Festival 2011 Workshops
Sessions are 1hour 30 mins unless otherwise stated
Speakers participating in the Blue Pencil Café are indicated. Choose your three Blue Pencil authors and enter them on the registration form.
WRITING AUTHENTIC CHARACTERS
3 HOURS - SATURDAY
People read for the company. At least, I do. I want real characters – believable, complex, flawed, authentic. I want to be lost in their stories. I want to live within their skin. Once I have the characters, the rest of the story follows. This workshop will focus developing people-on-the-page as a starting place for writing fiction (short stories or novels). Participants will learn techniques for hooking readers and getting them right inside the skin of their characters. Bring: 1) three pictures of people whose faces hint at their personality; 2) your favourite piece of fiction; 3) a description of your favourite fictional character; 4) one object that reminds you of a person in your life.
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH ANGIE ABDOU – SUNDAY SESSION
Come and meet the author and hear about her writing process. She will discuss the composition of (and responses to) The Bone Cage and The Canterbury Trail and share stories about her recent Canada Reads experience. The audience will be welcome to ask questions.
OPENING KEYNOTE: A WRITER'S JOURNEY
CONVERSATION WITH WILLIAM DEVERELL
An open forum based on questions and answers. Here is your chance to hear directly from the author the answer to your questions about his novels, TV Series etc.
Due to personal health reasons Mark has had to withdraw. We hope he will join us next year.
THE ART OF REVISIONING
Great books aren’t written. They are rewritten. In truth revision is the key process of writing and one that every author needs to tackle. Deanna once considered rewriting a dreaded task until she discovered the freedom in it. She will offer a practical guide to changing both the big structural picture and the small picture with every word in its place. Through creative play Deanna will show how to change problems encountered—be it with characters, plot, or other elements of story—into opportunities. These principles can be applied to any length piece of prose or literary nonfiction. Come and discover the fun in revisioning.
FIELD WORK
What kind of research is involved in creating the scaffolding that holds a piece of fiction or non-fiction together? While writing involves creative inspiration, it also requires sheer hard labour. I’d like to share some of the ways I approach a sustained work of prose and will bring lots of examples of primary and secondary materials necessary to my work. Maps, field guides, architectural histories, archival material, archaeological site reports – these are some of the things I rely on. I’ll suggest some exercises which help to both focus attention and allow for a playful exploration of landscape, terrain, stories, collective and individual histories, and how we can shape language to help to contain these elements in a meaningful way.
DYNAMITE DUO-SATURDAY SESSION
READINGS AND DISCUSSION
Time shared with Nancy Warren
FACE TO FACE WITH EVELYN LAU
This event will consist of a poetry reading from my latest books (Treble, Living Under Plastic) as well as some new work, informal commentary on the creation of these poems, and ample time for a lively Q and A session. I will welcome any questions, whether about the work itself, my process as a writer, or about the ins and outs of publishing and establishing yourself as a writer/poet – submitting to literary magazines, entering competitions, working with editors and agents and publishers, etc. I hope the audience will arrive with plenty of questions, whether they are aspiring writers seeking practical guidance or readers of poetry curious about what goes into the making of a poem.
"THE END": A WRITER'S GUIDE ON REACHING THE FINISH LINE
Bestselling BC author Grant Lawrence conducts this energizing seminar on how to find the motivation to finish what you started. Based on Grant's
personal journey of writing and publishing “Adventures in Solitude", he will detail the methods he employed to block
out the distractions and the roadblocks and focus on the positive. He will showcase his experience with
self-imposed deadlines, timelines, dealing with rejection, finding a
publisher, and turning what he was told was a "terrible idea" into a national
bestseller.
Annabel will give a talk and readings based on both “The Golden Mean” and her new book for young people “Encore Edie”. She will be happy to answer your questions.
THE CHAPBOOK, POETRY’S PIED A TERRE
Poetry has a long tradition of publication in chapbooks or pamphlets that exists because the format ideally suits the genre, not just of lyric poetry but also of poem sequences and long poems. We’ll look at striking examples of chapbooks from John Pass’s extensive collection and how poets can utilize formats smaller than the book (including broadsheets, cards, etc) to publish their work.
"JUST A SECOND: POETRY AND THE TEEN STORY"
Wendy Phillips reads from and talks about her Governor General’s Literary Award-winning young adult novel, Fishtailing. Set in Vancouver, the story follows the lives of four teens as they collide and begin to spin out of control. The novel is written in free verse in six voices, a new and increasingly popular genre in YA literature. Phillips discusses the roots of the form for young adults in children’s literature. She explores how poetry, far from being a dead language, captures the intensity of the moment and reflects the vivid reality of the adolescent experience.
Wendy will also be a guest at the KIDSWRITE AWARDS CEREMONY.
HOW TO WRITE A MYSTERY THRILLER
3 HOURS - SATURDAY
The three elements of suspense: fear, hope, and time.
Five Ws and an H: Who x 2? Where? When? Why? How?
Ten rules for a thriller: how to perch readers on the edge of their seats.
Subgenres: soft-boiled, hard-boiled, and “Just the facts, ma’am.”
Which comes first: plot or sleuth?
Whodunit tricks and traps.
Flatfoot and gumshoe: elements of the police procedural.
How much sex and violence?
Research: living your plot.
Suspending disbelief.
Skeletons in the closet: writing historical mysteries.
Screaming pitch: building a story arc.
Write the good fight.
Genre bending.
"THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PLOTTING."- SUNDAY SESSION at Okanagan College
How to plot a thriller, mystery, or other novel from incidents in your own life, and how to add fun to writing by going out and living your plot. In other words, how to write what you know. Michael Slade has done this 16 times.
Every Michael Slade novel takes a lifetime to plot, as you'll see by working through the drawers in Slade's Morgue:
www.specialx.net/specialxdotnet/morgue.html
Writing should be fun, not hunched over a computer, sweating alone in a room.
DYNAMITE DUO-SATURDAY SESSION
READINGS AND DISCUSSION
Time shared with Theresa Kishkan
LOVE ME DO - SUNDAY SESSION at Okanagan College
Writing the love story isn’t the sole province of the romance author. Love stories are integral subplots in nearly all genres, from suspense to science fiction. Writing a love story isn’t easy but when it works it resonates like a great pop hit. In this workshop we’ll look at three key techniques to writing a romance that lives and breathes: romantic conflict, sexual tension and dialogue.
SUNDAY'S KEYNOTE at Okanagan College
THE DREADED 'R' WORD
Why rejection is good for your career!
PANEL DISCUSSION
TRAVERSING THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF WRITING AND PUBLISHING
E-publishing and e-marketing are bringing about radical changes for writers and publishers alike. Through blogs, Facebook pages, etc. publishers are expecting writers to be their own marketing machines. How does this extra demand mesh with every writer's struggle to find time to write? Further what is the fair division of labour between the writer and publisher in this rapidly changing world? Moderator, Michael Slade will lead the discussion with authors, Angie Abdou, Annabel Lyon, Wendy Phillips, John Pass, and Theresa Kishkan.
