
This section examines the role of exercise in a typical writer's day. What successful writers say about exercising. Do you have a place to write your project? Anecdotes of famous writers and their writing studios: Shel Silverstein and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. This section guides you to the very important matter of finding the exact writing tool that works for you.
This section provides you with a Step-by-step guide on how and where to publish: self and/or commercial publishing: E-books and trade paperbacks. Also, you will hear about--When does the money kick in? An author's royalty set-up. A most important part of this section revolves around Discovering Your Writing Strengths! Stuck? Don't know what to write about? This section provides a detailed discussion on how we may proceed.
Here you will learn more about the all-important matter of discovering your own particular writing Voice. Also here--do you have one project under your belt? Where do you go from there? This section goes a long way in helping you make that transition. Find detailed information here about what goes into an effective Cover Letter—often our first communication with literary agents, editors and publishers.
Broaden your publishing experience with these tried & proven tools & means that will help you get published. The invaluable reference volume found in most large libraries: the LMP (Literary Marketplace) how to use it and what for. Question: “Ok, I've sent out my manuscript—now what?” Discover essential options here. This section illustrates how we can built a career; that is, the way one work can lead you to the next. This session concludes with a note on the relationship between fact and fiction. Your workshop holds for writing fiction & nonfiction.
“Writing is about being resilient & persevering through the years.”
In this section, based on vast experience & hazards, discover the relationship between a writer's real life and his or her work. The whys and wherefores of a long, successful career. How positive influences can shape your writing career. This section concludes with the important subject: what is involved in occupying your own particular literary terrain. Establishing your brand.
This sections explores the phenomenon known as Writer's Block and offers a powerful method of breaking through. This section also explores in depth the genre of Biography. Here you will find successful experiments in this popular genre. Answers to the provocative question: what governs your choice of subject matter?
Two effective Writing Exercises useful for all levels.
Learn about & practice 2 useful exercises: The One Character exercise and the Action/Quality Exercise. More on the devices writers use to achieve their effects. This session also includes the important discussion about “person”. It concludes with a reading & discussion of a short-short masterpiece. “In the end, to be successful, the work has to emanate from yourself.”
In this section I will read The Vulture by Franz Kafka and begin talking about devices that writers use.
“Our job is to make our work loud and clear for our readership.”
Here we say a word on journalism, go over publishing again, and talk about writing what you want to write.
Here we cover the physical act of writing, finding your tool, and writing for the sheer love of writing.
So many manuscripts do not find their way to the marketplace—here you will discover how to summon to the surface that missing 10-20%. Tips on picking up the MO (momentum). Question: Why do we write? A response. Notes on reading for writers. Another question: How do I know when my piece is ready to send out? Answers here. Discover ways to get involved in the larger literary community.
“When I'm done for the day I really feel nice. And it's free.”
Experience the Writer's High! Write! Write! Write”
Learn the basic concepts and methods that you will need to become the writer you wish to be. Acquire the knowledge of the proper writing tools to use, good habits to precede your writing session, how to find the appropriate Narrative Voice for each of your projects, tips on how to organize your writing day or night, a proven method to break through Writer's Block, ways to find your subject matter and how to go from one work to the next. Through all of this useful, often amusing, information, you will be guided by a seasoned, caring professional author and editor. “I am determined to share all that I have learned in the publishing and writing worlds, all for the purpose of serving your needs, whether it be to improve, hone, and sustain your writing skills; or to provide you with step-by-step processes of publishing your work; or to satisfy your curiosity of what a professional writer's life is like. I have designed this course to allay any of your trepidations about the world and practice of writers and writing and to provide you with the day-to-day workable means of becoming the best writer you can possible be.
A Rounded, Realistic View of the Writer's Life & Work
This workshop's environment is friendly, supportive and compassionate as it is based on decades of professional experience in the publishing and writers' worlds. We learn from well-known writers such as Shel Silverstein and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr--with whom Mr. Valerio has worked--many of the lessons and techniques offered by this course.
Writers of all levels--mainly practitioners of fiction & nonfiction--can utilize this workshop to learn the processes of writing, revising and publishing; to practice the exercises provided; to refresh their writing skills; and also to have at will an inspiring approach to the life of a writer and his/her connection to the wonderful craft of writing.
In this course, together, we will fix--
Content and Overview
Suitable for beginning, intermediate and advanced writers, this animated multi-hour workshop will usher you into the workplace and life of a professional writer and editor. You will come to know what it's really like to be a writer, how a writing career is built one writing credit to the next—all for the purpose of finding the kind of writer you wish to be. This is your workshop.
Supporting by animation, you will receive step-by-step guidance on how to publish your work, both the self-publishing process and agencies and more commercial publishing. You will become professional in regards to writing an effective cover letter to literary agents, editors, and publishers. You will know which reference books to use in order to achieve your publishing goals.
Culled from decades of writing study and practice, your instructor will show you through multiple lectures, examples and readings the literary devices master writers use to achieve their magical effects. You can listen along with your instructor as he reads a Short-Short in its entirety and then work along with him in breaking down the masterpiece into its components such as Time Sequence, Action, Dialogue, Image, Narrative Voice. You will begin to read and work in a professional way.
By completing this course, you will have a greater knowledge of who you are as a writer and be inspired to practice the great art in a realistic way. In addition, you will receive a verifiable certificate of completion upon completing this course.
What am I going to get from this course?
At the end of this course, “I hope…" you will be inspired to write, and to have acquired the knowledge on how to prepare, structure and execute your work on hand. Take away with you that you can always return to your course for the knowledge that enables you to carry through, complete and, if you wish, publish your work. You will possess guidelines on choosing not only your subject matter and/or what your next project can be but also the kind of writer you want to be--the “literary terrain" you wish to occupy. Your uniqueness, if you will. Your Brand. You will have discovered the appropriate narrative voice foe each of your projects, as a good portion of your animated workshop of several hours and 12 lectures and examples and readings is devoted to exactly that: finding your narrative voice. You will know and utilize the three stages of effective composition. You will have mastered those literary devices great writers have used over the centuries—these devices will provide you with sufficient options, or tolls, to write your piece. You will know the reference points to gauge when your work is ready to send out to an editor, agent or publisher.
“I designed this writing course to be accessible to beginning writers as well as to intermediate and experienced writers. I designed it so that it can remain a companion to you in your writing life, whenever and wherever you sit down to write. It is designed in a way to make your writing a happy, healthy, productive experience. Happy Writing!"--Anthony Valerio