. Workshops

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These eight workshops are appropriate for a wide range of interests and abilities.

Each is designed to be taught during a session of 1 to 1½ hours.

Each is a stand-alone learning experience, but several workshops may be offered

as a learning series for programs of a day or several days or a week.

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Welcome to the Writers' World

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Writing should not be a totally solitary process. Opportunities to receive feedback on one's work and to network with other writers can lead to better writing and to greater success as a writer.
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This general level workshop encourages writers to immerse themselves in the writers' world. Participants will join in a discussion of organizing and participating in writers' groups. Participants will also be encouraged to submit their work to contests and publications. A session outline and information on regional groups, contests, and publications will be given to each participant.
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At the end of the session, participants will be given an assignment for success.

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successfully conducted at
The Baldwin Writers' Group Workshop for Wordsmiths (May 2004)

The Alabama Writers' Conclave Conference (2003)

The Appalachian Writers' Association Conference (2003)

The Calhoun College Writers' Workshop (2002) 
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Jump Start Your Muse

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Waiting for inspiration to strike can turn into a very long wait. Writers can take anything, however commonplace, and turn it into the starting point for a story, poem, play, or song.
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This introductory level workshop guides writers through applying a creative process to random prompts. The workshop leader will provide the prompts. The participants will use their own imagination and creativity to write a short piece in the genre of their choosing. 
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At the end of the session, participants will be given an assignment for success.

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successfully conducted at

The West Virginia Writers' Conference (June 2006)

The Appalachian Writers' Association Conference (July 2004)
The Madison Public Library (June 2004)
The Baldwin Writers' Group Workshop for Wordsmiths (May 2004)

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The Opportunity to Discover

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This introductory level workshop will enable participants to write in a way that will empower the reader. Writing is more effective when readers are given the opportunity to discover, rather than simply be told, the nature and purpose of the characters. Through a series of examples and exercises, participants will learn to write in a more evocative fashion.
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At the end of the session, participants will be given an assignment for success.

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successfully conducted at

The West Virginia Writers' Conference (June 2006)

The Appalachian Writers' Association Conference (July 2005)
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From Quantity to Quality

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This introductory level workshop will enable participants to edit their own work and the work of others. Through a series of examples and exercises, they will learn to take expansive writing and transform it into a powerful expression. 
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At the end of the session, participants will be given an assignment for success.

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successfully conducted at
The Appalachian Writers' Association Conference (July 2006)

The West Virginia Writers' Conference (June 2006).

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Write Risky

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There are no good, safe stories. Risk-taking produces stories that unsettle, excite, and ring true. Yet, there are some constraints worthy of consideration. Through examples, discussion, and exercises, participants in this intermediate-level fiction workshop will explore styles of effective writing that take them beyond the bonds of convention. To prepare for this workshop, students should read “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Conner.

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At the end of the session, participants will be given an assignment for success.

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successfully conducted at
The West Virginia Writers' Conference (June 2007)
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Write Up

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Most dialogue is direct, intended to convey information and circumstances. Complex dialogue employs omission and implication and opposites to evoke tension and provide insight. Through examples, discussion, and exercises, participants in this intermediate-level fiction workshop will explore the challenges of complex dialogue. To prepare for this workshop, students should read “Hills like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway.

At the end of the session, participants will be given an assignment for success.

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successfully conducted at

The Appalachian Writers' Association Conference (July 2007)
The West Virginia Writers' Conference (June 2007)

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Set the Place, Set the Time

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Stories are about people, but the setting (place, time) locates the story and helps to define the characters and establish the mood. Setting may be described or revealed by the author or by the characters. By discussing examples and then participating in writing exercises, workshop participants will learn to effectively employ setting.

At the end of the session, participants will be given an assignment for success.

successfully conducted at

Bevill State Community College (April, 2008)

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The Short Story

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A short story employs economy of language to present characters in conflict and a resolution. Short stories often feature a vital nugget that may be the beginning, or the turning point, or the end of the story. In this workshop, students will learn to envision a short story as linear, with the nugget at any point on the story line. Through discussion and writing practice, the students will create a nugget and then extend a story from it.

At the end of the session, participants will be given an assignment for success.

successfully conducted at

The Tennessee Mountain Writers' Conference (March, 2008)