Wednesday 6 February 2013

Workshop this Weekend

Edit: The workshop is from 10 to 5, NOT 9 to 5. Cheers!

On Sunday will be the full day workshop on Editing your Fiction, given by Derek Künsken and myself, and all proceeds will go to the local sci-fi con, CAN-CON.  For those of you who don't yet know, CAN-CON is hosting the Aurora Awards this year, so it's a particularly important (and expensive) year. In 2012, other members of my writing group, the East Block Irregulars, gave workshops to help fundraise for the con.  This year, I'm happy to be in the ring with them.

For those of you who were wondering what the heck we'd talk about for a fullll day, here's some insight:
  • Derek will go on about accepting that first drafts are shit and editing will make them shine.  I shall support his point, perhaps make fun of some of them, and then add a few more. 
  • Structural edits
  • Character arcs
  • My favourite: adding tension!
  • Language edits
  • All with some exercises and practical examples!
I'm pushing for Derek and I to play good cop/bad cop when it comes to editing, but I think we're both pretty bad cop about this, so that's a no go. The reason we're intense about this, however, is that we both feel strongly edits make manuscripts shine AND publishable.  They're a good set of skills to learn and then master.

I believe there's still some room in the workshop, so don't miss out! We'll be at the University of Ottawa from 10-5 on Sunday, and it's only $40 for the whole day.  And did I mention that it's all going to support CAN-CON?  To register, contact Elizabeth at can.spec.lit@gmail.com

I can't wait for this. I love playing bad cop.  Fear me!

2 comments:

  1. So wish I could be there...but my vacation is a calling! :) Enjoy!

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    1. I hope you're going somewhere warm and/or super interesting. Enjoy!!

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