Yellow Rose RWA

Yellow Rose Online Workshops
2010 Course Descriptions

Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
Presented By Alexandra Sokoloff
January 1 through January 18, 2010 (2 weeks)

Course Description:
More and more, publishers are looking for books that have the pacing, emotional impact, and big, unique, "high concept" premises of Hollywood movies (and the potential for that movie or TV sale!).

Screenwriting is a compressed and dynamic storytelling form and the techniques of screenwriting are easily adaptable to novel writing.

In this workshop you'll learn how to use techniques of film writing such as:

the High Concept Premise
the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure
the Storyboard Grid
the Index Card Method of Plotting

As well as tricks of film pacing and suspense, character arc and drive, visual storytelling, and building image systems - to structure and color your novel for maximum emotional impact, unbearable suspense and riveting pacing, no matter what genre you're writing in.

You'll start to create your own personalized workbook of genre tricks tailored to you own brand of storytelling and a collage book to build visual image systems. And the emphasis on premise is invaluable for crafting that all-important pitch.

Whether you're just starting to develop a story or rewriting for maximum impact, this workshop can help make the process successful, easy, and fun.

About Alexandra Sokoloff:
Alexandra Sokoloff is a screenwriter who has sold original suspense and thriller scripts and adapted novels for numerous Hollywood studios, for producers such as Michael Bay, Laura Ziskin, David Heyman, and Neal Moritz. Her adaptation of Sabine Deitmer's psychological thriller COLD KISSES was filmed in Germany.

Alex's debut ghost novel, THE HARROWING, was nominated for an Anthony Award and a Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel last year. Her supernatural thrillers THE PRICE and THE UNSEEN are now out from St. Martin’s Press, with BOOK OF SHADOWS and a paranormal suspense for Silhouette Nocturne coming in 2010. Alex recently won the International Thriller Writers Thriller Award for Best Short Fiction of the year for her short story, “The Edge of Seventeen”, in THE DARKER MASK.

Alex has served on the Board of Directors of the WGAW, the screenwriters' union, is a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, and is the founder of WriterAction.com, an online community and resource center of 2000+ professional screenwriters. In her spare time (!) she sings as a Killerette in the ITW's Killer Thriller Band and performs with Heather Graham's Slush Pile Players.

Visit her website at: http://alexandrasokoloff.com. And her internationally acclaimed blog on Screenwriting Tricks for Authors at http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com.

Voice: Get Your Fingerprints All Over Your Story
Presented By Eileen Wilks
January 18 through February 1, 2010 (2 weeks)

Course Description:
A strong, distinctive voice--editors and agents clamor for it. Readers fall for it. Jayne Ann Krentz says it may delay that first sale, but end up landing you on bestseller lists. But what is voice, exactly? How can we find ours and develop it?

It’s easier to describe voice allusively than to define it concretely. Voice is to authors and editors what pornography is to the Supreme Court: we know it when we hear it. Bearing that in mind, the workshop will cover some of the components of voice:

worldview
word choice
emotional rhythm
overall rhythm: paragraphs, sentences, transitions, ratio of dialogue
to narration to action. Punctuation.

Writing teacher Karen Pape says that voice is like fingerprints: each is unique. Mixing lecture with interactive segments, this workshop will help get your fingerprints all over your story.

About Eileen Wilks:
Eileen Wilks has been published by Silhouette, St. Martin's, and Berkley. Her current series for Berkley features Lily Yu, a homicide cop turned paranormal investigator. She has a novella in INKED, an anthology out now, and her sixth book in the series, BLOOD MAGIC, will be released Fed. 5. Her accomplishments include:

Multiple RITA finalist
Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times
Over 30 books and anthologies in print
The complete and utter annihilation of the Bermuda grass in her front yard. Root by China-reaching root, she killed it, replacing it with xeroscaping--a mix of buffalo grass and beds of native and drought-tolerant plants. Now for the back yard...

Creating Characters That Walk Off The Page
Presented by Karen Sandler
February 1 through February 14, 2010 (2 weeks)

Course Description:
More than any other genre, believable, well-rounded characters are crucial to romance fiction. They have to be heroic, yet imperfect, because without flaws, your reader won't be able to identify with your heroine or fall in love with your hero. Your fictional characters must be so real, you’ll know them better than you do your best friends. The trick--talk to your hero and heroine, then be ready to listen for their answers.

“Trigger questions” to spark creativity, and fill-in forms and character interviews will assist you in creating dynamic, likeable characters.

Along the way, you’ll develop a captivating story and some of its turning points as well. You’ll also learn the all important distinction between inner and outer conflict and how to create inner conflict that will sustain the tension between hero and heroine for the length of your novel.

About Karen Sandler:
Karen Sandler first caught the writing bug at age nine when, as a horse-crazy fourth grader, she wrote a poem about a pony named Tony.

Many years of hard work later, she sold her first book (and she got that pony--although his name was Ben). Since then, she’s published a total of seventeen books, ten of them for Silhouette Special Edition. She enjoys writing novels, short stories and screenplays and has produced two short films. Check out Karen's website at www.karensandler.net.

May The Force Be With You (Adding Realistic Law Enforcement & Legal System Elements Into Your Novel)
Presented by Kerri Nelson
March 1 through March 31, 2010 (4 weeks)

Course Description:
Who doesn't love a hot cop hero? Want to make his cop talk and attitude sound authentic? What about evidence collection or a courtroom scene? Need a little legal know how to make your book more exciting or suspenseful?

Kerri will use her experience and education in the legal field to show you how to sound like an expert when you add the legal system or law enforcement characters into your own novel.

Learn "cop talk", criminal evidence procedures, anatomy of a lawsuit, and more!

About Kerri Nelson:
Kerri Nelson has always been passionate about reading books but when she wrote her first poem in the second grade, she discovered her love of writing. At the age of sixteen, she became a columnist for her local newspaper as the high school correspondent for the weekly "Panther Tales" column. She won the Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year Award for her efforts. After an education and career in the legal field, Kerri began to pen romantic suspense novels with a legal or law enforcement theme. She is a true southern belle and comes complete with her dashing southern gentleman husband and two little belles-in-training. When she’s not reading or writing, you’ll find her baking homemade goodies for her family, feeding her addiction to blogging online or designing custom made book trailers. Kerri is an active member of Romance Writers of America as well as numerous Chapters including Southern Magic, Futuristic Fantasy & Paranormal, Hearts Through History, and Celtic Hearts Romance Writers.

Visit Kerri’s website at: www.kerrinelson.com

Archetypes vs. Stereotypes
Presented by Becky Martinez & Sue Viders
April 1 through April 30, 2010 (4 weeks)

Course Description:
There have to be more heroic styles than just the Alpha male. This workshop will discuss the sixteen archetypes from Sue's popular writing book, The Complete Writers Guide to Heroes and Heroines, Sixteen Master Archetypes. Each archetype will be discussed in depth. In addition, the class will get tips on how to make their characters come alive on the page.

About Beck Martinez & Sue Viders:
Sue and Becky have been teaching on-classes for many years, as a team and individually. They have presented at numerous conferences together and separately. Both have given sessions at the national Romance Writers of America Conference. Online classes normally run four weeks with two to three lectures per week with assignments included in each lecture.

Sue has published the following books and games for writers:

Heroes and Heroines, Sixteen Master Archetypes
Ten Steps to Creating Memorable Characters
Deal a Story - a card game for writers

Becky is also a co-author of Ten Steps to Creating Memorable Characters. She is multi-published in full length romance fiction and romance short stories. Her most recent short story was The Problem, published in July 2008 by The Wild Rose Press, which will also publish her next book, Deadly Messages, a romantic suspense coming in February 2010.

Becky and Sue are also working on their next nonfiction book for writers, Ten Ways to Plot a Great Story. It will be a companion book to the Character book.

Get Your Foot In The Door: Query Letter & Synopsis Workshop
Presented by Gemma Halliday
May 31 through June 11, 2010 (2 weeks)

Course Description:
You’ve written an amazing manuscript – now what? How do you get editors and agents to read it? With a kick booty query letter and synopsis! This hands-on course will polish and shine your pitch into an invaluable tool for getting your foot in the door. We’ll be honing your individual queries and synopses, so bring them to the class!

Don’t have them written yet? You’ll write them during the course of the workshop and have a polished finished product by the end. Don’t have the book written yet? Not a problem. Many published authors often sell based on their synopsis alone, so learning to write one before the book is done is not only good practice, it’s a necessary skill!

Say goodbye to form rejections!

Everyone enrolled will get *individual critiques* of their query and synopsis as well as lessons on what to include, what to leave out, how to let your voice shine through, and how to follow up without being a pest.

About Gemma Halliday:
Gemma Halliday is the author of the High Heels Mysteries, as well as the brand new Hollywood Headlines romantic mystery series. Gemma’s books have won a multitude of awards, including a Golden Heart, a National Reader’s Choice award and two RITA nominations. She’s sold foreign rights for two of her novels, and optioned television rights for her debut book, SPYING IN HIGH HEELS.

How To Design and Teach An Online Workshop
Presented by Catherine Chant
June 14 through June 25, 2010 (2 weeks)

Course Description:
This workshop begins with an overview of why you would want to create and teach an online workshop, and covers these topics:

1. Developing a workshop topic
2. Identifying your audience
3. Designing a lesson plan
4. Interacting with your students
5. Designing exercises for your students
6. Your workshop proposal
7. Technical aspects of online teaching (e.g. Yahoogroups)

About Catherine Chant:
Catherine Chant is an award-winning writer from New England. She is a PRO member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA), and a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Her short fiction and non-fiction work has appeared in RWA newsletters, CharacterS, SchoolArts, MetroKids, Twilight Times, Apollos Lyre, Crochet World, GardenGuides.com and Overstock.Com. Her young adult time travel romance WISHING YOU WERE HERE was a finalist in the 2008 Golden Heart® awards. She is currently working a new young adult novel, writing how-to articles for Demand Studios, and offering knitting/crochet advice and instruction at creativemindandhands.com.

A graduate of Boston College, Catherine worked for fifteen years at her alma mater as a computing & communications consultant. She now provides freelance web editing and design services to other writers and clients such as BC's Lynch School of Education. While working at BC, she designed and gave several training courses on technology subjects. Since joining RWA in 2003, she has served four years as the Workshops chairperson (or co-chair) for FTHRW, an online chapter that offers 12 workshops a year to their 300+ members as well as non-member registrants. Catherine has also been giving her own workshop, MSWord for Writers, to RWA chapters several times a year since 2006. You can find out more about Catherine at her website: http://www.catherinechant.com.

The "W" Plot...or The Other White Meat For Plotters
Presented by Karen Docter
August 2 through August 27, 2010 (4 weeks)

Course Description:
One of the staples of any writers’ group conversations is the plot. It’s integral to every novel, holds everything together. It’s the vehicle that carries readers from page one to “The End”. It’s one of the scariest things an author faces when s/he decides, hey, I want to write a novel!

How many of us have made this decision, then stared at that blank page or computer screen without a clue about how to proceed? What about those of us who write by the seat of our pants, the pantsers? Do we dare risk scaring off our muse by [shudder] plotting our story? How do the mega-plotters, the overachievers, know when it’s time to stop and just put pen to paper?

Join four-time Golden Heart® finalist and Daphne du Maurier winner Karen Docter as she shares the “W” plotting technique she’s used successfully for more than 12 years. Karen will analyze the movie “Romancing the Stone” showing how the technique works, discussing detailed plot points for the main characters including the villain. Exercises will help you to uncover the skeleton of your own novel. Whatever your genre, by the end of the course not only will you have all of the tools you need to finish plotting your story using the “W”, you’ll know how to use it to write the synopsis we all love to hate…all without writing one word of the novel. If you’ve already started your novel, that’s okay. It’s never too late to apply the principles of the “W” to your developing story.

This is a hands-on-your-own-book workshop designed for the novice and experienced writer.

About Karen Doctor:
Karen Docter won the Category (Series) Romantic Mystery Suspense unpublished division of the 2005 Daphne du Maurier Award. She's a four-time Golden Heart® finalist and a charter member of RWA® PRO and The Golden Network®. Also a member of CRW, KOD & FTHRW chapters, she writes single title romantic suspense. She holds a B.A. in Technical Journalism, and has fostered literacy as a speaker at local Jr./High schools, tutored composition and reading classes, and taught college level English. She judges several writing contests each year, including RWA's® Golden Heart® Contest.

Body Language
Presented by Annalise Russell
September 12 through September 18, 2010 (1 week)

Course Description:
How often do we say one thing, and feel (or want to say!) another? Know how to read the signs, and you won’t be fooled again. Body language is a great way to convey a character’s reaction or emotional state. It reveals if someone is lying, or genuine, personality type, if they are in love, in hate.

Body language is the same across the board, regardless of age, but it does vary by gender. By using body language effectively, a writer can convey many things to the reader. And use fewer tag lines. A bit of physical movement within the setting, a nervous trait, all keep the reader in tune with a character’s state of mind, emotion, and keeps them entrenched in the story.

Ever think back to an encounter with someone and wonder if it really went as well as you thought? Feel strangely uncomfortable around someone? We all give and receive body language messages every day. We just don’t stop and think about them. But our subconscious picks up these messages and slips them into the conscious mind, making us wonder or doubt.

About Annalise Russell:
Annalise Russell is a social psychologist by degree. She began her career as a medical writer, is published in behavioral science research and spends her days working full time in an office that protects human subjects participating in medical and behavioral research trials. Her first book, In His Bed (The Pleasure of His Bed Anthology), was released by Kensington in September 2008.

Character Torture 101
Presented by Linnea Sinclair
September 19 through September 30, 2010 (2 weeks)

Course Description:
Writing Guru Dwight Swain said that it’s the author’s job to manipulate the emotions of the reader . There’s no better way to do this than for the author to put his characters through one roller coaster episode after another , taking the reader along for the ride. But how much conflict, how much character angst is too much? How can an author keep the action from becoming cartoonish? Bantam Spectra author Linnea Sinclair answers those questions and more in this fun and fast-paced (because torturing students is good, too!) workshop that explores the importance of conflict in today’s commercial fiction novels.

About Linnea Sinclair:
Winner of the prestigious RITA® award and a triple RITA® finalist, Sinclair is also a frequent teacher with the following online workshop venues: RWA Kiss Of Death COFFIN workshops; RWA From the Heart Online workshops; Clues N News (Sisters in Crime), and Florida Writers Association Online Workshops.

Website: www.linneasinclair.com

Texas: A Whole 'Nother Country
Presented by Kelsey Browning
October 4 through October 15, 2010 (2 weeks)

Course Description:
A down and dirty, whirlwind ride through the country (oops, the state) of Texas. The class will cover the diverse geography of this 260,000+ square mile stretch of land. Texas history will be touched on; however, history is not the class focus. Other topics include cultural influences, weather, flora and fauna, industry and the arts. Some myths will be debunked and others will be reinforced. Highlights include eatin’ like a Texan and talkin’ Texan. The instructor will provide resource lists and personal pictures of the state.

About Kelsey Browning:
Kelsey Browning is the pseudonym of a born and bred northeast Texas girl. She grew up in a town with a population of 1500 people, one red light and a Dairy Queen. She’s lived in locations stretching from Hallsville to Houston until three years ago when she moved with her family to Qatar. Her qualifications include a love of Stevie Ray Vaughn, a short-lived stint as a barrel racer, a vocabulary that includes the phrase “fixin’ to,” two degrees from Texas A&M University and pictures proving she had Texas Big Hair in the 80s and early 90s. Kelsey writes romantic comedy and paranormal romance with a hint of southern sizzle.

Muse Therapy
Presented by D.D. Scott
October 15 through October 31, 2010 (2 weeks)

Course Description:
D. D. Scott style - is all about injecting life into tired and/or stressed out muses. I'll give writers fun and fabulous tools to analyze their muses' funks, rein in their creative divas and up their page counts.

Discover what makes muses tick. What ticks them off. And what makes them dance like nobody's watching.

We'll name your muses and host a very special meet-and-greet just for them, then dig deep into their psyches by examining "muse disorders" such as:

Unleashing You Inner Sybil
Writing Bi-Polar: I Suck vs. I'm a Genius
What Do You Mean I'm Neurotic? No, I'm Not. Well, Not Exactly. But Okay...There Are Times When. Like You Need to Know That. Anyway, I Was Thinking, My Jeep Is Red
Rorschach For Writers: I See Dead Lines
Stimulants: When Coffee, Chocolate and Martinis Aren't Enough

Once we recognize, acknowledge and accept our muses' afflictions, we'll find terrific tricks and "trips" to treat our word witches.

About D.D. Scott:
D. D. Scott's romantic comedies are all about sexy, sassy, smart, career-driven women and the men who complete them. They're a bit chick lit with a gone-country twist. Her series BOOTSCOOTIN' BLAHNIKS - think Sex and The City meets Urban Cowboy - is under consideration by several NY publishers.

She writes stories with big hearts and a bunch of sass. Once a small town newspaper crime reporter and now a HarperCollins Publishing Returns Center Executive Assistant, she's learned great fiction comes from the street as well as which jacket covers meet early deaths.

She's a member of Indiana RWA as well as RWA's Chick Lit Writers of the World Chapter and ScriptScene RWA. She's been featured in both Indiana RWA's and ScriptScene's chapter newsletters and been a guest blogger on Romance Writers on the Journey. She also has an active blog of her own on her website at http://www.DDScott.com and is linked to on Romancing the Blog. And wow does she love Twitter. Follow her tweets at http://twitter.com/ddscottromcom.

Currently, she's driving her darling hubby nuts waiting to hear whether or not she'll be providing Muse Therapy for the 2010 RT BookLovers' Convention (Update: Woot! Just got notified I was accepted to teach at RT Convention!!!) in Columbus OH and for RWR in an article-based Muse Therapy series.

Story Sense/Story Logic
Presented by Beth Henderson
November 1 through November 30, 2010 (4 weeks)

Course Description:
What is Story Sense? Story Sense as the actions of the characters remaining true to how they are being portrayed. Story Logic is much the same thing, but has more to do with the way the plot plays out. Both are important elements.

For instance, if a hero is going to take on a terrorist or a mugger, he needs to have a background that included any martial arts he now unveils to save the day…and the writer should have alluded to his expertise early on, not waited to spring it on readers.

Or perhaps the author is spinning a tale where characters are either older or younger than she is. In that case the twenty-something heroine can’t prefer listening to Cole Porter or Gershwin tunes or talk about Cary Grant movies, not even if she was brought up by her grandmother who enjoyed these things. She has to be a contemporary woman. Likewise, if a character is a decade or more older than the writer, it isn’t likely that they will head to a modern dance club, or suddenly go goth.

Story sense and story logic go hand in hand, but they can easily be lost or overlooked. And they are far more subtle than the above obvious examples. The trick is to catch, recognize, and repair things before they leave home to nest on an editor’s desk.

Because it is far easier to spot things in other people’s work, students will be urged to post their synopsis, or post a free-write in which they spin the elements, or steps, that they plan to take along the way.

About Beth Henderson:
Beth Henderson has landed contracts at Berkley, Zebra, Leisure, Harlequin/Silhouette, and Simon and Schuster's Aladdin Paperbacks, done e-books for a now defunct company, and began her writing life with hardcover books slated for library use with a publisher that got out of the romance business. More recently she’s had a number of articles about writing picked up by e-zines, saw one of her short stories in print in a mystery and suspense magazine that turned up its toes the next year, and have a story in the MOTHER GOOSE IS DEAD anthology slated for publication by Dragon Moon Press sometime in 2010. She’s taught college level composition, both in the classroom and online, and a credit course on Novel Writing for over a dozen years. Beth is a founding member of the Gallimaufry Writers Group where she finds things, sometimes small but always important things, in manuscripts that others miss.