BREAKOUT

SESSION 1

Anjanette Barr: Tricky Situations in Publishing

In this breakout we will cover various situations authors may find themselves in during their career. The purpose will be to take a closer look at the enigma that is the publishing business and brainstorm solutions for tricky scenarios. This will especially appeal to authors who are or hope to be traditionally published, and to those who want to straddle the line between traditional and self-publishing.

AKRWA Panel: Crafting Characters with Depth and Dimension

Compelling characters draw readers into your narrative. Join AKRWA members in a panel discussion on how to develop well-rounded characters, including working with backstory, goals, motivation, and avoiding problems like stereotypes. Appropriate for fiction and nonfiction writers.

Krysta Voskowsky: Platform Smarter, Not Harder

This session teaches key short-form writing techniques for anyone who has a past. Learn the science behind writing as a neurological and somatic healing practice, and discover the unique ways memoir can help heal old wounds, cultivate writer's voice, and bring people together.

Toya Brown: Motif-vation: How to Keep the Creative Flow Going

This workshop explores how to keep creative energy flowing. There is a segment dedicated to characterization. There are tools provided to develop character arc and the subtle art of connecting characters to motifs.

10:50 - 11:50am

BREAKOUT

SESSION 2

Room 220

Jessica Snyder: Swipe Write: How to match with your perfect editor

Learn what aspects to look for when researching the right editor for you and your story, create your own plan for self-editing and revising, and master a few mindset tips that will help you throughout your author career.

John Messick: Writing Place as an Act of Witness 

In this session, we approach the writing of place as an act of witness and community engagement. We will look at how people explore writing about where they live, as well as how we can craft work that sits at the intersection of the myriad ways we understand place: through personal, political, ecological, and emotional lenses, as well as across writing genres.

Christy Cox: From Pitch to Published

TBD

Dan Walker: Catch and Release: Hooking Readers the Right Way

The most critical part of any story or book is the opening. Get that part right and the reader is hooked. The way to get a reader to come back for more stories is to create an effective ending. Leave the reader satisfied and that reader is apt to come back for more. Using models and non-examples, workshop participants will: 1) discuss and define what makes strong beginnings and endings; 2) examine some strong beginnings and closing scenes from various genres; 3) Work collectively and alone to write both opening paragraphs and closing scenes.

12:50 - 1:50pm

BREAKOUT 

SESSION 3

Anjanette Barr: Identifying Target Audience 

This session includes tips for getting your books into the hands of the people who actually want to read it. We'll cover how to accurately place your book in a genre and audience age category. We'll also talk about what to do when your book crosses genres, and how to choose the best language to convey your book's core message.

Eric Smith: Marketing for Published Authors 

TBD 

Krysta Voskowsky: Healing Childhood Trauma through Memoir

This session teaches key short-form writing techniques for anyone who has a past. Learn the science behind writing as a neurological and somatic healing practice, and discover the unique ways memoir can help heal old wounds, cultivate writer's voice, and bring people together.

BREAKOUT 

SESSION 4

Jessica Snyder: 10 Editing Hacks 

This workshop puts self-editing tasks into an easy-to-follow list format. You can check off each item before submitting your manuscript to anyone from critique partners to agents and editors. Most of the tasks are quick and use shortcuts in Word such as Find and Replace. Others are a bit more work-intensive, like culling extraneous adverbs or removing filter words and writing in deeper POV, but will ultimately strengthen your story.

Hailey Staker: Worldbuilding 101 

In World-building 101, I’ll take you through the basic steps of establishing the world in which your characters will live for the duration of your story. We’ll focus on the Ws: who, what, when and where and put what we learn into practice in a short creative writing exercise meant to challenge writers on place and time.

Christy Cox: Nuts and Bolts of Picture Books 

TBD

NaMee: Mindfully Honing Poetry Skills

In this session, NaMee will use poetry skills to guide students in activities that can be used in their writing, and in building a mindful practice that can benefit them on and off the page. Although her own identity and practices revolve largely around poetry, this is an intensive suitable for all kinds of writers (and non-writers!).