Workshops for Writers
All of my workshops are available in a variety of lengths and formats. In person and via Zoom.
For scheduled workshops, please go to my events page.
Meditations for Writers and Illustrators
This is my most popular workshop and my favorite thing to teach.
Whether you're brainstorming new ideas, searching for the heart of your story, trying to conjure up a scene, revising, or getting to know your characters, meditation can help. No meditation experience necessary. All you need to know how to do is breathe, and I know you can all do that.
Guided meditation, followed by free writing sessions, will help you build a richer, deeper connection to your characters and your stories.
Length: One-hour, half-day, and full-day workshops available.
Scene Structure: Key Elements in the Building Blocks of Your Story
The scene is the basic building block of any story, but what makes a great scene?
Delve into the key elements that go into writing great scenes—stage setup, characters and their motives, large and small action, dialogue, and point of view—all working together toward an exciting scene climax.
Examples are drawn from popular works of contemporary middle grade and YA fiction.
Length: One hour for a straight presentation. Two or more with writing periods.
Digging Deeper: Using Subtext to Add Depth to Your Story
Subtext, the true meaning simmering underneath the surface, adds depth and layers of meaning to our scenes. Often what’s missing in the text is the most important part—the motives, thoughts, emotions, and human truths that resonate with multiple meanings.
Using examples from multiple popular works of fiction, we’ll look at the many ways to use subtext to add meaning beneath the words.
Length: One hour for a straight presentation. Two or more with writing periods.
Rising Tension and Character Arcs: Fun and Games with Plot
This workshop offers a quick review of the three-act structure including the Inciting Incident, the key Plot Points, Midpoint, and Climax using Maurice Sendak’s WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE as an example.
This is followed by exercises and free writing periods designed to help writers build their plots from the ground up.
Length: 90 minutes to two hours
Story Fundamentals
You’ve got a great idea for a story, now what? Do you start with character, setting, plot? What if you don’t know your ending or your midpoint—can you begin? Using the Author Accelerator BLUEPRINT FOR A BOOK method, we’ll go over the story fundamentals writers need to have in place before they begin (plotters) or before they tackle a revision (pantsers).
This technique works for writers at every stage of the writing process.
Length: One hour. Two hours with writing exercises.
Write Compelling Dialogue!
Good dialogue brings characters to life and reveals their motives, advances the plot and increases the tension in the story, conveys information and gives a sense of the setting, and sets the tone of the novel.
But how exactly can a writer achieve that and more with dialogue?
We'll look at how dialogue accomplishes all of those things and more using works of popular fiction as examples and try our hands at writing compelling dialogue of our own.
Length: 90 minutes to two hour with writing exercises.
Picture Book, Early Reader, Chapter Book? Where Does Your Story Fit?
You’ve created a fabulous character and written a story to capture young readers. But where does your story fit in the marketplace? When it’s time for revision and marketing to agents and publishers, you need to be able to answer that question.
I'll look at what those different categories actually mean. There’s a lot of overlap between picture books, early readers, and first chapter books. Some picture books have simple language and can be read by a first grader, some early readers have chapters. We'll examine the parameters of each, so you can market your story with confidence.
Length: One hour.