Time to get your LEARN on! (January Online Classes)

I am still deciding which class(es) I am going to sign up for, but here's a small list I've managed to track down:

January Online Class Listing

Personality Plus: Making Your Characters Real
Instructors: Sue Viders & Becky Martinez
Dates: January 10 - Feb 6, 2010 ($15)

Description: Personality is a critical part of any character's make-up. It can mean the difference between a great character, one you remember forever, or a mediocre one you forget as soon as the book is read. This class looks at how to build and define a character’s personality and how to add those little details that make that character more realistic in his/her actions.

Register here.

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Anatomy of a Hook
Dates: January 10-16, 2010
Instructor: Natalie J. Damschroder
Cost: FREE to FTHRW members; $10.00 for all others

Registration Deadline: January 6, 2010

Description: A lot of emphasis is placed nowadays on The Hook. Whether getting the attention of an editor or agent or engaging the reader, hooks are vitally important. Over the last few years, discussion of this element of craft has evolved from hitting all the important elements in the first five pages to packing it into those first few paragraphs. Now, it's all about the killer first line. We sweat over it, change it a hundred times, obsessively compare it to the lines in published books. Huge efforts, for maybe 10 words out of 100,000. This workshop addresses that not only that first grab, but the importance of continually barbed pacing, the anatomy of a hook, and how to pay it off, all with the goal of making the reader never want to put that book down.

Register here.

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The Basics of Writing the Romance Novel
Terry Irene Blain
Classroom: Foothills Room

or

Muse Therapy
D.D. Scott

both: January 5-28, 2010
$20-25

Register here.

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New Year, New You
Laurie Schnebly Campbell
January 4 to January 15 (6 lessons posted over 2 weeks)

Description: Whether it's the first rejection, the 50th-book slump, or just not getting the story you want on the page, frustration is part of every writer's life. For some, it's a nuisance; for others, it's the end of a career.

For anyone determined to make 2010 a Better Writing Year, this (interactive OR lecture-only) class offers both practical and psychological techniques for dealing with rejection, writer's block, frustration, motivation, and other issues that keep writers from loving their craft.

Participants can take their choice of homework assignments and share their results with the loop, keep 'em private, or skip them altogether. (No need to worry if life interferes, because these exercises will work ANYTIME.)

Either way, writers will finish this session with new awareness of what works for them...and renewed inspiration for returning to the craft they love. Topics include:

• What Stops Me From Writing?
• The Miracle Cures
• Carrot Vs Stick
• Self-Preservation
• Getting What I Want
• Mental, Physical & Practical Tools
• Four Steps To Change
• Sharing Success

Register here.

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LAYERING YOUR SCENES FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT
Lori Wilde
1/4 - 1/29
$20/$25

Registration deadline: 1/3/10

You’re a competent writer. You’re close to selling or you might even have sold a book or two. You get nice reviews. But you’re still get more rejections letters than contracts. What’s wrong? What’s missing? Why can’t you snag those contracts, collect sparkling reviews, hit bestseller lists and win lots of contests?

This course seeks to answer those questions. Layering Your Scenes For Maximum Impact will illustrate exactly what’s holding you back and keeping you from being the writer you’re truly meant to be. It’s designed to teach you how to find the hidden excellence in your work. What are you waiting for? Isn’t it time you shot to the next level?

Topics covered include:

1. The importance of identifying your theme
2. The secret to fresh fiction
3. The power of the concrete symbol
4. Motifs and marketing
5. The delight of surprise
6. How to evoke more emotion
7. A character’s true blue worldview

Register here.

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MASTERING POINT OF VIEW
Diane O'Connell
1/4 - 1/29
$20/$25

Registration deadline: 1/3/10

What’s the secret every successful author knows and most new authors don’t? It’s point of view (POV). In this workshop, Diane will show how truly understanding and mastering point of view can fix an ailing manuscript and turn a decent but lackluster novel into a page-turner. You’ll learn:

• the biggest mistakes authors make with POV — and how to avoid them

• how to use POV to liven up description, dialogue, and action

• the advantages — and drawbacks — of different POV choices

• how to choose your POV characters

• how to use POV to increase suspense and tension

Once you really know how to use this technique, you’ll never write the same way again.

Register here.

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

$25

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.

Register here.