ON WRITING CRAFT

Antoine Vanner on Grabbing the Reader: Structure and Dynamics for Narrative Fiction

Antoine Vanner is the author of the eleven (so far!) volumes of the Dawlish Chronicles series. His own adventurous life, his knowledge of human nature, his passion for nineteenth-century history and his understanding of the technology of that time make him the ideal chronicler of the lives of Victorian-era Royal Navy officer Nicholas Dawlish and his intrepid wife, Florence.

Novelists are storytellers and, as such, their greatest challenge is grabbing and holding the reader’s interest and involvement from start to finish. Effective management of tension is the key to achieving this. In Antoine's presentation, the structure and dynamics that underpin such management are explained in detail.

Caryl Westmore on busting writer's block.

Caryl, is a podcaster, bestselling self-help author and holistic coach who hails originally from Zimbabwe/South Africa, based now on the Isle of Wight, UK. She combines her expertise as a former journalist/editor with 20+ years as a holistic Energy Psychology coach helping clients "break free to live the life you love and write the book inside you."

Caryl's session is about two unconventional "inner game" ways to tackle the dreaded writer's block. EFT Tapping meets ChatGPT chatting to set your words free with Caryl Westmore. 

Maureen Murdock on Myth & Memoir. 

Maureen combines her interest in the mysterious workings of the psyche with a study of mythology and a love of storytelling and memoir writing. To that end, she helps people explore meaning in their lives through the excavation of their memories in lectures and workshops throughout the United States and in memoir classes at the San Francisco Writing Salon, UCLA Writer’s Program and in private memoir groups in Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Memoirists are our contemporary mythmakers, asking the same questions our ancestors did: “Who am I? Where am I going? What is my tribe? What is my purpose?”

Her books include The Heroine’s Journey, Fathers’ Daughters: Breaking the Ties that Bind, Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children, The Heroine’s Journey Workbook and Monday Morning Memoirs: Women in the Second Half of Life.

Anne Janzer - 3 Practices of Successful Nonfiction Authors.

Anne Janzer is a nonfiction author, development editor, and unabashed writing geek dedicated to helping others make an impact with their writing. 

How do you set yourself up for success when writing a nonfiction book? Anne Janzer shares three key practices, based on extensive research with nonfiction authors.

Tom Burkhalter and Malcolm G. Kelly discuss their views of the obligation of a writer of historical fiction to the actualities of history, especially as a form of homage to a group of people who experienced extraordinary events and performed incredible deeds. 

They also elaborate on the importance of the characters not knowing how their experience of history turns .

Malcolm G. Kelly is the author of Sprog, a story of young men in the Second World War. He was a professional journalist for 37 years, writing or editing for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's digital sports department, the National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Southam News, Thomson News, Town Crier Newspapers, and the Canadian Press before founding a renowned post-graduate sports journalism program at Centennial College in Toronto. Malcolm has also written four non-fiction sports books, one a bestseller.

Malcolm’s parents served in the war, his father in the Royal Army (veteran of the defence of Calais), and his mother in the Army’s ATS. This dual heritage inspired Malcolm’s involvement in the study of the human face of the war and how those caught up in it handled the constant fear of death or injury. His parents moved from England to Canada in 1966, where Malcolm now resides with his wife, Barbara, son Patrick, and Grace the dachshund.

Tom Burkhalter. According to his parents the first word Tom Burkhalter said was “airplane.” He started writing his first novel at 10, but it took nearly 50 years of bumming around at odd jobs and experiencing life to really learn how to write. In the meantime, he took degrees in mathematics and law, delivered pizzas, ran a materials testing laboratory, spent too much time in the sun and heat, and developed a love of cats. He is a volunteer at the Hickory Aviation Museum with a bunch of other plane nuts, including a cast of characters from World War II, at least one of whom served as a model for a fictional character in his books. He is the author of the No Merciful War series of World War II aviation thrillers, with seven published and the eighth, Dancing With Angels, nearing completion in the summer of 2023. Tom lives in Hickory, NC, USA.

Patricia Gitt - “Women – My author’s perspective” - A personal writer’s perspective on creating accomplished women facing a crisis, celebrating each of my protagonists as individuals in thought and deed.

Patricia Gitt is a former senior executive in public relations in the United States. Patricia’s insider’s view of accomplished women is highlighted in her novels. 

Steven James - How do you write a novel without an outline? 

Steven James is the critically acclaimed author of seventeen thrillers. His novels have won more than a dozen honors and awards and have been optioned for television.

Find out as Steven James discusses crafting the beginning of his thriller EVERY DEADLY KISS. He will also give a talk about Status: How to Create Three-Dimensional Characters. 

Multi-dimensionality for all characters (including antagonists and protagonists) depends on varying their status. Characterization is brought out by showing how a character acts in relationship to other characters. 

Learn how to understand the dance of submission / prominence that every relationship has and how situational, positional and relational status affect every character in your novel.

Andréa Fehsenfeld - The Magic of Theme  - Why you tell the story is as important as the story.

Andréa Fehsenfeld is an award-winning author and TV producer. Her second novel, A Rainbow Like You, was named a “Best Book of 2020” five weeks after publication.

Conor Kostick - Why is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke such a good book? 

Conor Kostick is a novelist and historian. He teaches a popular course, ‘Finish Your Novel’, at the Irish Writers Centre. He also teaches medieval history, and the history of the Crusades, at Trinity College, Dublin. 

Here, Conor Kostick argues that above all, it is because of the narrative voice: a witty, judgemental and fallible omniscience.

Eilish Fisher - Inspiring Myths: Using Irish Mythology and Folklore in your Creative Writing Practice.

Deborah Dixon - Writing Diverse Characters.

Mark Schaefer - discusses how he writes so consistently (nine books in 11 years), the profound impact of the pandemic on his latest work "Cumulative Advantage," and why he decided to hire a "sensitivity reader" as an editor for the first time. 

He will also talk about KNOWN: The Handbook for Building and Unleashing Your Personal Brand in the Digital Age. 

Mark Schaefer is a globally acclaimed keynote speaker, university educator, strategy consultant, podcaster, and blogger. He is the bestselling author of nine books including Marketing Rebellion, KNOWN, and Cumulative Advantage.

Alex McGilvery - author & editor will talk about owning your story. It’s been said all stories have been written, so how do we craft a tale which stands out?

Alex McGilvery reviewed books for twenty-five years, reading all genres. Within the last few years, he shifted focus to editing. As a content editor, he works with authors to polish their stories through focus on plot, character, tone. 

Gerald M. Kilby - #1 selling global sci-fi author, will discuss the practicalities of outlining a novel and the impact (good and bad) it can have on your writing. 

Gerald M. Kilby is an acclaimed science fiction author. Reaction is his first novel written in the old-school techno-thriller style. His latest books, Colony Mars and The Belt, are best sellers, topping Amazon charts for Hard Science Fiction & Space Exploration.  

Kathleen Reardon - professor, writer and artist will talk about “The Bridge from Nonfiction to Fiction Writing”. Kathleen addresses what she calls the “false dichotomy” between nonfiction and fiction. 

She explains how writing nonfiction often provides a readiness and much preparatory work for fiction. If you’ve been thinking about branching out as a writer, but you’re wondering if experience in one form precludes writing in another, Kathleen has some freeing thoughts to share. 

Kathleen Kelley Reardon, professor, writer and artist, has published ten nonfiction books and two crime mysteries. Professor of business and communication, she has published in journals, magazines, and was a signature front-page blogger with Huffington Post (2005-2016.) 

Rikard Sommer - Norwegian thriller author, will talk about developments in Nordic fiction.

Conor Kostick - will also show us the way to “Sustaining an immersive, consistent voice“. 

In this session, Conor looks at a fundamental issue: the voice of your narration. Drawing on his years of experience as a tutor at the Irish Writers Centre, a judge of literary competitions and commissioning editor, he will highlight the most common pitfalls that can marr even the best of stories and in particular, explore how and when to use an omniscient voice. 

Conor Kostick is a novelist and historian. He teaches a popular course, ‘Finish Your Novel’, at the Irish Writers Centre. He also teaches medieval history, and the history of the Crusades, at Trinity College, Dublin. 

Alexandra Sokoloff - thriller author & screenwriter will talk about how to write your best book or script using the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence screenplay structure and other visual and storytelling tricks from film writing.

Michael Russell - will talk about the creation of the particular ‘world’ that is the distinguishing feature of every piece of fiction: “Brave New Worlds”. 

In fiction we interrogate character, plot and theme at length, though few great writers share contemporary ideas about these things. Storytelling styles change. What’s constant is the creation of unique ‘worlds’ readers can explore. It’s the heart of every story. There are no rules about how to do it, so how does it work? Michael is a Sunday Times bestselling author with an extensive background in television drama in Britain and Ireland, including The Bill, Heartbeat, Midsomer Murders and A Touch of Frost. 

Catherine Kullmann - Irish historical fiction author, will describe how to bring the past to life so that our readers make the leap with us, and how she uses research in the process. 

Catherine Kullmann has written six novels that are set in the extended Regency period, against a background of the offstage, Napoleonic Wars, and consider in particular the situation of women trapped in a patriarchal society. 

Dr. Nita Mishra - is a development practitioner, researcher and lecturer on international development at University College Cork. Nita will speak about Diversity and Inclusion in Poetry.

Dr. Nita Mishra is a post-doctoral researcher on Social Inclusion and part-time lecturer for International Development at University College Cork. Her poetry, critically acclaimed as the future of Irish feminism, reflects the lives of migrant women globally. 

Marion Lougheed - Writers deal with rejections all the time. 

In this video, writer and editor Marion Lougheed explains why you might be getting rejected and how to improve your chances of getting accepted.

Marion Lougheed is a writer, editor and anthropologist who grew up in four countries. She won the Prime 53 Poem Summer Challenge (Press 53) and the Poem In Your Pocket Day Contest (League of Canadian Poets). Her work appears in various magazines and anthologies, including The Arcanist, This WIll Only Take a Minute: 100 Canadian Flashes (Guernica Editions), and Necessary Fiction. She shortlisted for the Sunlight Press Flash Fiction Contest and longlisted for Furious Fiction and the Fish Publishing Short Fiction Prize. In addition to working directly with authors as an editor, Marion founded Off Topic Publishing, where she runs a monthly contest and regular open calls for submissions.