Shirley Jump

March 5 - 30;  Fee: $30

Capitalize on this technique marketing gurus have used for years to find the "thought not thought of yet" and avoid duplicating a plot line, character quirk or other idea already out there (that you may have seen subconsciously). Then learn how to use this technique to take your writing deeper and draw out more emotion, more conflict...more of everything!

It's truly astounding when you see it in action. With this interactive class, New York Times bestselling author Shirley Jump will show you how to use "Shirley's Rule of Six" for everything from plot to word choice.

The result?

More powerful writing that has that unique touch editors today are looking to buy.

Instructor: Sharon Mignerey

March 5 - 30

Fee: $30

Most of the fiction writers I know have several books on character development that espouse all sorts of advice.

Most of that advice boils down to making sure character development includes two things: milieu and motivation. In a word, M&Ms.

Milieu is that wonderful French word that encompasses all aspects of a setting—the physical, social, and cultural. In this workshop, we look at this from the perspective of your protagonist’s history, comfort, and emotional connection.

Motivation, as all writers know, is key to having your characters move through a story in a way that feels natural and organic. Motivation includes the big “why” that drives the story question and the little “why” that focuses on what he wants in this scene right now.

Of all the techniques to build well-rounded characters, milieu and motivation provide the necessary fodder to create unforgettable characters.

Successful Authors Embrace Social Media-Early, Fast, and Often

Instructor: Tamela Buhrke

March 5 - 30;  Fee: $30

Fact: Social media will be a part of your life as a writer.  Your publisher will make you use it.  And if you self publish, it will be essential.

The most successful authors embrace social media early in their careers, often before they are published.  They use social media to build their platform. And when they are published they have far greater success, because they've already built a following of readers.

But many authors are misusing social media.  They play with it like a toy or grumble that it isn't doing anything for them.  Social networks are tools.  Like any tool, it is only as good as the person wielding it.  Find out how to use these social media tools successfully to build your career, build your readership, and sell more books!

Instructor:  Margie Lawson

Fee:  $40;  March 1 - 31

DEEP EDITING is for the writer who wants to psychologically impact the subconscious of the reader. For the writer who wants to learn fresh editing techniques. For the writer who wants to edit for power!

Class members will:

1) Learn the EDITS System and take it deeper. See the interplay of patterns on the page and analyze what's needed to strengthen the scene. This is not a broad-brush approach, it's a roll up your sleeves and get to work making a difference with your manuscript.

If you were introduced to Margie's EDITS System in her Empowering Characters' Emotions course, you'll learn how to expand the EDITS System in DEEP EDITING.

2) Learn 25 rhetorical devices and practice using them in your work. From anaphora to epistrophe, amplification to epizeuxis – learn how and when to use these techniques. Examples of rhetorical devices from best selling authors will motivate writers to follow their lead.

3) Develop skills by using worksheets provided in each lecture. The worksheets also serve as a handy reference for learning the rhetorical devices.

4) Learn Deep Editing tips including Margie's Five Q, back story management, power lines, SAPS, throw-away words, cliché twists, back loading, tautologies, and emotional hits.

5) Develop a personal editing checklist from the Master Editing Checklist offered in the course.

6) Learn how to make a FINAL EDITING PASS and make it be your last pass.

Instructor: Sharon Mignerey

April 2 - 27; Fee:  $30

Conflict … the foundation of great fiction. Models abound:

Goal, Motivation, & Conflict (Debra Dixon)

Goal, Conflict, & Disaster (Dwight Swain)

Three levels of Conflict (Robert McKee)

Not to mention inner conflict and outer conflict and story conflict. We all know what it is.

Still, the rejections come with notes to the effect of “the conflict between the characters just isn’t strong enough” or “the characters don/t struggle enough” or “the conflict isn’t believable.”

This workshop focuses on how to build believable conflict, how to test a character’s behavior in the midst of conflict, and how to keep the tension escalating to the story climax. .

77 Secrets To Writing Young Adult Fiction That Sells

Instructor: Tiffany Lawson Inman

April 1 - 30;   Fee: $30

Are YOU the next Suzanne Collins, Richelle Meed, Cassandra Claire, Veronica Roth, Darynda Jones, Richard Paul Evens, or Sara Zarr?

Make sure you are pushing the Bestselling Young Adult Fiction envelope with your writing craft and story. Agents want extraordinary voice, extraordinary story, extraordinary character.

Are you giving it to them?

No matter which YA sub-genre you write, including, Paranormal, Contemporary, Dystopian, Historical, Horror, Scifi, Fantasy, Mystery, YA writing has to be better than great to get published. YA writing has to be better than great to rise to the top of the ever increasing competition.

Course Topics:

• Writer’s-eyes-only Interviews with bestselling YA authors, YA super agents, YA debut authors


• Dissecting Top Ten YA fiction from 2010/11 for a prime learning experience, exposing layers of writing craft that will get you sold.


• Understanding Highs and Lows of the emotional teeter-totter underlying your character motivations


• Focus your authentic YA voice: dialogue, framework, phrasing – sometimes the only thing between you and the top of the pile.


• Talk the talk and walk the walk: solid characters/ characterization from protagonist to the neighbor kid working the counter at the pizza joint


• Learning Do’s and Don’ts of writing warm n’fuzzy and hot n’steamy


• Maneuvering between the delicate fibers of teenagers and their guardians


• Pulling your reader's psychological strings and manipulating the cinematography behind your POV's lens


• Extra Extra! Are you up for the challenge of co-authoring YA with your son/daughter?

Instructor: Lisa Miller

April 2 - 27

Fee: $30

Beautiful words and exciting scenes aren't enough to propel the reader through a novel. Stories need structure, a plan, a focus from beginning to end.

This class will guide you through the dense jungle of information about story. Our trek will include excursions into the lands of Story Structure and Transformational Character Arcs and Plot.

We’ll step back and explore the sweeping overview of several popular novels and movies to explain and reinforce the concepts. We’ll also take some intimate hikes to zoom in on the work and knowledge of plot and story structure superstars.

Throughout the class, I’ll share interviews with award-winning authors and writing experts including James Scott Bell, Nancy Pickard, Maria Lima, and Larry Brooks. They will discuss how they structure their stories for success. Editors, including Deborah Halverson, Lorin Oberweger, and plot consultant Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer, will talk about story structure strategies. Strategies that will strengthen your chance to sell.

Using a variety of techniques, you’ll have opportunities to infuse these ideas into your story, creating a tantalizing experience for the reader.

Martha Alderson:

Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer, helps writers find the plot and structure of their stories. Her Plot Whisperer blog, YouTube How to Plot a Novel, Memoir, or Screenplay series and upcoming book The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master are just a few of the tools she’s developed to help writers.

James Scott Bell:

James Scott Bell is a bestselling suspense writer. His books on craft, Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure, Write Great Fiction: Revision & Self-Editing and the Art of War for Writers are three of the most popular writing books available today.

Larry Brooks:

Larry Brooks is a critically-acclaimed bestselling author of four psychological thrillers, in addition to his work as a freelance writer and writing instructor. His Storyfix blog and craft book Story :: Mastering The Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing break down novel and screenplay writing process into specific developmental criteria, from concept to character to sequence and theme, with a vision for how all the parts come together to become a whole in excess of their parts.

Deborah Halverson:

Deborah Halverson edited children's books for ten years—until she climbed over the desk and tried out the author's chair on the other side. Now she is an award-winning author of books for young readers, including the teen novels Honk If You Hate Me and Big Mouth and Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies. She also has a site DearEditor.com to help authors.

Maria Lima:

Maria Lima is an Agatha Award nominee and author of the Blood Line series. Forget Transylvania, New Orleans, and St. Louis—Keira Kelly has to deal with supernatural Texas… Maria’s website tagline: I write dead people…no, really.

Lorin Oberweger:

Lorin Oberweger is a highly sought-after independent book editor and ghostwriter with more than twenty years experience in publishing. She offers writing seminars nationwide with Donald Maass and others, as well as Story Shaping Workshops, intensive one-on-one story development weekends for writers. In addition, she serves as Editor-in-Residence/Class Instructor for the renowned Writers Retreat Workshop.  An award-winning author, Lorin's poetry, short fiction, and articles have appeared in well over one-hundred periodicals.

Nancy Pickard:

Nancy Pickard is the author of eighteen popular and critically acclaimed novels. She has won multiple Agatha and Macavity awards for her novels. Two of her novels, The Virgin of Small Plains and The Scent of Rain and Lightning have been named Kansas Notable Books. The Virgin of Small Plains was the Kansas Reads Book of 2009. Nancy also puts her energy into teaching writers. She is the author of a how-to book for writers, 7 STEPS ON THE WRITER'S PATH.

Using out-of-your-chair acting techniques to invigorate your writing, reinvent what you know about yourself, and make your characters _______!

Instructor: Tiffany Lawson Inman

April 2 - 30

Fee: $30

No matter where you are in the writing process – this class will crack open your psyche to reveal dynamic character, motivation, and reaction; showing you how to activate emotion you never knew you had. Academy Award winning actors know how to show a truthful moment because they use exercise techniques during solo research and rehearsals.

From Madness to Method uses the father of all acting techniques, The Method Technique. Writers learn how to create the most real of moments. These exercises push the writer to enhance their emotional repertoire. This 10+ lecture class is for all genres, all levels of writers. The Method Technique will enable your story to live and breathe beyond the page.

From Madness to Method includes lectures, out-of-your-chair exercises, examples from multiple genres, and interviews with NYT bestsellers.

You will learn how to:

--Master the actions/reactions in simple to complex choreography

--Access your sense memories to fuel character emotion on the page

--Turn reality into fiction by awakening your innermost observational skills

--Thrust your story forward by using every facet of character

--Manage that pesky inner monologue and backstory

--Increase your character’s emotional authenticity

--Write with your scars

Instructor:  Margie Lawson

April 1 - 27;  Fee:  $40

Learn how to write body language and dialogue cues from a kinesics specialist. No more cliched, trite, and overused facial expressions.

Writers will learn how to write more than basic facial expressions, more than basic body lanugage, more than basic dialogue cues, and write them so well, I'd rate them NYT!

Writers will learn how to write fresh:

• Body Language Basics:  facial messages, lips, eyes, chin, full facial expression, flicker-face, gestures, posture, hierarchical zones . . .


• Body Language Clusters


• Avoidance and Deception Cues


• Vibes – beyond spidey senses and hair-raising


• Turning Points driven by subtle body language cues


• Body Language and Dialogue Cues for POV and Non-POV characters


• Body Language and Dialogue Cues with Rhetorical Devices


• Specific Emotion-driven full Kinesics Patterns for anxiety, fear, joy, sadness, lust, shock, surprise . . .


• Body Language and Dialogue Cues that include stimulus and response

Each teaching point will be illustrated with examples from bestselling authors, their excerpts dissected and analyzed.

Bonus Lecture from a Police Detective:  Body Language in the Police and Criminal Worlds -- Interrogations, Spotting Criminals, Hostage Negotiations

April: Fab 30: Advanced Deep Editing, A Master Class

Margie Lawson

April 2 - 27

Fee: $75

Taming WordPress: Create and Maintain Blogs and Websites

By Tamela Buhrke

Feb. 1 - 29;  Fee: $30

Need a blog and an author website?  WordPress does both!  Even better, because it is a content management program, it allows you to build, edit and maintain your site without having to pay anyone.  Because WordPress is FREE!

Have a new book cover?  Post it to your site with a click of a button.  Need to announce your upcoming book tour?  Create a calendar of events listing the locations of your signing or blog tours.  Want to make the site match your book covers?  There are hundreds of free themes and thousands of low cost design alternatives.

Wordpress helps you do it all! Saving you Time & Money!

But you can't benefit from all that WordPress has to offer, unless you know how to use it.

This class will be a hands-on, introductory class on how to use WordPress as your author website & blog.  Video lessons take you step-by-step through the process of creating and using your WordPress site.

You'll learn how to:- Get your domain name & hosting.
- Use the Wordpress dashboard, posts and pages.

- Find Themes and alter them to create a custom look to your site... or hire a designer.
- Make your site stand out on Google, Yahoo & Bing.

- Learn how to attract readers to your blog.
- Install and activate plugins for successful blogging.

Instructor:  C.J. Lyons

February 1 - 29;  Fee:  $30

Thrillers are hot! Look at any best-seller list and you'll find an overwhelming number of thriller novels. What makes a thriller different from other genres? How can you use techniques common to thrillers to make your own novels compelling, no matter the genre? And where the heck do those thriller writers come up with those ideas?

Join award winning thriller author CJ Lyons for an in depth discussion of the thriller genre. Topics covered will include: the genre in general, plotting and pacing, research, the quirks of thriller characters, and more.

Check out the BUZZ about C.J. Lyons' novels!

A breathtakingly fast-paced thriller. ~Publishers Weekly

The characters come alive on every page. ~Jeffery Deaver

The perfect blend of romance and suspense. ~Sandra Brown

A pulse-pounding adrenalin rush! ~Lisa Gardner

A great thriller—action packed, authentic, and intense. ~Lee Child

A great fast-paced read...not to be missed! ~4 ½ Stars, Book Addict

Harrowing, emotional, action-packed and brilliantly realized. ~Susan Wiggs

A great fast-paced read…not to be missed! ~4 ½ Stars, Book Addict

Simply superb… riveting drama… a perfect ten. ~Romance Reviews Today

“Fantastic” is not high enough praise. ~RT Book Reviews, Top Pick

An Actor’s Take On Writing Physicality, Choreography, and Action

Instructor: Tiffany Lawson Inman

"Tiffany Lawson is one of the best editors to ever critique my work. Her unique background (part actress, part editing wizard) helps people look beyond what's on the page. She forces writers to work on body language, emotions and cause-effect relationships, resulting in strong, believable worlds full of real people. Tiffany took my writing from blah to a lesson in excitement."

---- Koreen Clemens * Immersion Master Class Graduate

February 1 - 29; Fee: $30

Action creates a rhythm allowing the reader to breathe in sync with your characters. Physicality has the ability to highlight personality, relationship, and motivation. Choreography, in a fight or love scene, can expose the intricacies of your ever moving story.

Topics covered in this course:

- Fight Scenes: Physical. Learn how to brawl on the page from a certified Stage Combatant.

- Fight Scenes: Verbal. Words can be stronger than swords.

- All Scenes Have Rhythm: Plain Jane and G.I. Jane show how action plays a role.

- Multiple Character Scenes: As easy as 1-2-3.

- Emphasize personality, relationship, and motivation through small, simple details.

- Spotlight on the Backdrop: Using props and setting to move your story forward.

- Audition each character: Making sure each movement matches their personality.

- Manipulate the reader’s focus using tips from Broadway directors.

- Write your character deeper into conflict, with a flick of the wrist, and a punch of emotion.

*****Please note, these lectures and assignments apply to all genres.

There will be 2 lectures each week. Lectures include: examples pulled from NYT Best Sellers, scene dissection/manipulation, and editing tips. One assignment per week. Class members may be active or lurk and learn. Class members are encouraged to use this course to edit their current manuscript, or they may write fresh for each assignment.

Taking a Book from Good to Sold,

Instructor: Shirley Jump

New York Times Bestselling Author

USA Today Bestselling Author

Feb. 1 - 29;  Fee: $30

TAKE YOUR BOOK FROM GOOD TO SOLD: Ten Lessons Learned:

The biggest hurdle to selling is learning how to craft a book that is better than good. Good wins contests. Good gets requests for partials. Good sometimes gets a revision request.

But learning how to take "good" and turn it into "sellable" is the key to success. New writers may not see those small elements that make a big difference in a book's salability.

In this course, New York Times bestselling romantic comedy author Shirley Jump will share the ten lessons she learned that helped her take a book that had won the Tampa Area Romance Authors First Impressions contest and make it into one that was bought by Silhouette, plus how she turned formerly rejected books into single title sales.

The workshop will include discussion of the revision process and the various elements authors need to look for before considering their book ready for an editor's eyes. Today's editors don't have time to sit down with a fledgling writer and teach her how to take her novel to that next level. This workshop will fill in that final gap for the writer who is just ten lessons away from a sale.

Check out the BUZZ about Shirley Jump's novels!

"Sweet is the word for this anthology from four top Kensington writers...Jump's office romance gives the collection a kick, with fiery writing." -- Publishers Weekly

4 1/2 Stars, "With Jump's trademark comedic touch, readers are treated to a well-crafted story about what it means to come home to face yourself and your past. The main characters are sympathetic and intelligent, and the narrative is constently smooth and compelling." -- Romantic Times Book Reviews

Instructor:  Margie Lawson

February 1 - 29;  Fee:  $40

Platforms Aren't Shoes: Start Marketing BEFORE You Finish That Book!

By Tamela Buhrke

February 1 - 29;  Fee: $30

Many unwary authors wait to slip on an author platform, like a pair of new shoes, at their book launch.  Then they cry when their masterpiece doesn't sell.  Why didn't the book sell?  Was it poorly written?  Was it out of touch with the reader?  Nope.  The reason was that the average author platform takes three years to build.  THREE YEARS!  So if you didn't start building your platform before the book hit the stores, it would likely just sit there.  On the shelf.  Lonely.

What does that mean for you?  That means book sales will suffer.  That means your publisher will frown.  It might mean you won't get renewed.

And here's the question you are asking.... "But how do I build a platform when I don't have a finished book?"

Well, what if you had the tools?  A plan?  A method to implement them together?

In fact, what if you could develop your book's characters, your backstory and your marketing葉ogether?

Doing the same activities.  And possibly have some fun.

Maybe someday your publisher would smile and each book would go to a loving home.

It could happen....  if you take this class.

Instructor: Margie Lawson

Dates: June 18 - 29

Fee: $20

Do you need a psychological boost to put yourself back in charge of your writing life? This two week class will motivate both sides of your brain and give you a kick in the patoot.

Class members will receive brief lectures (2 to 3 pages) each weekday. The focus is on identifying needed changes, staging changes, and maintaining changes.

DSDB Power Punch is for graduates of Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors.

Prerequisite: Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors -- online class or Lecture Packets

To meet the prerequisite, order the DSDB Lecture Packet, CLICK HERE.

Thirty Margie-grads. Thirty days. Thirty-plus pages. Digging deep. Empowering scenes.

Instructor: Margie Lawson

January 2 - 30;  Fee:  $75

NOTE from MARGIE:

The Paypal payment system will be set up on Nov. 25th. My cyber magic needs a boost from my brilliant web designer.  :-)

Three Prerequisites:

1. Empowering Characters' Emotions

2. Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More

3. Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist

Do you want to dig deep into deep editing?

Do you want to take an advanced class with all Margie Grads?

Do you want Margie's Deep Edit Analysis for any 30+ pages of your WIP?

If so, this squeal-it's-a-deal class is for you!

Lectures will be short. Emphasis is on applying deep editing to your WIP.

We'll focus on making each word, line, sentence, paragraph, page, and scene provide a clear, smooth, empowered read.

Enrollment is limited to 30.

Join me in Fab 30 and give your writing and writing career a boost!

Instructor:  Margie Lawson

January 2 - 30;  Fee:  $30

Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors

This class is CLOSED.

Don't worry - Go back to the course list: FEBRUARY TRIPLE THREAT is STILL OPEN!