Immersion Master Classes are five-day intensives at my home in Colorado -- or anywhere in the world. I love teaching writers how to add just the right amount of power to make their writing soar.
Five writers, mastering Deep Editing, digging deep, making their writing NYT strong! My Immersion Master Classes will help you transform your manuscript into a page-turner.
Immersion classes listed in Denver are held at my home at the top of a mountain, forty minutes from Boulder. Hotels are too far away, so Immersioners stay at my house.
Over 350 writers are Immersion Grads. And most of them have taken more than one Immersion class.
I've taught Immersion classes all over the U.S., including Albuquerque, Amarillo, Amelia Island (Florida), Atlanta, Canyon Lake (Texas), Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Gilroy (California), Houston, Los Angeles, Napoleon (Ohio), Palm Springs, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Jose, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., Whidbey Island, and in Yosemite National Park.
I've been back to teach Immersions in some of those cities five, six, and seven times.
I've taught Immersions in Australia too. In Sydney, Melbourne, Bellbrae, Coffs Harbour, Brisbane, Coolangatta, and at Nine Mile Beach in Tasmania.
Can't leave out the 7-day cruises! I've taught for Write at Sea and Cruising Writers too. And I'm planning to offer an Immersion Cruise for five lucky writers in late 2023 or early 2024.
I'm also planning to teach an Immersion class in Scotland as well as several in Australia in 2023.
Virtual Immersion Classes
We have BOTH virtual and in-person immersion classes available. If you can't make it to an Immersion Class in person, virtual Immersions through Zoom are a fabulous option. Some are two full days, others are four half-days.
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.
(Given today's frequent flight delays, some of you may want to fly in a day ahead and stay at a hotel near the airport. If that sounds good to you, check with us for hotel recommendations.)
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 the national forest land fifty yards from Margie's home or relax in Adirondack chairs on her deck.
Immersioners on Whidbey Island.
Total immersionin Deep Editing techniques and systems, including:
Deep Editing Tools
Writing Fresh
Openings
Endings
Facial Expressions and Dialogue Cues
Visceral Responses
Character Descriptions
The EDITS System
20+ Rhetorical Devices
The Four Levels of Powering Up Emotion
Turning Points, Turning Points, Turning Points
No worries! Margie provides packets 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.
Fee
2022 Virtual Immersion Class Registration Fee: $400 USD
2022 In Person Immersion Class Registration Fee: $1200 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 in person fee includes the intensive class, plus:
Two Dinners
Four Breakfasts
Four Lunches
Brain-food snacks, fitness snacks, and comfort snacks
If the class is at Margie's house, lodging is included as well!
The group goes out to dinner twice. Those two dinners are the only meals not included in the registration fee.
Immersion Schedule in Denver
Day 1: Arrival:
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
Day 2:
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!
Day 3:
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.
Day 4:
8:30 – 12:30: Deep Editing Power
12:30 – 1:30: Lunch
1:30 – 6:30: Individual Deep Editing Sessions with Margie
A two minute drive from Margie’s home, transportation provided.
Day 5:
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.
LODGING: Margie's House
Margie's house has space for 5 immersioners.
Contact Information
If you're interested in an Immersion class anywhere in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., in a castle in southern France, wherever...contact Margie using the form below.
Interested in hosting an Immersion class in your city? In your country? Contact Margie.
Immersion Fun Photo Gallery!
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAElizabeth Essex in her first Immersion ClassImmersioners in Melbourne, Australia, October, 2018Atlanta Immersion Class, Nov. 2018Elizabeth Essex in her first Immersion Class.Award-Winning author Elizabeth Essex in her second Immersion class. Jeannie Ruesch won the Immersion Package on the Diabetes Auction last year. She has two books out with Carina Press.Prose Pros Immersion Class2017 March Immersion on Riss BeachAlice Yu flew from Hong Kong for Immersion class at Margie's house.Immersioners in AtlantaDottie Adamek flew to Denver from Melbourne, Australia. Here she is in her first of four Immersion classes, eating her first s'more. Joan Swan in the first of four Immersion classes. Now she's an NYT Bestseller!Laura Drake in her first Immersion class. She went on to win a RITA with the book she worked on in Immersion.Immersion class in Canmore, Alberta, Canada:
First Row, Left to Right: Trish Loye, Roxanne Snopeck, Stina Lindenblatt, Angela Ackerman
Last Row, Left to Right: PJ Carmichael, Elizabeth Kelly, Margie Lawson, Steena Holmes, Vicki TharpKristin Meachem from Melbourne, Australia, in her first of three Immersion classes.
Immersion Buzz
Debra Getts
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.
Debra Getts
Kathleen Baldwin
“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.“
"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!"
Alex Ratcliff
2012 Daphne Finalist
Christina Delay
"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."
Thanks for sharing so the people who haven't had the joy of Immersing with you can hear a version of your voice in their heads too.
"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!"
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 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.”
“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!”
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.
B.A. Mealer
Immersion helped me find problems I didn't know I had.
When I started writing, I was happy with everything I wrote. Then I joined a critique group and found I had problems I didn’t know I had. One member of the critique group, Laura Drake, led me to Margie Lawson.
Before taking her Immersion Class, I stumbled over the same problems again and again. Most slips related to avoiding writing about characters’ emotions. Her Immersion Class helped me to identify where my problems were and how to fix them.
But it didn’t stop there. Her courses are chock full of tricks and tips I never would have thought of and hadn’t found elsewhere. When you take her Immersion Class, keep a notebook on her ‘Easter Eggs,’ asides she doesn’t have in her written courses. You’ll be glad you did.
Roger W. Manning, PhD
Immersion Success
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.
Stacey Jackson: 14 Margie classes (LWA COURSES) in 7 months (incl. 2 pkts and 1 virtual immersion)
Wow. Just wow. I have witnessed the magic of Margie. There are so many classes offered through Lawson Writer's Academy, so many I plan to take, and so many to take again. It’d be crazy to go a month without one.
Why?
Because my writing has gone from ordinary to extraordinary, from forgettable to fantastic, from kindergarten to college, just like that, in seven short months, including a virtual immersion class.
My critique partners are top of the heap Margie grads, grads who GET IT, grads who push me. Gratitude.
Stacey Jackson
Nikki Duncan
"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."