Margie Lawson

“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.“

“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.”

“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!”

“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!”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

Margie, I hear you in my head and I use your lessons.

Here are some ways I apply your lessons:

• When I know a scene isn’t working and I don’t know why, I get out my multiple highlighters and EDITS the hell out of it. That always tells me why it’s “wrong.”
• When the emotion of this memoir is too much for me, I think about all the families that need this story, and suck it up.
• When I want to be lazy or I hate a sentence, I hear your voice telling me that cliches and boring sentences are an invitation to readers skip or put down a story.
• When I don’t want to write, I hear you in my head saying “NYT! NYT!” and it draws me to the keyboard to “earn me some of that.”

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.