Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

June Workshops and Descriptions

Time Travel Workshop Available…

Plus I have below some of the descriptions of the Futures workshops, all four of them, and the description of the Emotions workshop and Time Travel workshop.

I also have a list of all the different workshops now available. An amazing list.

All this is on Teachable, of course, and that is where you would sign up unless you have a credit. If you have a workshop credit, write me.

The four Futures workshops also have a bundle on Teachable that you can get all four cheaper if you buy the bundle.

So first off, the June listing of Regular Workshops now available.

Then all the workshop lists and after that the descriptions of the six new workshops we have put up in the last six months. (Every workshop description is either at the start of the workshop on Teachable or under Online Workshops here.)

JUNE WORKSHOPS

Class #51… June 4th … Endings
Class #52… June 4th … Point of View
Class #53… June 4th … Time Travel
Class #54… June 4th … Speed
Class #55… June 4th … Teams in Fiction
Class #56… June 5th … Depth in Writing
Class #57… June 5th … (Not Available)
Class #58… June 5th … Character Development
Class #59… June 5th… Information Flow
Class #60… June 5th … Emotion

A List of All Regular Monthly Workshops (no real order)

Depth in Writing (Start with this one. It is offered every month.)
Advanced Depth
Writing into the Dark
Teams in Fiction
Information Flow
Novel Structure
Endings
Author Voice
Dialogue (Advanced Character and Dialogue)
Character Development
Writing Fantasy
Writing Mystery
Point of View
Research (Depth #3)
Writing Short Stories
Writing Sales Copy
Speed
Writing with Emotion
Writing Time Travel
Writing Westerns

A List of Special Regular Workshops

(Six weeks long but you take these at your own pace, can start at any time and can turn in homework or not, your choice.)

Futures Workshop: Refresh and Renew
Futures Workshop: Opportunities
Futures Workshop: Structure
Futures Workshop: Patience

A List of All Classic Workshops (no real order)

— How To Use Tags
— Writing Mystery
— Writing Fantasy
— Writing Dialogue
— Magic Bakery
–Writing Thrillers
–Writing Series
–Adding Suspense
–Character Voice
–Productivity
–Ideas to Story
–Genre Structure
–Plotting with Depth
–Expectations
–Writing Science Fiction
–Cliffhanger
–Pacing
–Think Like a Publisher
–Business of Writing 
–Writing Secondary Plot Lines 
–How to Edit Your Own Work
–How To Study Writing

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SIX NEW WORKSHOPS…

WRITING WITH EMOTION

Understanding this very complex element of fiction writing is difficult, at best. It seems on the surface to be so easy. Any writer can give a character emotions, right? Well, on a light surface level, maybe, but just below that surface is one of the most powerful tools a writer has in his or her craft toolbox.

Emotion makes characters come alive and readers care about the character and thus stay in your story.

Emotion gives characters a past.

There are many ways to add emotion into stories. Some work, some do not. And not all emotion is making a reader cry. Humor is a form of emotion. So is something simple (when done correctly) as hunger.

Emotion adds depth to a character, which I suppose this workshop could be called Character Depth. A character, without emotion, has no depth.

This workshop is designed to help you see when emotion is present in a story and learn how to put it in. There are five major ways to add emotion in a story and a hundred minor ways. We will cover the five and try to get to as many of the minor ones as possible in these six weeks.

Presented in a similar fashion as the Depth Workshop, you must have taken the Depth Workshop to take this class.

 —————-

WRITING TIME TRAVEL

I flat love writing time travel short stories and novels. In fact, my very first published novel in 1988 was a time travel novel and it got nominated for a ton of awards at the time.

Finally, I’m going to bring my love of time travel to an online workshop. This workshop will not only give you really clear knowledge of all the different forms of time travel and different mechanisms, from hard tech to rubbing a stone or stepping into a closet.

I will also talk a lot about how time travel can work in many different genres. And Kris will help a lot, since she uses time travel in completely different ways. In fact, her brand new Diving Universe novel has a form of time travel in it.

The five assignments in this workshop will go straight to the heart of the different time travel elements, from fantasy portal time travel to romance time travel to mechanical time travel to even time deletion forms of time travel.

Writing time travel seems vast in nature, but in six weeks you will feel far more confident about the stories and books you write using time travel as a plot element.

Online, we can be more focused on the craft, the techniques, and the varied ways that forms of time travel can be used. And the problems of using it. This workshop will improve your writing in a lot more ways than just writing time travel stories.

Depth Workshop is required to take this course because if you can’t do basic depth, you can’t pull a reader along with you through time.

—————

Futures Workshop Series

You can buy all four on Teachable for a discounted price if you get them all at once.

FUTURES WORKSHOP SERIES: REFRESH AND RENEW

You have been creating all the stories and novels. Getting them out to readers, promoting them, then moving on to the next story. Great!

Now what? What do you do with that story from last year or that novel from three years ago that is just out there?

Most long-term writers make most of their money off of their inventory. But the question is how and when to focus on that aspect. And how to even think about it.

This workshop is a workshop to help you train that thinking.

For example, do you know the answers to the following questions?

— When do you relaunch a novel or series. And how?
— How do you even think about an older book?
— What should you fix, what not to touch, and why?
— How often?

And that is only a very few of the questions that need to be worked through by each of us as we move into a future where our books never go out of print. But our job is to keep them from getting stale and to continue to help them sell for decades.

This is the first workshop of a four workshop series taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. You must have this workshop before you can move onto the second because these four workshops build on each other. And even with four six-week workshops, we will only cover a small amount of this vast topic.

But we hope by the end of the workshops you will understand how to think about the future of your writing.

FUTURES WORKSHOP SERIES: OPPORTUNITIES

You have been creating all the stories and novels. Getting them out to readers, promoting them, then moving on to the next story. Great!

Now what? How do you create even more opportunities for your stories?

As we showed in the first workshop in the series, most long-term writers make most of their money off of their inventory. But the question is how to create and then take advantage of opportunities that exist for even more.

This workshop along with the others is a workshop to help you train that thinking.

This is the second workshop of a four workshop series taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. You must have the first workshop in the series before you can move onto this second because these four workshops build on each other. And even with four six-week workshops, we will only cover a small amount of this vast topic.

The first one will be offered every month, so no worries about it going away at any point.

But we hope by the end of the workshops you will understand how to think about the future of your writing.

FUTURES WORKSHOP SERIES: STRUCTURE

Long term writers have developed patterns and habits and structures in their business that help them survive the ups and downs of this business.

How to you keep going book after book, year after year? Is your very method and focus on your writing going to eventually stop you cold?

This workshop is about learning the habits and structures that will allow your writing business to survive into the future. Most writers never give this one ounce of thought.

This workshop along with the others is a workshop to help you train that thinking. And maybe save your entire writing career.

This is the third workshop of a four workshop series taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. You must have the first two workshops in the series before you can move onto this third because these four workshops build on each other. And even with four six-week workshops, we will only cover a small amount of this vast topic.

But we hope by the end of the workshops you will understand how to think about the future of your writing. And especially in creating a structure that will stand the test of time for you.

FUTURES WORKSHOP SERIES: PATIENCE

Long term writers have developed the ability to understand time and publishing. We know when to be calm, when to get excited. We understand the concept of patience.

Beginning writers and early professionals all want the brass ring now, not tomorrow, but now, with no idea that sometimes it is easier to reach the goal with a little careful planning and some patience.

This workshop is about learning the habits and structures that will allow you to understand patience to help your business into the future. Most writers never give this one ounce of thought.

This workshop along with the others is a workshop to help you train that thinking. And maybe save your entire writing career because getting in a hurry is often the most dangerous thing you can do in publishing.

This is the fourth workshop of a four workshop series taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. You must have the first three workshops in the series before you can move onto this last one because these four workshops build on each other. And even with four six-week workshops, we will only cover a small amount of this vast topic.

The workshops will be offered every month, so no worries about them going away at any point.

But we hope by the end of the workshops you will understand how to think about how powerful a tool patience is for your business. And especially in creating a business that will withstand the test of time. And we also hope these workshops will help you know how to build a writing business that will last.

 

4 Comments

  • Jeremy Bouma

    Dean–going through the classic writing sci-fi workshop on my own right now and got to the time travel section. I’ve got a book 1 in a time travel series that I’m publishing but wonder if the new workshop would help, especially since you’re an expert craftsman on it all. So I’m interested in taking it but wonder about signing up using the the credit from the discounted Kickstarter. I believe it will end at the end of the month, but will that be enough time to cash it in and take the course?

    Thanks for doing this one!
    –jeremy

    BTW—two years ago I took you up on your first novel challenge, writing 3 books in 3 months during the summer—literally turning in my final manuscript from the hospital after my daughter was born! Have gone on to write 3 more in the series and really have found a wonderful audience for the religious thriller series after finally launching last June—such great fun, so owe you a HUGE debt of gratitude for helping those stories along and doing what you and Kris do. Keep doing what you’re doing—lots of people appreciate it 🙂

    • dwsmith

      Thanks, Jeremy. Glad something I did helped. Always great to hear. Thank you.

      And yes, if you get a discounted workshop through the Kickstarter going on right now for Kris’s Diving books, you can use that for the June workshops. As soon as the Kickstarter ends, I will contact you and get you the credits so you could take it for the Time Travel workshop no problem.

      Plus you get a lecture since the campaign has hit the first stretch goal and you will also get a classic workshop if it hits the next stretch goal. Plus some great reading from Kris.

      So yes, you can take the Time Travel or any workshop in June by supporting the kickstarter at the discounted workshop rate. No problem at all.

      And learning about time travel and all the fun parts of it will help you going forward and maybe help you from backing yourself into a time paradox corner. Those are no fun. (grin)