Margie Lawson
Changing your Writing World
In the last eight years I've taught over 140 Immersion Master Classes. Enrollment is limited to eight per class.
Some classes are held in my home west of Denver, Colorado. But I also teach Immersion classes in other cities. And countries.
Immersion classes listed in Denver are held at my home at the top of Coal Creek Canyon. I live an hour west of Denver, thirty minutes from Boulder.
Immersioners book rooms at the Eldora Lodge. It's a two minute walk from my house.
SCROLL DOWN to see the prerequisites for Immersion Master Classes.
SCROLL WAY DOWN to learn about booking a room at the Eldora Lodge for Denver Immersion classes.
These three on-line courses or lecture packets:
***IMPORTANT NOTE***
Attending a full day master class does not meet the prerequisites.
You must take the on-line courses or complete the lecture packets.
Transportation is provided from Denver International Airport to Margie's home.
Scheduling Your Flights: If possible, schedule your flight to arrive at Denver International Airport between 12 - 3 on Day 1 (closer to noon is better) and schedule your flight to depart after 3:30 on Day 5. If you need to schedule flights at different times, contact Margie Lawson.
BRING a minimum of 150 pages (printed, on one side, double spaced, in a binder), or a full manuscript (first 150 pages printed).
THE PROCESS: Margie will review her Deep Editing techniques and analysis. She works with the group in the mornings and with writers individually in the afternoons. Each writer’s voice and style remain intact, while psychological power is enhanced.
Participants may take breaks in the afternoons. They can walk in national forest land fifty yards from Margie's home or relax in Adirondack chairs on the deck.
Total immersion in Deep Editing techniques and systems, including:
No worries! Margie provides review sheets for each topic.
Participants will analyze and apply Deep Editing strategies to their scenes in layers, with hands-on direction and Deep Editing critique from Margie.
Please inform Margie of special dietary needs.
Immersion class is brain-stretching work. We take short breaks to get out of the house and out of our heads.
2020 Immersion Class Registration Fee: $875 USD
Fifty percent of the registration fee is refundable until two months before class. Less than two months before class, the fee is not refundable.
The fee includes the intensive class, plus:
The group goes out to dinner twice. Those two dinners are the only meals not included in the registration fee.
If possible, book your flight to arrive between 12-3. Closer to noon is better.
Kick-off Dinner at Margie’s Home (or Immersion host's home) ---- Meet, Greet, and Eat!
4:30 PM (or earlier) - 6 PM Meet and Greet and Start Working
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM Dinner
8:30 – 12:00: Deep Editing Power
12:00 – 12:45: Lunch and Learn
1:00 – 4:00 Individual Deep Editing Sessions with Margie
4:00 – Drive to Boulder -- transportation provided
4:30 – Margie works in coffeehouse with last two immersioners in their one-on-one sessions. Others enjoy Pearl Street, shopping, soaking up the ambiance. They can also work in the coffeehouse.
7:00 - Dinner in Boulder at the Russian Tea House, Dushanbe.
Dinner -- Fair game for edu-fun!
Rhetorical Ping Pong: Using rhetorical devices in conversation. Review sheets permitted!
8:30 – 12:30: Deep Editing Power
12:30 – 1:30: Lunch
1:30 – 6:00: Individual Deep Editing Sessions with Margie
6:00'ish -- Casual dinner at the house. Margie keeps working with some individuals after dinner.
Other IMC'ers may work together, or alone, or retire to the lodge.
8:30 – 12:30: Deep Editing Power
12:30 – 1:30: Lunch
1:30 – 6:30: Individual Deep Editing Sessions with Margie
7:00: Dinner at Wondervu Restaurant --
A two minute drive from Margie’s home, transportation provided.
If possible, book your flight to leave after 3:30 pm.
8:00 - 12:30: Immersion Class Wrap-Up and Early Lunch at Margie's
-- Transportation provided to and from Denver International Airport
Attending an Immersion class that's not at Margie's home? The schedule is the same.
In Denver, Immersion class members stay at the Eldora Lodge next to Margie’s home. You can see the lodge deck from Margie’s deck.
If you're attending an Immersion class held in another city, or another country, you'd stay at a hotel in the area.
The Eldora Lodge discounts rooms for Immersion Master Class participants:
- Rooms for Immersioners are discounted $10/night when you check in.
- Rooms have microwave, frig, and access to deck with new hot tubs
- Magnificent view over the canyon
- There are single rooms and rooms available to share.
- Check out more pictures of the Eldora Lodge on their website.
The Eldora Lodge only has nine rooms. Book early!
Reserve rooms through the Eldora Lodge web site. If you have questions regarding lodging, call: 303-642-7181
Immersion is one of those things that's hard to describe. You really have to experience it to understand how absolutely mind-blowing amazing it is. Margie teaches more than just editing techniques. She teaches how to breathe a soul into your manuscript.
"Margie Lawson's Immersion Master Class immerses writers in tips and techniques designed to deliver depth and emotion and richness to the stories we love to write. I now read and write on a new level that makes every story a new excitement."
"Since June of 2013 Margie Lawson has a special label on all my drafts—AM—meaning After Margie. Margie’s Immersion Classes have changed my writing style. Forever. Her deep editing has enabled me to detect errors before being ripped to shreds at weekly edit group. My husband (who hates to spend money and formerly hated seeing a piece of type written words in my hand) now asks to read or listen to my latest rewrite. Thanks, Margie!"
“I was amazed at the personal attention Margie gives each student in her deep immersion class. Her one-on-one sessions transformed my approach to editing. So many light bulbs went off in my brain it felt like a paparazzi attack. WARNING: you may need a seven day nap afterward just to absorb it all. I picked up tools and techniques I’ll use for the rest of my career.
Margie Lawson teaches new writers the high level skills they need to write masterful prose, but she also works with strong experienced writers to help them become even stronger. Not only that, but Margie taught me to trust my instincts. That was huge and I’ll be forever grateful.“
Two days of Virtual Immersion with Margie refreshed what I learned from the core classes and added a good deal of new material. I am excited to use it all! The one-on-ones with Margie were enjoyable and educational. She showed me specifically how to improve my ms and gave me great guidance on how to improve my writing. My writing mind is full and happy and my skill set is empowered.
If you want to put the 'wow' factor, or the OMG in your novels, this is the place to learn how. Margie's classes take you from decent to excellent with her EDITS system, Visceral Response, Body Language, and Dialogue tags. Amazing how simple changes that aren't always easily seen can take you from plain to outstanding. Thank you Margie for teaching me how to be that writer I knew I could be but didn't know how to get there.
“Margie Lawson’s courses taught me how to bring out my voice, stand out from other authors, and sell! After taking several courses and graduating from Immersion, I signed a 3-book contract based on a three paragraph outline and seven pages of the first book. Here’s what NYT’s best-selling author Jayne Ann Krentz said about my latest single title release, Blue Rules: Sharp, sassy, modern version of a screwball comedy from Hollywood’s Golden Age except a lot hotter.”
Margie, I hear you in my head and I use your lessons.
Here are some ways I apply your lessons:
“Having completed an on-line writing course which was beyond disappointing, I swore never to waste my money and do another on-line course again. I was reading Randy Ingermanson’s book and he recommended Margie’s lectures, and I trusted the man, so I bought one.
I was still reading lecture one when I went back on Margie’s website and bought two more packs and signed up for my first course. I knew immediately Margie was a unique teacher. So I have evolved from POV shifts, linear load issues, vagueness, clichés, accidental rhetorical devices and echo words, to backloaded sentences, scene themed descriptions, empowered passages, fresh writing, using rhetorical devices such as zeugmas and anaphoras, and using my ear for cadence driven sentences.
Thanks to Margie, I now call myself a writer. I was at Margie’s Immersion class when the bones of the story for Ten Seconds came to me. It may be my story, but I credit Margie for giving me the craft to write a story which won a contest.
Thank you Margie, and I’ll be back to your house on the mountain as soon as I can!”
I’ve attended several of Margie Lawson’s immersion classes. They are a game changer. Her instruction made me not only look at the overall story, but also each individual word so they delivered the punch I needed to make my work stand out. A title I worked on during my first Margie Lawson immersion class was recently picked up by a Dutch Publisher. Thank you Margie for making me want to be better and do better.
"I learned more at Immersion then I have in years of conferences and classes. Margie taught me how to revise and edit effectively and efficiently. Immersion on the mountain gave me an award winning first chapter and my Immersion sisters gave me insights, brainstorming sessions, and the chance to connect with an amazingly talented group of writers."
"I just completed my second immersion master class, this one on the advanced side. Margie doesn't write your book for you, nor does she teach the cliche show don't tell. Margie teaches you to show AND tell AND all the while let's you learn for yourself what you are capable of as a writer."
"Margie’s online courses and Immersion Master Class have strapped me into a skill-building machine for writers. With her help, in one year I moved from a can’t-write-a-fresh-line beginner to a Daphne finalist. Wow!"
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