In the last month or so, I’ve had the chance to get out from behind my desk and hold a couple of workshops with some amazing writers, which is my favorite things to do in the whole wide world.
The Writers League of The Villages
The Writers League of The Villages invited me to conduct two workshops on April 28, 2017. In the morning gathering, we focused on how to turn the moments of our lives into memoir in a session called, appropriately enough, Moments to Memoir. We discussed the difference between memoir and autobiography, explored some of the many approaches to writing life stories, and walked through a systematic process to decide if the scope of our moment is too large for one story.
For the afternoon session, Make Your Stories Shine, writers of all genres filled the room to learn more about the different types of editing and when to use each. We then walked through a process of editing they could use to revise their stories. I also showed them how using editing software provides a more objective analysis, resulting in efficient and effective storytelling.
Congratulations to Judith Lapham and Nancy Nelson for winning lifetime access to a video of their choice, Writing About People, from Writing Instruction on Demand.
A huge thank you to Mary Lois Sanders and the Writers League of The Villages for organizing the event and allowing me to spend the day working with great writers.
Bloomingdale Writers Connection
Special thanks to Valerie Perry for inviting me to conduct a workshop titled From Idea to Story for the Bloomingdale Writers Connection in Valrico, Florida, May 6, 2017. After a short writing exercise and a few readings by participants, we discussed how writing includes so much more than stringing together a bunch of facts. We explored ways to go about entertaining as well as informing the reader and focused on a method of mapping out a story, making sure to incorporate all the elements of good storytelling.
Congratulations to Wendy Keppley for winning lifetime access to a video of her choice, Reading Like a Writer, from Writing Instruction on Demand. Yay, Wendy!