Three Years

August Online Workshops

Still lots of room in these except the Short Story workshop. It is now sold out, but the two new ones still have room. All details at www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com

THE WORKSHOPS START ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY…

Letters will go out to everyone who is signed up Saturday night late.

Class #11… Aug 2nd … The Business of Writing
Class #12… Aug 2nd … Expectations (Writing on the Rails)
Class #13… Aug 2nd … Writing Mysteries
Class #14… Aug 2nd … Ideas into Stories
Class #15… Aug 2nd … Teams in Fiction
Class #16… Aug 3rd … Depth in Writing
Class #17… Aug 3rd … Plotting With Depth
Class #18… Aug 3rd … Writing Fiction Sales Copy
Class #19… Aug 3rd … Writing and Selling Short Stories (Full)
Class #20… Aug 3rd … Advanced Depth

Classic Workshops and Lectures are also available at any time.

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Topic of the Night: Expectations Workshop

I had no doubt that the Expectations workshop would not have many people signed up for it and I was right. It met my expectations. (grin)

But this week I have been recording the first part of it and having fun.

The reason I wanted to do this workshop even though few would take it was because I wanted to help myself even more. I wanted to understand at a much deeper level why readers stayed with a book, what reader expectations are for any given book, and how to avoid messing up the reader expectation of a book when possible.

Now, of course, this topic is very, very complex and something most early-stage writers would go “Huh?” Early stage writers think about the sentences, not the readers they are trying to entertain. I got that and that’s fine.

As I have said before, I do these workshops for me, to keep learning. That’s why I teach, why Kris teaches as well. And honestly, today, after working through the first two weeks of the Expectations workshop, I was surprised at how much it helped me get a few things in my own writing in focus.

The first week of these workshops usually contain just the basics to get started. But the basics of this one made me look at things completely differently again. And I found that exciting, to be honest.

Now granted, I’m deep into stage four as a writer, where my focus is on the reader, not the words or the typing. So this kind of study of reader expectations would interest me.

And the first assignment is just fantastic fun. I tried to do it on the fly and didn’t do it that well for the video, but after I was done with the video, I did it in writing, basically doing the assignment myself, and realized I had found something really fun to do in general. Maybe the most fun and challenging assignment in any workshop. Weird, but true.

So in essence, we could have called this workshop “Reader Control” instead of Expectations or Writing on the Rails. Or maybe a better way of talking about this workshop would be Writer Control. The workshop helps a writer learn control in areas the writer didn’t know needed to be controlled, which in turn keep the reader satisfied with the book.

Yeah, something like that. But at least I’m learning and having fun. And with these workshops, that’s what really matters. Because the moment I stop being interested, passionate, and learning with the workshops, they will be gone.

Anyone who knows me knows that I bore easily. (grin)

These two new workshops are far from boring, that’s for sure.

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The Writing of Freezeout: A Cold Poker Gang Novel