CLASSES OFFERED
Romance Writing: The Comprehensive Beginner Course
A comprehensive, detailed look at the core aspects of writing a romance novel. The goal is to give you the tools to get you from idea generation to finishing a solid first draft.
What We’ll Cover
idea generation and selection
confidence to start
pre-writing decisions
plotting strategies
character creation (a deep dive)
goal/motivation/conflict
point of view
setting
timeline
three-act structure
screenwriting techniques for fiction writers
elements of great beginnings
wrangling messy middles
creating satisfying endings
specifics of the romance genre
what to do when you complete that first draft
How to Write Love Scenes Readers Won’t Skip
Whether you're writing sweet, sexy, or melt-the-pages romance, no one wants to write love scenes that have readers skimming the pages. This course in an in-depth workshop on writing great love scenes. Learn how to write different types of love scenes, how to make them memorable and not cringe-worthy, and how to tailor them to your genre or subgenre. You'll also dig into the components of a great love scene (spoiler: it has very little to do with choreography.) And finally, you'll learn how to get past any my-mom/dad-might-read-this qualms. It can be done!
Note: This is a workshop for 18+ age group.
What We’ll Cover
Do you need that love scene?
Four different types of love scenes
How to write a great love scene
Building tension before the big moment(s)
Components of a great love scene (digging into topics such as conflict, language, sensory detail, POV, timing, etc.)
The Centerpiece Love Scene
What will turn a sexy scene cold
How to get over my-mother-may-read-this fear
Examples including excerpts from books and movie clips will be used to illustrate the concepts.
Next Level Romance: The Advanced Course
What is next-level romance writing? For me, it's not about the minutiae of writing. It’s not about a particular technique. It’s about big picture craft and confidence and putting trust in our creativity. I hope this class will help you with those things.
*This class is meant for romance writers, so if you're not writing a subgenre of romance, this isn't the class for you.
What this class is NOT:
How to plot
How to promote/sell
The basics of writing romance (that’s what the beginner class is)
A class about love scenes (check out the Love Scenes class instead)
A class about the minutiae of writing that will make you overthink everything and get stuck
What this class IS:
Big picture advice on things like voice, character, theme, tropes, and beginnings that can level up your writing
The mental game of writing and how to set yourself up for a sustainable writing career
It’s one romance writer telling you, after more than a decade of writing, “Here’s what I wish I'd known earlier.”
Topics covered:
Finding your author voice
Theme in your stories
Diving deeper into characterization
Unlikable characters and antiheroes
Leveling up your story opening
Grand gestures
Using tropes in romance
10 straight-talk things I want to tell you, writer to writer, to help you have a long, healthy, and happy career.
NOTE: If you have not taken my Romance Writing: The Comprehensive Beginner Course and are not an experienced writer, I strongly recommend you take that one first. This class is meant for those who already have a working knowledge of the foundational topics covered in that course. (You can review the topics covered in that course here.)
Fighting For Focus: Productivity for Writers
Ever feel like you’ve worked all day but didn’t get anything worthwhile done? Are you constantly busy but fewer words make it onto the page? Feel exhausted and scattered by the end of the day? You’re not alone. This is the age of distraction. But as writers, many of those distractions (social media, chatting with readers, book research) are part of the job, so moving to an off-the-grid cabin probably isn’t an option. However, with so many things competing for our attention and time, when are we supposed to do that thing we do—write? This workshop will show you how you can take back your focus, retrain your distracted brain, and reclaim your writing time, while still balancing the other things that need to get done.
What We’ll Cover:
How to retrain your brain to focus
How to tackle the distractions, social media beast, and your phone
How to take back your writing/creative time
How to set up a personalized schedule for success
How to work with your personality to increase your productivity
How to spend more time doing meaningful work instead of just being busy
The Nourished Writer: Self-Care for the Writing Life
Being a writer is a "dream job." It's that type of career that many of us fantasized about when we were kids, making up stories while we lay in bed, creating characters from nothing, conjuring up whole new worlds in the dark. Being a writer seemed downright magical.
So, for those of us who actually reached out and grabbed that dream, it can sometimes be a shock when not every aspect of it is laced with pixie dust. Turns out, writing is hard work. Writing is deadlines. Writing is a business--with all the complicated things business entails. And if we're not careful, the writing life can start to look less like a dream and more like a nightmare.
Why trust me?
After 13+ years in the business and 25+ published books, I've seen both sides, and I've learned the hard way that if you don't take care of yourself and find balance in your writing life, it can wear you down and burn you out. So, I've created this class because crying under our desks during deadline time, unshowered, eating potato chips and gummy bears, and trembling from overcaffeination should not be the norm.
Wait, is that not standard operating deadline procedure for you? Then maybe you need another class. ;) But for those of you who were like, "Well, yeah, but my snacks of choice are Doritos and Red Bull," then read on...
The term “self-care” has devolved into a marketing pitch for facials and pedicures, so that's not going to be what we're talking about here. What I'm talking about in this class is true nourishment. Physical, mental, and emotional/spiritual nourishment. Writers who have depleted themselves trying to keep up with this career and their home life and day jobs and and and need more than a pedicure and a massage to feel good again. We need nourishment in all forms if we’re going to make it long-term in this job (and in life) so that's what I'll be covering in this class.
What We'll Cover:
Physical health and the specific challenges for writers (food, movement, ergonomics, vitamin deficiencies, hormones, etc.)
Mental health (pressure on writers, post-publication blues, comparison, identity as a writer, losing your reading life/hobbies, struggling with focus, etc.)
Handling writing industry stressors (deadlines, contracts, pressure for speedy publication, promotions/marketing, bad reviews, etc.)
How to set healthy boundaries in your personal and professional life
How to create a sustainable, long-term writing career
Plus, ample opportunity for Q&A
Not ready to join a class?
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