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Boot Camps
Schedule a Boot Camp
Collegiate Workshops

Boot Camps

Bring a Boot Camp to your writer's group!

Get your group's imagination in formation with one of our Novelist's Boot Camp Creative Discipline Workshops:

1. "Unstick Yourself" -- A dozen dynamite drills from Novelist's Boot Camp.

This workshop was presented at RWA 2007 and takes the audience through the entire Improved Writing Process - from Developing a Novelist's Mindset to Revision and Editing. Unstick yourself—a dozen dynamite drills from Novelist’s Boot Camp covers a “dirty dozen” of the most popular writing Drills in plotting, character development, dialogue, action, description, revision, and other elements of craft that will propel “stuck” writers forward. Aspiring, newly published, and multi-published authors have all found this workshop valuable. You can see the slides for this workshop above. This workshop works best in a three hour time block.

2. Novelist’s Boot Camp—Advanced tactics for the  near- and newly-published

Once you’re at the stage where your book sells or is about to, then the panic sets in. Can you write the next one as well as the first? What if a publisher wants a three-book contract? How do you pump them out in a timely way—and still retain the feeling of joy and creativity? What if you want to switch genres, lines, or expand your career? This workshop expands on 10 powerful drills from Novelist’s Boot Camp to empower near- and newly-published authors to gain increased control, have greater confidence, make more progress in achieving their writing goals, and have more fun—even as those authors are challenged by newfound career demands on their time and creativity. Practical Exercises are included. This workshop also
normally runs about three hours.

3. The Novelist's Boot Camp Targeted Focus Workshops.

In these intensive workshops we "zero in" on one stage of the NBC improved writing process and spend a full morning or afternoon (about 3-4 hours) in intense, focused work. Available Targeted Focus Workshops include:

* Invention and Mental preparation/Mission Planning Workshop--finding your path, inventing your comprehensive concept, making peace with the publishing industry, and more.

* Development Workshop--character, plot, setting, story, and
other critical development items; developing the Master Story Summary; and more.

* Drafting Workshop--the scene by scene, line by line workshop.
 This workshop puts the Drafting Drills from Novelist's Boot Camp to work on an individual writer's text. We work one or two scenes very intensely. 

* Revision Workshop--This workshop teaches the NBC Triage and
Seven Revision Passes techniques on one or more scenes of a writer's work. For this workshop, we assume that an author has a first draft completed.

4. The Novelist's Boot Camp 'You asked for it' Workshop. 

In this workshop we use Drills from Novelist's Boot Camp to attack those issues a group wishes to focus on.  In other words, this is an NBC Workshop specifically tailored to your group's needs. In these
we can go beyond the NBC goal of completing a novel to address issues such as mission essential promotion, writing/life balance, etiquette for authors, publishing options, and so on.  This workshop requires collaboration prior to presentation.

If you have an interest in one or more of the workshops and would like more information or a more detailed outline of a workshop, please contact us.

Collegiate Workshops

Every semester, I present craft of fiction classes at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois as part of the college's Continuing Education Department's Arts Enrichment Program.  I hold these workshops in the evenings. Each workshop runs about three hours. 

To attend, you must register with the college.  The Continuing Education Department's FAQ tells you how. 

TO REGISTER:
Call the College of DuPage (630) 942-2377; have the course code (see column to the right) and your Social Security number ready. You can  pay for your classes by American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa, or check.



Novelist's Boot Camp Presentations -- Download for Free!

A Dozen Dynamite Drills from Novelist's Boot Camp
Dozen Drills Workshop handout

Full Boot Camp Sessions

Battle Plan Alpha
Battle Plan Bravo
Battle Plan Charlie
Battle Plan Delta
Battle Plan Echo
Battle Plan Foxtrot

New! Novelist's Boot Camp:
Advanced tactics for the Newly and Nearly Published

Advanced tactics workshop handout

 

 


Enlist in the Novelist's Boot Camp Yahoo Group!

Order Novelist's Boot Camp Apparel

   
College Workshop Description  

WRITING--A Book   

HOW TO WRITE A BOOK. I'll discuss how to write a book so that publishers buy your manuscript or, if you self-publish, so that you will find eager readers. Gain clear ideas on how to get the book inside of you out on paper. Download the class notes here.

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Close to Home and No Place Like Home Cover art by Mary Wolfe.