Denie. No comments please.)
Brad, I had been out of law school about three years at that point. And yup, still married to LaDene Edwards. And she’s still a good friend to this day. We went our own directions after the house fire a month later, and I didn’t meet Kris for an entire year later at the first WOTF workshop held a year after this first award ceremony. We were the test workshop. (Kris and a couple of others at that first workshop never made it into a book.) After that they did one with each ceremony winners starting with #3 I think. Maybe #4.
Hey, Steve, I met you a year or two or three before this photo and as memory serves, you looked darned young also. Don’t think about all the years that have gone by since.
A point about that story. I was writing on a typewriter (yeah, before computers), and the deadline for that first quarter was coming at the exact same moment Denie and I were moving. I mentioned it to her that I was going to miss the deadline, she said she would pack boxes for a few hours, I should go write a story for it. So I put my typewriter on a few packed boxes and fired off in first draft One Last Dance and four hours later we dropped the story into the mail on our way to dinner. And I promptly forgot about it until AJ (Algis Budrys) called months later. The story has been in constant print ever since, not a word was edited on it, and it has been reprinted a bunch of times. I have made in real value more money on that story than any story I have ever written. And I met Kris because of that story.
Inspirational, Dean. About One Last Dance. Seems like that one story kind of set the tone for all else that followed on, with your life and your career.
On attending WOTF: I must admit, I’m getting kind of excited for August. They just sent out the dates. Feels like I get to be part of a respected tradition in the SF&F genres. Sounds also like myself and the others will be rubbing elbows with an A-list of Name authors. Hope I don’t suffer too much foot in mouth. Or mouth overflow.
Brad, you’re fine. You survived a workshop here, that one will seem light. Is Tim still teaching? Kevin and Rebecca coming by as well? Great fun. If Kris and I are down in the area at the time, we’ll stop by as well and give you a hard time as well.
It will definitely be interesting, comparing the WOTF workshop to what I’ve experienced in Lincoln City. I am assuming there will be much more “basic” content, compared to what you and Kris run in your workshops. But I’m sure I’ll be enjoying myself — the experience — too much to notice.
Yes, my understanding is that Tim and Kathy Wentworth are the primary instructors, though it’s been teased that we might get some instruction time from a few other significant Names. I won’t divulge here because nothing’s been set in stone, but it all sounds very impressive, in terms of us new people getting to spend time with las venerables.
And yes, if you and Kris are (somehow) in L.A. during the event, do come and give me a noogie. In fact, you can give me a noogie and then I can buy you and Kris lunch or dinner. Wherever seems most appropriate. Deal?
I RECALL SHAKING YOUR HAND … so I haven’t gone utterly over the hill mentally, yet. I’m the judge with the longest tenure on the WOTF panel, starting with that year. Can recall well meeting you and seeing the whole structure of WOTF evolve.
Keep evolving!