Projecting a Professional Persona When Pitching and Presenting When you think about pitching or presenting, does your anxiety spike?  Do you have a gut-grabbing, heart-ratcheting, vision-clouding visceral reaction?  If so, this lecture packet is for you. Writers pitch to agents, pitch to editors, introduce guest speakers.  They participate on panels, present workshops, give book signings.  […]

Learn how to write body language and dialogue cues from a kinesics specialist.  Writers will learn how to write fresh: 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 […]

Prerequisites: Empowering Characters’ Emotions Deep Editing:  The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More To meet the prerequisites, ECE and Deep Editing may have been taken as on-line courses, or as independent study with Lecture Packets. Lesson Plan: Part 1:  Digging Deep into the EDITS System Part 1 —  Addresses The Big Picture and the Nuances […]

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 hook-the-reader power. Participants will: Learn how to make a FINAL EDITING PASS be your last pass. Teacher Margie has asked two fabulous teachers to […]

Want to add a psychological punch to your writing and editing? Want to learn how to capture the full range of body language on the page? Want to turn your work into a page-turner by powering up emotion and hooking the reader viscerally? Look forward to learning: Teacher Margie has asked two fabulous teachers to […]

Romance novels comprise nearly half the mass market paperback sales, according to Romance Writers of America. If you are interested in becoming a part of this happily ever after industry, or just want to learn how to add a love story to your mystery, thriller or other genre novel, take a germ of an idea […]

For first-time authors, 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 […]

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, […]

Increasing the emotion in a novel is about a lot more than just adding a character death or a shocking family secret. Writers need to first create compelling characters who build a connection with the reader, then craft a plot that brings out the emotion, and develop strong backstory and motivations for the character’s actions. […]

This hands-on class helps writers understand how POV works, which POV to use based on the book, characters, and their author goals, and how to take a blah POV and turn it into something deeper and more emotional. We will talk about the impact of narrative, and show how a few simple tweaks in language […]

A one-month online only class that offers hands-on help revising a manuscript. We will work on chunks at a time, with feedback and critiquing from New York Times bestselling author Shirley Jump. The class will cover four main components of revision: plot structure, character depth, conflict and motivation, and show, not tell. Class size is […]

Editors love books that are character driven and have layered plots. Learn how to create novels with plots created by the characters themselves, using Shirley Jump’s Brainmap Technique, giving a stronger, more powerful--and more emotional story. If you're stuck in your writing, needing inspiration or just want to learn more about developing characters and developing […]

Mind-mapping: Using the Way We Think to Create Story Are you a pantster or a plotter? Or some combination of both ends of the spectrum? Most of us fall somewhere in the middle but, regardless, mind-mapping can launch your planning abilities into the stratosphere! A mind map is a simple tool that utilizes the way […]

A mechanic doesn’t pop the hood for the first time and immediately know what’s wrong with the car.  A pilot doesn’t slide into the cockpit without logging the required hours of training. A master author doesn’t magically hit the bestseller lists. A master author knows the basics. And there are a lot of basics to […]

Ever thought about writing your OWN story? Memoirs and autobiographies are the perfect way to connect with your family, to tell your story your way, and to create a lasting memory of who you are. In this class, we’ll: Explore the difference between an autobiography and a memoir Use themes to discover and organize memories […]

Are you running your writing like a business?  A better question may be “Should you run your writing like a business?” The answer is: YES!!   It’s not hard. Really! But most writers don’t think they need to be a business, mostly because so few of us make appreciable money at it. But it’s possible that utilizing […]

Tension belongs: In every book In every scene On every page Without it, who cares?  The whole story falls flat.  In this class, we’ll drill deep to find exactly what creates tension in a scene or a character and we’ll learn dozens of ways to make sure you’ll use Margie’s orange highlighter at all the […]

Sample edit, feedback, and coaching from a professional editor. Lessons cover preparing, responding to, finding, and choosing an editor. Interactive feedback gives you technical fine points and recommendations as well as critique and encouragement. Class members follow each other’s work and learn together.