My Talks

Novels begin with an idea, and the bigger the idea, the more likely you are to attract the notice of agents, editors, and readers. In this seminar, learn techniques that can help you generate your Big Idea from the start, which will help to guide you to writing a novel that will stand out from the crowd.

Whether it's fantasy, science fiction, or horror, worldbuilding is one of the most crucial skills for a writer of speculative fiction. This talk provides a detailed discussion of the ins and outs of creating a compelling, vibrant world from scratch, extrapolating from history, or shading our own world slightly differently to create a unique setting for your novel.

Plotting is one of the more difficult disciplines to master in writing, and even discovery writers will benefit from learning basic plotting techniques. This seminar focuses on various plotting techniques, from basic structural concepts, initial plotting and eventual refinement, how to break the dreaded writer’s block and how to avoid it in the first place.

Well-structured scenes make for compelling storytelling. How can you construct powerful scenes? And how do you string scenes together to create a vivid and stirring piece of writing? In this seminar, you’ll learn how to structure scenes that work, whether you’re writing a short story or the next breakout novel.

Tension is one of the basic building blocks of modern day fiction. If you know how to lay the seeds of tension, and how to coax them, you can transform your fiction from merely noteworthy to exceptional. In this seminar, the different types of tension are discussed, as well as ways to maximize them to keep your reader glued to the page.

In writing, there are many different techniques that are rarely discussed together. Foreshadowing, parallel threads, theme, tone, character building, and more. In this seminar, these topics are discussed from the viewpoint of strengthening the story as a whole, taking a story that feels loose and directionless and working with the material that’s already there to make it strong and vibrant.

The ability to recognize patterns is a basic human trait. We use it over and over again in our fiction. This seminar discusses how to use patterns to your benefit by both setting and breaking expectations. Learn how to draw your reader in by challenging their expectations, and take character building, plot progression, plot twists and setbacks, and world building to the next level.

It’s easy while writing to focus on the mechanics of writing and forget that fiction is a form of entertainment. Writers can become lost in topics of theme, characterization, plotting, or even the line-by-line writing, while forgetting to accentuate the things that make people want to read books in the first place. This seminar focuses on the entertainment value of writing, and discusses techniques for maximizing the pages for a more engrossing, emotional, page-turning read.

Learn about the state of writing, how to find the right agent, contracts, career management, publicity and marketing, self-publishing, and more. This talk starts with a general discussion of how to navigate the field of writing as a new writer, but gives preference to the question and answer session, where attendees can ask questions that pertain to their unique situation.