Fire in the Belly, Write to be Read
What you'll learn
- Help you recognize and develop your own innate talents, which, over the course, you will see you have vastly underestimated.
- Learn to integrate multiple Literary Devices, absorbing the advice of established authors and editors.
- Learn to self-edit professionally, and understand the workings of the pubishing world.
- Complete your novel or memoir in a passionate, professional, and persuasive manner, ready for publication.
Requirements
- A passionate desire to share your story
Description
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." Zora Hurston
Fire in the Belly: Write to be Read.
You are the world’s leading authority on your novel or memoir, and you have vastly underestimated your ability to tell a good story. Over 50 sessions, I arrest all the usual suspects (syntax, literary devices, plot, dialogue, publishing, etc.) but more importantly, together we’ll infuse your readers with the same passion and purpose that compelled you to write in the first place. Your words are the wings that lift a great story off the page. Other courses may walk you through how to write your story… but why walk when you’ve got wings?
This course is different from others because I am different; my peers in the field often refer to me as the anti-editor. While elites were sipping Chablis at Oxford, I popped open a beer with my orangutans in the jungles of Borneo, or paid a smuggler to get me across the Straits of Singapore at two in the morning, after the gunboats passed, or swam with the Gray Whales and sharks, or…
Hemingway said in order to write about life, you have to live life.
I can tell a good story because I’ve lived a good story, and I will help you to do the same. The adventure of your life within a failed or successful marriage can be every bit as intriguing and compelling as fending off pirates in the South China Sea.
What’s your story? I’m listening.
Who this course is for:
- This course is for beginning writers undertaking for the first time the great campaign of writing a novel or memoir and for those who have written previously and are aware they could be more persuasive and engaging
Instructor
- 5.0 Instructor Rating
- 2 Reviews
- 13 Students
- 1 Course
Professional bio
Before scrolling down to review my creds, start with this: According to Anthony Bourdain's TV producer of "Parts Unknown", I am the "anti-editor." Not sipping cognac in the smoking room at Oxford, but popping open a beer to share with my orangutans in the jungles of Borneo. Not booking a flight to the Frankfurt Book Festival, but paying a smuggler to get me and my family across the Straits of Singapore at 2:00 in the morning after the gunboats passed. I bring literary experience and LIFE experience to my course.
I am a professional editor and publisher; my most notable of perhaps thirty or forty clients are Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Freedman, and Fred Rivera, whose novel I edited and published under my own banner, A Word with You Press. Rivera’s Raw Man won the Isabel Allende Miraposa Award for Best New Fiction. Furthermore, one of my own novels, The Boy with a Torn Hat was a finalist for Best Literary Fiction by USA Book Awards. I wrote the lead reviews for The San Diego Union Tribune for seven years, have been awarded grants by Pen USA to teach novel writing, and have conducted north of 150 writer workshops.
I wrote lead book reviews for the San Diego Union Tribune for seven years, have published the work of approximately 25 authors under my banner, and was the founder of Kid Expression, a 501(c) (3) to develop children’s ability to write their stories.
Published works include:
The Boy with a Torn Hat 2010
Almost Avalon 2015
Anthologies:
The Coffeeshop Chronicles: Oh, the Places I have Bean! 2010
The Courtesans of God: Book One-The Prophecy of Che' Wan 2022
The Courtesans of God: Book Two - Defiance 2024
Kid Expressions 2012
Inside the Lines—Outside the Box 2012
5×5: Keeping the Dream Aloft 2019
Non-fiction:
Fire in the Belly: How to Write Your Novel with Purpose and Passion April 2021
It is my pleasure to endorse Thornton Sully as a capable and inspiring creative writing instructor. His engaging teaching style and unique lesson plans helped draw stories out of our students and convinced them that they were talented, innovative storytellers.
Heather Simons
Manager of Pen in the Classroom
I toiled long and hard for years on my book Raw Man before I met Thornton Sully. He helped me realize that I did have a story to tell and his belief in me raised my own hopes of being a published author. I would never have had such a wonderful experience without his enthusiastic help. He is easy to work with and a joy to be around. He guided me through the rough spots and as a team, we created a work that has drawn praise.
Fred Rivera
Published Author and 2015 Winner Isabelle Allende Miraposa Award for Best New Fiction 2015 and Pulitzer Prize Nominee
Thorn intuitively seemed to get where I was going and lent remarkably sound and salient advice for honing and refining my manuscript to its best outcome. Thorn has great “people skills” and is able to impart his professional wisdom including constructive critiques in a very firm yet gentle and palliative way. I have emerged from Thorn’s care with a new-found confidence regarding my soon-to-be manuscript.
Kristine Grant
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and author of Relationshift© Your Heart—My Words…What You Meant to Say