NEORWA Upcoming Workshops
MARCH 2012
VICKIE AND BERTIE: RESEARCHING THE VICTORIAN OR EDWARDIAN TALE (WITH OR WITHOUT A STEAMPUNK TWIST)
INSTRUCTOR: Beth Daniels
WHEN: March 1 to March 29
WORKSHOP:
It’s familiar, it’s the past, it’s popular. What is it? The modern 19th century novel. That is, a modern novel SET in the 19th century.
It can be a Regency, sure, but that’s really the Georgian Era. When we think 19th century, we’re more likely to picture the Victorian age and then slip into the Edwardian, which is really early 20th century, but not all that different in many ways.
In 4 weeks this workshop looks at all things Victorian and Edwardian: wardrobes, weapons, entertainments, songs, cant/slang, inventions, science…well, a lot of what a writer needs to know about in building their own Victorian or Edwardian world.
We’ll also take a stroll into Steampunk where all things Victorian and Edwardian are celebrated and warped, twisted, and mutated into an alternative historical.
This is an information laden workshop that will pose some Challenges to participants in shorting out what they need, give some suggestions on finding the answers, or guiding anyone interested in tinkering with history for their own means.
Some of the things mentioned are coinage, where to shop for a Worth gown, why walking sticks really don’t have swords in them but could, and what a wonder maps are in charting your way about a London town that no longer exists.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Workshop presenter Beth Daniels is the author of WRITING STEAMPUNK in addition to 26 novels, some short stories, and articles about writing fiction. A native of Ohio, she holds a BA in History and a MA in Composition and Rhetoric but after over a dozen years of drumming essay writing into college freshman opted for doing a plethora of online workshops for fiction writers as a far more satisfying occupation. Visit her, or one of her pseudonyms, at www.Romance And Mystery?.com. _____________________________________________________________________
APRIL 2012
SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF FICTION
INSTRUCTOR: Susan Palmquist
WHEN: April 2 to April 16
WORKSHOP:
You’ve heard of the Seven Deadly Sins and in this workshop you’ll learn about the Seven Deadly Sins of Fiction. Costly mistakes that make you look like an amateur, weaken your writing and earn you an instant rejection. This workshop will outline those seven sins and show you ways to avoid and correct them.
ABOUT THE INSTURCTORS:
Susan Palmquist is a freelance writer and author of six novels, four of which are romances. She’s also a published short story writer who’s been published in both the US and UK and two of her stories have recently appeared in anthologies. Under her pen name, she’s bestselling author Vanessa Devereaux who writes erotic romances and erotica.
Susan also writes a weekly money saving blog at called The Budget Smart Girl’s Guide to the Universe and is a writing tutor for Writers’ News School in the UK and is and will be teaching workshops for several chapters of RWA throughout 2012.
During her time tutoring she often sees the seven deadly sins occur time and time again. Knowing what they are can help writers spot and avoid them.
For more information about Susan, visit www.susanpalmquist.com, www.vanessadevereaux.com, and www.budgetsmartgirl.com
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MAY 2012
THE TOP SEVEN EDITING MISTAKES AS SEEN BY AN UNDERCOVER EDITOR
INSTRUCTOR: Em Petrova
WHEN: May 7 to May 28
WORKSHOP:
In this workshop, discover the top seven mistakes I see as an editor and learn how to fix them quickly and effectively. Topics include information on grammar, punctuation, plot threads and characterization.
From this three-week long class, which posts 3 times per week, you’ll find out how to make the most of the time you spend editing. LESSON 1: Introduction and Welcome LESSON 2: Crazy Punctuation LESSON 3: Far-out names and their misspellings LESSON 4: Overuse of the same sentence structure LESSON 5: Characterization errors LESSON 6: Walking the Dog LESSON 7: Weak LESSON 8: Dangling Plot Threads Wrap-up
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Em Petrova lives in backwoods Pennsylvania, where she raises four kids and two feral kittens and pays too damn much for utilities. But seeing her sexy husband tromp out back with a chainsaw in hand is well worth the frustration of living miles from a mall. She adores writing sex scenes and anything paranormal. When she has the opportunity to mix the two, she’s in her element. You can learn more about her smutty reads at www.empetrova.com.
Em Petrova has over twenty contracted works of erotic romance as well as mainstream paranormal romance under her pseudonym Em Peters. When she’s not lost in her writings, she’s editing for a small press, so she knows how to crunch a minute and create two.
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JUNE 2012
WORD FOR WRITERS
INSTRUCTOR: Catherine Chant
WHEN: June 4 to June 29
WORKSHOP:
"Microsoft Word for Writers" focuses on teaching you the aspects of the Word program that are most useful for writers. Lessons include: proper manuscript formatting, creating headers/footers, working with page numbers, creating a manuscript template, customizing the toolbars, understanding/ customizing the Auto-Correct feature, and using the Work menu or Recent Documents menu as a shortcut to work with multiple documents at the same time. Other subjects that will be covered include: formatting the query letter, creating a query letter template, creating envelopes and SASE labels, using Track Changes to work with critique partners, and backing up your computer files.
This workshop is geared toward both Windows and Macintosh users with any version of Microsoft Word between 1997 and 2011.
Pre-requisites: A copy of MS Word? and basic knowledge of how to open the program, create a file, save a file, print a file and type words on the screen (very BASIC Word commands); the lessons in the workshop will teach you how to use those MS Word? commands related to novel writing in a step-by-step fashion.
ABOUT THE INSTURCTOR:
Catherine Chant is an award-winning writer from New England. She is a PRO member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA), a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and webmaster for her RWA chapter, From the Heart Romance Writers (fthrw.com). A graduate of Boston College, she worked for fifteen years at her alma mater as a computing & communications consultant and now provides freelance web editing and design services to other writers and clients such as BC's Lynch School of Education. Her short fiction and non-fiction work has appeared in RWA newsletters, Character S?, School Arts?, Metro Kids?, Twilight Times, Apollos Lyre, and various instructional websites where she writes about computers, gaming and crafts. Her young adult time travel romance WISHING YOU WERE HERE was a finalist in the 2008 Golden Heart® awards. She is currently working on a new young adult novel.
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JULY 2012
WRITING STEAMY SEX SCENES: MAKING YOUR READERS BEG FOR MORE
INSTRUCTOR: Suzanne Rock
WHEN: July 2 to July 23
WORKSHOP:
Writing a good sex scene takes hard work. If an author isn’t careful, he or she can be caught up in clichés and euphemisms, both of which can detach the reader from the story. By contrast, a great sex scene can give the reader new insight into the characters and their relationship, as well as further the plot or expand a theme. In this course we will focus on the key elements that make a sex scene memorable and learn how to use writing tools such as prose, scenery, dialogue, and point-of-view to create scenes that both you and your readers will love.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
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AUGUST 2012
FLASHBACKS THAT PLEASE YOUR EDITOR AND DON'T CONFUSE YOUR READER
INSTRUCTOR: MM, English teacher extraordinaire
WHEN: August 13 to August 25
WORKSHOP:
Flashbacks present a problem with verb tenses. Since a flashback is past, but you’re writing in past tense, how do you show the flashback is more past than past? Confused? Trust me, you aren’t the only one. Editor Laurie Sanders says that the poorly written flashback is one of the reasons she rejects manuscripts.
Flashbacks are a device that a writer must use with care, or she might lose her reader in that distant past, never to see that reader again. We’ll consider kinds of flashbacks, uses for flashbacks, and reasons not to use flashbacks.
Lesson Outline: Homework with every lesson with instructor feedback
Lessons 1 and 2: Kinds of flashbacks
Lesson 3: Uses for flashbacks
Lesson 4: Reasons not to use flashbacks
Lesson 5: How to write flashbacks, using past perfect tense
Lesson 6: How to write flashbacks, using past tense
Reward for doing your homework: If you post all of your homework when due, the Queen will proofread your 1,000-word submission for grammar, usage, and punctuation errors. Critiquing story elements like point of view and character development she leaves to publishers.
ABOUT THE INSTURCTOR:
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SEPTEMBER 2012
SHOW UP NAKED: WRITING THE MALE POV
INSTRUCTOR: Chris Redding
WHEN: September 3-29
WORKSHOP:
Chris Redding will take you on a funny and fun journey of discovery about men including why they act the way they do and how they express emotions. She’ll talk about how our society has socialized them and they stages they go through in life. At the end of class you will be able to write more realistic male characters while keeping them larger than life heroes.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Chris Redding grew up in a neighborhood with more boys than girls and learned to love baseball and hate Barbies. She spent much of her life in male dominated professions including pizza delivery and Emergency Medical Services. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. She has five books published, all romantic suspense.
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OCTOBER 2012
INSTRUCTOR:
WHEN:
WORKSHOP:
ABOUT THE INSTURCTORS:
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