Cloud Busting Writer’s Workshop Series

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Cloud Busting Writer’s Workshop Series

Been a bit of a dry spell, has it? Don’t fret, it happens to the best of us from time to time, some more’n others, o’ course. Whatever you do, don’t give up on your writing—or your dreams, neither!

Why not get off yer butt and join some fine locals for an exciting Cloud Busting Writer’s Workshop Series? Together, we’ll discover and practice a wide variety of proven techniques to seed those dark clouds overhead and produce such a torrential flood of ideas that you’ll stay up all night pounding away at your keyboard.

It’s fun. It’s easy. And it’s darn exciting!

We’re not just talking about artsy-fartsy ideas that rattle around inside your head and stew for a month. That won’t do no one no good, now, will it? Nope, this Cloud Busting Writer’s Workshop Series will bring you from a barren drought of parched imagination to a creative flood of high-energy writing production, whatever your genre or style.

Each Workshop will feature a Presentation, an Exercise, an Assignment and a Critique.

Cloud Busting I - The Rain Dance

We begin the series with Cloud Busting Techniques. Without a flood of ideas, what good is it to have believable characters, brilliant dialog or clever plot twists?

We’ll start by paying homage to Hermes/Mercury, ancient god of communication, commerce and thieves. Then, we’ll enumerate, evaluate, explore, experiment with and take home no less than a Baker’s Dozen of solid gold, down-to-earth Cloud Busting Techniques, designed to bring on a flood of ideas and activities to inspire—nay, COMPEL—you to write, write, write, Brothers and Sisters, can I get an Amen? Hallelujah!

Cloud Busting II - Tricks, Techniques & Dramatic Devices

Writing is one thing. Most folks, nowadays, can do that. Someone wrote that long list of ingredients on your shampoo and conditioner bottles. And they probably got paid for it, too, didn’t they? Someone wrote the blurb in the TV Guide for Family Guy; the obits on page ten; the disclaimer on the full-page magazine ad for the weight-loss supplement, didn’t they?
But, making the writing interesting? That is something else, altogether.

In Part II of the Cloud Busting Writer’s Workshop Series we’ll explore a wide variety of Tricks, Techniques & Dramatic Devices to make your writing interesting and effective. We’ll look at point of view, voice, flash-backs, dreams, twists, conflict, tragedy, comedy, cliff-hangers and other ways to capture and hold your reader’s attention whatever your genre or style.

Cloud Busting III - Believable and unbelievable characters

Best-selling authors don’t always create believable characters. Picasso didn’t paint believable characters. Dr. Gregory House, M.D. is NOT a believable character. Neither is Harry Potter, Darth Vader, Mickey Mouse, Pee Wee Herman or Huckleberry Finn but their fans adore them. The book-reading public doesn’t necessarily want believable characters, they very often want unbelievable characters!

In Part III of the Cloud Busting Writer’s Workshop Series we’ll discuss the difference between the two; how to mix the elements to make your fantastic characters more lifelike and how to imbue your believable characters with a memorable, mythic potency.

Each one of us will create and describe a character, real or imagined, in considerable detail and introduce him or her to the group, trying to convey both a physical and emotional reality.

Cloud Busting Part IV - Gripping Dialog

An essential element in character development is the way your creations express themselves verbally. That is your forte as The Author. This includes private verbalized thoughts and inter-personal expressions to each other. Besides the mainstream dialog current which carries your story, we will look at overheard snippets and non-essential chatter of extras, public address, broadcasting voices, asides, soliloquy, banter, argument and much more.

In Part IV of the Cloud Busting Writer’s Workshop Series each of us will create a conversation or soliloquy from the point of view of some spontaneously developed character and read it to the group with the intent of bringing us into a thought process that we can relate to in some way.
Each Workshop will feature a Presentation, an Exercise, an Assignment and a Critique.

Cloud Busting Part V - Pacing & Plotting

So now we have a bunch of words on a bunch of pages with a bunch of witty dialog, clever descriptions and memorable characters. Somehow, interspersed, we have motions and emotions. We have pastoral, hectic, surreal, urban, pedestrian, desolate or frightening scenes, settings and scenarios. We have people, personalities, conflicts, phases, phrases and purple hazes. In fact, we might as well toss it into the blender and make a murky soup of it all without the critical elements of pacing and plot.

There needs to be continuity, a thread, cohesiveness, a trajectory which wraps and ties all of the other elements into some logical package and leads the reader from premise to conclusion with, undoubtedly, a few necessary stops or detours along the way.

In Part V of the Cloud Busting Writer’s Workshop Series we will explore, discuss and deconstruct the essence and nature of pacing and plot. We will examine its function and how it is used in classical and popular literature; and how we may work with these concepts to maximize the impact of our own works.

Cloud Busting Part VI – Pitch It or Toss It

Let’s play pretend! Don’t give away that secret novel that’s been simmering inside you for so long, but do come up with something clever that you can pitch to us, the Creative Production Team of Magna Royalty Films in one or two sentences.

Let’s pretend that you are delivering the catered lunch for the Creative Production Team Meeting of Magna Royalty Films. It’s dress down Friday. It’s the weekend. It’s lunchtime. They’re all feeing goood! Most everyone has already had a few too many martinis, or whatever it is the Creative Production Team drinks nowadays.

The only one who isn’t dressed down or half baked is the angry woman at the head of the long table. She’s wearing a slick black suit, has slicked black hair and a slick black laptop in the table in front of her. She yells out to her team, “If you jerks don’t come up with some dynamite—and I mean DYNAMITE—ideas for the 2010 fall production schedule, I’ll have every one of you replaced by Monday!”

Then she looks straight at you and says, “Why, I’ll bet the catering delivery person has better ideas than any one of YOU! Am I right? I’ll bet you have a great idea for our next blockbuster movie, RIGHT? Talk to me, Darling! Give me some ideas from somewhere besides this god-forsaken boardroom! Give me something good and I’ll see that it gets to the top!”

You have 30 seconds. Can you PITCH IT? Or are you going to TOSS IT? What are you going to say? Are you ready? Here is your chance to polish—and deliver—your pitch. Let’s not forget the delivery. You may have the perfect 30 second pitch, but if you forget key points, or cough, mumble and stammer, you may as well TOSS IT!

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Space is strictly limited for this series. Workshops may be taken independently, but the greatest benefits will be gained by attending the entire series. Please RSVP early. http://www.meetup.com...