|
|
||||
About the
|
Faculty
|
Schedule
|
Workshop Descriptions
|
Top of The Mountain Book Award
|
Writing Contest
2012 Conference Session Descriptions
Here is a list of the conference workshops and descriptions:
(Session topics and times, subject to change)
Friday
2:30-3:30
Love at First Query: Entice Agents with a Winning Query Letter
Presenter: Elizabeth Evans
With agents receiving hundreds of queries a week, it's important for writers to craft an informative, engaging query letter that will stand apart from the crowd. This presentation introduces writers to a simple, three-part query structure and describes the information all authors must include to tempt an agent to request their manuscripts. Query letter dos and don'ts will be discussed, along with insights into what agents really want. There will be ample opportunity for questions. If there is time after Q&A, participants can submit their queries to be read aloud and critiqued.
----------------------------------------------------
Reality Literature —Writing and Publishing Your Memoir
Presenter: Steve Mettee
A great memoir tells as much about the times and the attitude of the people in the memoir as it does about the life of the author. Learn what else makes a memoir successful and why the memoir, once thought to be dormant, if not dead, is hotter than ever. This workshop is often standing room only.
---------------------------------------------------
Good Vs Great: The Difference between Selling and Slushing
Presenter: Nicole Resciniti
You've joined the writer's groups, honed your craft, and completed a novel. After thoughful editing and multiple reads, you begin the submission process. Why do the rejections roll in? What is preventing an agent/editor from acquiring your project? This workshop, in ten easy steps, will show you how to convert a good manuscript into a great one. It will teach you how to create a book that will sell.
---------------------------------------------------
Five-Diamond Publishing (Travel Writing)
Presenter: Tom Hess
AAA prides itself on "5 Diamond" service, in roadside assistance, in dining and lodging, and in publishing. Among the things that AAA Colorado values most in EnCompass is similar to what the best magazines in America also insist upon: the best available photographers; experiential travel reporting; and tireless innovation.
3:45-4:45
No One Can Resist a Great Story: Using Unforgettable Storytelling to Captivate Agents, Editors, Media and Your Fan Base
Presenter: Susan Skog
Submission and Rejection: Surviving the Pre-Publication Ordeal
Presenter: Joanne Kennedy
Your attitude toward rejection can determine your survival as a writer. Finding ways to take the sting out of form letters and move on is an essential skill, and understanding how the publishing business works can help you use rejection to increase motivation, refine your craft, and celebrate your progress toward the goal of publication. This workshop is designed to be inspirational as well as informative, motivating participants to finish their work and enter the fray while reminding them to enjoy the process and treasure their talent as they work toward publication.
-----------------------------------------------------Four Power Tools For Your Writers Toolbox
Presenter: Sandi Ault
1.5 Hour Workshop
The best writers in the business possess a set of basic skills that distinguish them from the rest of the pack. And these aren't vague or hard-to-define abilities! These are craft practices that produce quality—ones you can learn easily and begin to apply immediately to your work. In this workshop, award-winning, bestselling author of the WILD Mystery Series, Sandi Ault, will give you the list, show you how to use these four tools, and provide you with an in-workshop opportunity to give these skills a test run. The result: you take away a higher level of writing craft that you can then go home and instantly apply to your projects. When you hear agents and editors speak, these skills come up time and again as the reason they looked into an author and/or selected a work to support. Let Sandi Ault give you the list and show you how to add these power tools in your writing career.
-----------------------------------------------------Reading To Write
Presenter: Kevin Vaughan
Studying the work of other writers is a great way to improve your own writing. Joseph Wambaugh’s seminal work, The Onion Field, traces two cops and two criminals whose lives collide with fatal consequences. A powerful examination of crime and punishment, the story has much to teach writers about a host of topics – things like the effective use of foreshadowing, the creation of riveting dialogue, the importance of proper transitions, the necessity of having an eye for detail, and the power of writing simply. We’ll touch on all those topics but focus most of our time on the importance of building suspense with the use of foreshadowing and the effectiveness of writing less, not more, to create power.
5:15-6:15
Get Out of Your Own Way: Dealing with Self-Sabotage
Presenter: Cricket McRae
Sometimes writers are their own worst enemies. Come take a look at some of the ways we trip ourselves up, including the three Ps: procrastination, perfectionism, and prioritization. Then we'll explore several common excuses that stymie our creativity and throw up road blocks to productivity.
----------------------------------------------------Social Media
Presenter:Laurie Macomber
Find out what are must do's in social media marketing and which things you can safely ignore. Laurie Macomber talks about the 4Ps of social media marketing: Positioning/Platforms/Posts & People. This is the way to be efficient and effective in Social Media - and in record time!
-----------------------------------------------------Agent Panel
Agents: Nicole Resciniti Elizabeth Evans Adriana Dominguez Kate Schafer-Testerman
Nonfiction Round Tables
Presenters: Tom Hess & Steve Mettee
Saturday
8:30-9:30Revelations, Realizations & Epiphanies: Crafting a Resonant Ending
Presenter: Joanne Kennedy
Many workshops and writing books focus on the beginning of a manuscript, since the first five pages are what catch an agent’s or editor’s attention. But the opening of your story is just the seduction, while your ending is the all-important climax that leads to an ongoing relationship. This workshop will help writers at all levels of craft leave readers satisfied, yet hungry for more. We’ll discuss various techniques for creating a resonant ending that will deepen the reading experience, including crafting parallel images and events; using symbols to illustrate emotional truths; effectively dramatizing character change and growth; and creating a bond with your reader by relating the protagonist’s journey to his or her own life. We’ll also explore the difference between realization, revelation and epiphany and the importance of making every ending feel like a new beginning.
----------------------------------------------------Writing for the Web: Making your website more effective
Presenter: Laurie Macomber
Laurie Macomber has been writing entire websites since the early 1990's. She has it down to a science. Learn about the AIDA pattern of writing so you know exactly how to keep people from clicking out of your article or website. Learn how to make Google happy with your website content too!
You'll hear about the heat map records that have been built up over time that prove that people just scan websites - they don't read them ... and discover where to position your critical content to ensure folks will read it- and where you can just summarize and give synopses.
This is the one class you need to take to have Google adore your site and your human readers keep coming back!
-----------------------------------------------------
ABC's of Writing for Children
Presenter:Debbie Dadey
Best-selling children's author Debbie Dadey takes the mystery out of writing children's books by going step-by-step though the process, beginning with action and agent. This is an opportunity to learn some basics and some secrets from the writer of 152 children's books. Visit www.debbiedadey.com for more information.
9:45-10:45
Dismembering the YA Novel
Presenter: Bonnie Ramthun
How do best-selling YA novelists construct their stories? Best-selling novels such as The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will be dismembered and their secrets revealed. Learn how to critically examine novels and understand the strategies that are common to best-sellers. Learn how to use their strategies in your own writing to create a more powerful novel. Fast-paced, funny, and informative, this workshop will give you the tools you're looking for to make your YA novel pop.
-------------------------------------------------
BUZZ BUZZ AND MORE BUZZ: Effective Book Promotion
Presenter: Susan Skog
With media outlets in major transition, writers and authors need to activate fresh, creative campaigns to promote their work. In this book publicity workshop, six-time nonfiction author Susan Skog will describe effective ways to shine the light on your work--and get the media's attention--via promotional partners, from nonprofits to campuses to top corporations.
--------------------------------------------------
The Path To Publication
Presenters: Jim Davidson & Kevin Vaughan
In 2007, Fort Collins climber Jim Davidson and Denver Post staff writer Kevin Vaughan crossed paths at the Northern Colorado Writers Conference. Today, five years later, they are co-authors of The Ledge: An Adventure Story of Friendship and Survival on Mount Rainier (Random House/Ballantine Books). They will discuss their journey, navigating agents and publishers, and the editing process. And they will share helpful tips for marketing, publicity, and moving forward in the book world of 2012.
11:00-12:00
The Business of Writing
Presenter: Debbie Dadey
Learn the ins and outs of the writing business. Using the check-list provided by an author who has sold over 48 million books will get you on your way to becoming a best-seller author in no time. From fanpages, contracts, and record keeping to branding, promotion, and school visits; no stone is left unturned. Find out more about Debbie on facebook.com/debbiedadey
----------------------------------------------------Writing and Publishing a Novel
Presenter: Bonnie Ramthun
From designing a workspace to negotiating contracts, learn to put together a toolbox of skills and information that will help you on your way to publishing a novel. Learn what an advance really means, and how a query letter is more important than you know. You'll learn what agents want to hear and how editors come up with an offer in New York publishing houses. Accessible, entertaining and informative presentation about the process of writing and publishing.
----------------------------------------------------The P2 Formula: The Two P's of All Great Writing
Presenter: Sandi Ault
Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, a magazine article or a screenplay, the writing that creates a memorable experience for its audience possesses the P2 formula: it is both Potent and Poetic. In this workshop with bestselling, award-winning author Sandi Ault, we will explore ways to add these qualities to your writing so that it sparks a fire in the reader’s mind, and gives your work the edge. In exercises ranging from short 10-word drills to action scenarios, you will have the opportunity to create potency and poetic style and see it work for you immediately in your writing. You won’t just hear or read about how to use the P2 Formula in this workshop with Sandi Ault—you will perform exercises to learn it, then practice and improve it, and by the end of the workshop, own the skills to utilize the P2 Formula as you continue to write on your own!
1:00-2:00
Your Four Book Publishing Choices
Presenter: Steve Mettee
You've got a book inside you, or maybe you've even written it. Now’s the time to think about getting it published. But you've discovered there’s more than one route available. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of conventional publishing, self-publishing, print-on-demand publishing, subsidy publishing and vanity publishing and how to avoid the inherent pitfalls of each.
----------------------------------------------------Getting to Know Your Characters
Presenter: Cricket McRae
What Every Magaine/Newspaper Editor Wants
Presenter: Tom Hess
Editors like me receive queries from hundreds of desperate, underemployed writers and reporters. I filter out 95 percent of them by identifying those writers who know and understand the publication/website; who do original research; who meet deadlines; who can shoot great photos/video; who know how to leverage social media to promote their work in my publication.
2:15-3:15
Query Critiques
Presenters: Sandi Ault & Steve Mettee
Participants will submit a one page query (fiction or nonfiction) to be read aloud. The panelists will then provide comments aloud for the audience to hear.
Agents & Editors Read the Slush Pile
Presenters: Steve Mettee & Elizabeth Evans
This session allows participants to get an insiders peek at what an agent/editor is really thinking during the opening pages of a submitted novel. Think American Idol only for writers. A reader will read the pages aloud, and the agents/editors will provide honest feedback for all to hear. The author remains anonymous.
Agents & Editors Read the Slush Pile
Presenters: Kate Schafer Testerman & Nicole Resciniti
This session allows participants to get an insiders peek at what an agent/editor is really thinking during the opening pages of a submitted novel. Think American Idol only for writers. A reader will read the pages aloud, and the agents/editors will provide honest feedback for all to hear. The author remains anonymous.
________________________________________| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Special Thanks to our
2012 Northern Colorado Writers Conference Sponsors
