All workshops and events will take place at the conference hotel, the Sonesta Irvine Hotel (formerly Wyndham), located at 17941 Von Karman Avenue, Irvine, CA 92614.
Workshops: Read & Critique
Query Letter Critique
Leader: Marla Miller
Objective: An exceptional query letter is what lands a manuscript request from an agent or acquisitions editor. But is the book you’re pitching in it an accurate description of the book you’ve written? Is it too long or filled with superfluous information that actually undermines a reader’s confidence in your potential? Bring in your no-more-than-1-page query letter and let “Pitch Witch” Marla Miller work her “magic” to make it the best it can be.
Read & Critique (All-Genre)
Leader: Cherie Kephart
Objective: Troubleshoot potentially problematic aspects of works-in-progress.
Read & Critique (Memoir, Narrative & Straight Nonfiction)
Leader: Cherie Kephart
Objective: In this workshop, be prepared to experience reading and critiquing in a new way. Also, be ready to read aloud, listen intently, and support each other as we elevate our words to a more inspired level. Bring any writing up to five pages you want to work on. If you don’t have anything to share, you are absolutely welcome to join us, since there will be plenty of interesting of ways to participate and learn. While specifically geared toward non-fiction, fiction folks are welcome too.
Read & Critique (Thriller, Action, Urban Fantasy)
Leader: Conor Black
Objective: Troubleshoot potentially problematic aspects of works-in-progress.
Rogue Read & Critique (All-Genre)
Leader: Laura Taylor
Objective: Troubleshoot potentially problematic aspects of works-in-progress.
Rogue Read & Critique (Sci-Fi/Fantasy)
Leaders: Laura Perkins
Objective: Troubleshoot potentially problematic aspects of works-in-progress.
Workshops: Craft & Execution
Crafting Delicious Fiction Readers Will Crave
Leader: Kristi Fox
Objective: Have you ever wondered why readers are drawn to certain stories and books? Do you find yourself wanting to add that extra bit of spice? Learn what universal fantasy is, why to use it, and how to break every scene down and add that special flavor. Help readers connect more emotionally with your stories in tropes, characters, and plotline. We’ll practice different ways to flavor your fiction so readers can’t help but devour it.
Creating Atmosphere and Mood
Leader: Judy Reeves
Objective: Here’s where the writer gets to work magic through language. Want to create an atmosphere that evokes an emotion in the reader? Do it through description, through setting, through the use of the senses, and the diction of your story. The right choice of words and you move a reader from feeling safe and secure to biting her nails; change the structure of your sentences and take the reader from relaxed to excited. In this workshop, we’ll explore techniques that create atmosphere, generate mood and evoke emotion, with lots of in-workshop exercises you can apply to your own writing. For all writers—fiction and nonfiction.
Fiction From the Gut: Writing Unforgettable Characters
Leader: Barbara Pronin
Objective: Great stories begin with great characters; ‘real,’ honest, relatable characters in situations readers can understand, engage with, and care about enough to propel them through the story because they want to know how it turns out. In this workshop participants are asked to recall a time in their lives when they felt angry, cheated, left behind – then write a letter to the person who caused that emotion. Writers may share their letter if they wish. In any case, we will analyze as a group the passion with which their own letter was written, i.e. changes in your breathing, calling up the emotion, searching for exactly the right words, and more.
Front Story: Pouring the Foundation of a Powerful Tale
Leader: Ara Grigorian
Objective: Front Story is the foundation where the “A” story is fully fleshed out, the narrative elements keep the reader connected to the story, the main character, and her transformative journey. In this workshop you’ll learn what is expected (by an agent, editor, reader) and recommended when constructing your story’s Act I structure to better build beyond.
In the Beginning
Leader: Janis Thomas
Objective: Strong beginnings are essential to getting your novel noticed by agents and editors alike. Opening pages can decide whether an agent will request a full manuscript, and your first chapter or chapters will dictate whether a reader will purchase your book. Opening pages are designed to emotionally hook your reader, whether he or she is a consumer or a publishing authority. In this workshop, we will learn how to create opening pages that captivate your readers right from the start by showing intriguing and authentic characters, setting pace, and making that necessary promise to your readers that will keep them turning the pages. We will explore how to avoid common pitfalls that writers fall into and how to streamline your storytelling from page one. Please bring your opening page for read & critique.
Light, Not Heat: Writing Political and Social Fiction
Leader: Gail Vida Hamburg
Objective: In the US now, serious discussions about social issues are claimed by news media and non-fiction, or confined to private safe spaces. In Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, South America, and the Middle East, however, socially-engaged fiction is an established genre. Unlike biased and hardened positions on issues relayed by media and non-fiction, fiction can shed light at an oblique angle. Writers can render social issues through the prism of fiction, with each facet of the prism refracting plot, dialogue, characters, and the fictional universe into a powerful work. When social issues are written with skill, it can illuminate the most urgent social issues of our time; with grace, it can change the reader; with virtuosity and elegance, it can change the world. In this workshop, we will scan American political and social novels, review examples of two, learn the principles of fictionalizing social and political issues, and do some spot writing. Please bring stories in progress or idea and your laptop. Suggested advance bedtime reading – 1st pages of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American and Nicholson Baker’s Checkpoint.
Newbie Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Leader: Conor Black
Objective: Discover the all too common tics that suck the life out of a manuscript and annoy would-be readers—often in as little as a page (that’s the bad news). The good news, is: These pitfalls of prose are easy to fix once you’re aware of them. Expect to learn about talking heads, head hopping, disasters in dialogue, unintentional echoes, filler words, purple prose, “California scenes”, cringe-worthy narcissism, info dumps, characters in isolation, thought verbs, wordiness, thesis statements, passive voice, and much more.
The No-Outline Alternative
Leader: Conor Black
Objective: For writers who recoil at the thought of working from an outline, and for scribes in search of an intuitive process to craft a compelling yarn—this workshop’s for you. Expect to learn . . . When outlines were invented (hint: after storytelling) and why outlines were invented (hint: not for writing novels). The “fractal” nature of dramatic fiction, and how applying one simple pattern helps prevent writer’s block. How and why writing without a roadmap leads to fewer contrived scenes and better twists. The psychology of an engaged reader and how to manipulate it to keep them turning pages. The primitive (yet surprisingly effective) three-step process many of the world’s best writers rely on instead of outlining. In the latter portion of the workshop, attendees will apply the techniques discussed in real-time to compose the opening to a story.
Putting Heart Into Thrillers
Leader: Carl Vonderau
Objective: Thrillers are much more than plot. You, as the writer, feel the story. But more important is that the reader feel it. There are more affecting ways to express emotion than saying the character is happy or sad. This course will delve into how to do that through underlying character motivation, linking the emotions of the past to the present, the power of contradiction, the importance of protagonist engagement, the timing of emotional evocation, how to use outer and inner description, metaphor and objects, confirmation of character traits through points of view, the pitfalls of voice and action scenes, and other methods for creating emotion. Participants will be given some exercises to explore these techniques.
Rhythm, Pace, and Amusement
Leader: Gayle Carline
Objective: Along with a good plot and characters who feel real, a story has to pull the reader from the first page to the last. This requires writing that keeps the reader engaged and wanting more. We’ll discuss how to plump up flat sentences, and how to make sure each scene keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.
Separating Chaff from Wheat: Writing Fiction from Real-Life Experience
Leader: Zephyr
Objective: Are you stuck on what actually happened to you, unable to let the story breathe? Do readers accuse you of writing your autobiography under the guise of fiction? Do critics say the protagonist is actually you? Learn to discern what to keep and what to discard. Learn to differentiate the metaphysical truth of the story from your empirical truth. Learn to allow something else. Bring a pen and 4 sheets of paper for practice exercises. (Paper is better than computer in this case.) Examples will be provided. Bring questions about your own material!
Slice of Life: Sculpting Your Memoir’s Story
Leader: Cherie Kephart
Objective: Memoir is a slice of life. It’s about a timeframe or event in which you went through some sort of transformation. Identifying the part of your life you want to share is only one component. How do you then shape your story? How do you decide what to include and what to leave out? Where does it begin? How do you end it (after all, you’re still alive, right)? Lastly, how do you immerse readers in your world? Together we will explore the answers to these questions and more through interactive discussions and exercises. You will leave with concrete tools on how to successfully navigate the common pitfalls and challenges of the beautiful craft of memoir.
Soul Therapy: The Spiritual Side of Writing Memoir
Leader: Cherie Kephart
Objective: Writing a memoir is a journey beyond words. It’s a soulful experience. Enter the unwritten and learn about writing a memoir from a spiritual vantage point. It’s about relinquishing the power your story has over you. By learning to let go of the story that is holding you back, you can craft the story you were meant to tell. In this workshop, we will explore the fears that block us, the truth behind our intentions for writing our stories, how to discover the real message we are communicating to the world, what to focus on, what to let go of, and how this entire experience transforms us.
Story Beats: Your Story’s Pulse
Leader: Ara Grigorian
Objective: One tried-and-true method to becoming a better storyteller is to decompose and analyze favorite works (books, movies, etc.) like a surgeon until finding the inherent patterns that makes all stories flow. These internal patterns are story beats—the pulse of story. Story beats are the events, the decisions, or discoveries that alter the way our protagonist pursues her goal. This session will help you understand the core beats that all great stories share and apply them to your own.
The Storyteller’s Toolbox (Parts 1 & 2)
Leader: Janis Thomas
Objective: Whether you’re writing sci-fi, paranormal, coming of age, domestic thriller, romance, or memoir, all stories have key elements that make them engaging reads. In this workshop, we will cover structure, character arc, beats, and other vital tools that will raise your story to a commercially viable level.
Sustaining Suspense in Every Genre
Leader: Janis Thomas
Objective: Suspense is an integral part of any story. Will the character get what she wants? Will the hero save the world? Will she come home and tell him? Will he care? If not, why not? Editors talk about building suspense with plot twists but writers need to learn how—and when—to use that advice. This workshop will cover: introducing suspense that will buy you the most real estate; how best to use suspense elements; mistakes writers make regarding suspense elements; appropriate suspense elements for the genre you’re writing; and, of course, tailored to your work.
Tell Me a Story: Using Fiction Techniques for Compelling Memoirs
Leader: Judy Reeves
Objective: When we say, “tell me a story,” what we really mean is transport me to another place and time where something interesting—maybe even captivating—is happening. We want something exciting or moving to occur, and we want to experience it right along with the characters. We want to get to know the characters, see what they look like and hear their voices. We want to learn about them through their actions and behavior. We want to be grounded in a place, at a particular time. It isn’t just in novels and short stories, we want all this—readers these days expect these story-telling qualities in our memoirs as well. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the various techniques good fiction writers use to shape their story and reveal their characters and learn how to apply them in our memoirs.
Time in Memoir—A Chronology of Its Own
Leader: Judy Reeves
Objective: Not every memoir is told in chronological order. In fact, most memoirs move both forward and backward in time, slip-sliding from past to present and back again. The most successful memoirs aren’t simply a recounting of events, but the memoirist’s discovery of the connections among events that were not necessarily sequential and weaving those events into a narrative that reveals a meaning deeper than a mere telling of this happened and then that. Flash back; flash forward; time leaps; “I, then and I, now;” child voice/adult voice; past tense/present tense; reflection/projection; time is fluid in the memoir. In this workshop, we’ll look at the ways a writer controls time to reveal patterns and meaning in telling their story.
What’s the Point? Story, Subtext, and Plot
Leader: Gayle Carline
Objective: Authors write books because they have stories to tell to the world. Whether it is to impart a lesson, or provide entertainment, the author who understands what story they are trying to tell and why they are telling it, is more capable of producing a book that resonates with readers. This workshop will discuss ways of drilling down to the core of your story, and layering it throughout your book.
Writing the Unknown with What You Know
Leader: Ryka Aoki
Objective: At one point or another, we’ve all been advised to “write what you know.” But where does that leave fantasy and science fiction … or any stories that inherently deal with the unknown? For that matter, when does one know enough to write anything about anybody? In this workshop, we’ll explore writing what we know, writing what we might not know we know, why sensitivity readers are a good thing, and ways to tell the story you want to tell, anyway.
Workshops: Business & Alternative
AI, The Writer: Pitfalls, Potential, Practices
Leader: Ryan Hunter
Objective: It’s not the End Times. Generative artificial intelligence will prove to be a formidable tool for novelists, narrative non-fictionalists, and creative writers in general. In this workshop we’ll drill down to the practical understanding, applications and methodologies writers of all ilk can utilize to significantly benefit from this nascent, game-changing technology. We’ll be tackling AI “training,” “prompting,” misconceptions, tactical applications and myriad other ways to exploit AI’s potential, using ChatGPT and multiple alternate resource equivalents, to elevate one’s craft and reach in effort to make AI work for you, the writer. Be prepared to take notes. Lots of notes.
Getting to the Heart of Your Author Brand
Leaders: Greta Boris & Megan Haskell
Objective: Have you ever struggled to explain to others exactly what you write? Or wondered which of the many fiction ideas running through your brain you should tackle? If so, this workshop might be your solution. Greta and Megan will help you uncover your core motivations, avoid shiny-thing syndrome, and create clear marketing language. Each step will lead you to define your author brand, craft a mission statement, and distill that statement into a pithy tagline, in effort to tell others about your books with confidence and clarity; easily decide which future story ideas fit your brand; and meet reader expectations.
How to Make the Most of the Conference
Leader: Wes Albers
Objective: The SCWC is unlike most writer events. Whether it’s your first time attending, or you are a seasoned SCWCer, learn how to benefit most from the workshops and events, as well as what opportunities await beyond the posted weekend schedule.
Jump-Start Your Career by Writing Short Stories for Market
Leader: Kristi Fox
Objective: Want to be a writer, but not sure how to start? Does the business of writing feel overwhelming? Is there even a market for what you want to write? From cover to keywords, formatting to pricing, box sets to bestsellers, this USA TODAY Bestselling Author will outline the basics to take you from idea to publication quickly.
Pitch Witch: What’s Your Book About?
Leader: Marla Miller
Objective: Whether you’re an author-publisher or are querying agents and editors, knowing how to summarize your story in as few words as possible is key to selling it. Commonly referred to as your “elevator pitch,” write it down and bring your best so “Pitch Witch” Marla Miller can work her “magic” to make it shine.
Start-up Strategies: Building a Successful Series
Leader: Ara Grigorian
Objective: Take a look at the top 100 books in your category of choice. Chances are you’ll find a large number of those books are either a new series or part of a well-established series. Now look at the rankings of each book in the series. One thing will become clear — readers love series and they buy them in bunches. In this hands on workshop, we will first define what a series is, the different types of series that you could develop, and why some series are amazing and others… well, not so much. We will walk through the process of developing the overall series arc, potential ways to split up the series, and how to assure that each book in the series advances the overall story line while still delivering a satisfying read in each book. During the workshop, we’ll show real life examples and help you develop your idea and some will even pitch it to the class and get feedback. Come prepared with your concept.
Writing Coach 101: Saving Time, Money, and Your Sanity
Leader: Laura Perkins
Objective: Whether you are just starting out or have been writing for years, a writing coach can provide personalized feedback, accountability, and support to help you overcome challenges. From brainstorming to writers’ block, story arcs to character development, and worldbuilding to craft, a writing coach has your back. In this workshop, I will cover ten ways coaching sessions can be a game-changer for your writing, productivity, and confidence. We’ll dive into different tools and techniques coaches use with clients and how they assist at different stages of your writing process. To help you achieve your goals, come see how an hour with a one-on-one writing coach can make all the difference.
Yes, You Can Traditionally Publish Without a Literary Agent!
Leader: Pat Spencer
Objective: This session offers an alternate, more hopeful way, to find a traditional publisher and bring joy to the process. Authors will be armed with the information needed to locate and secure the right publisher for their work, one who accepts, even encourages, submissions directly from writers, no agent required or desired. Topics include conducting the necessary research and weighing the pros and cons of small traditional publishers, as well query processes, pitchfests, contracts, royalties, author copies, character and book arcs, editing, formatting, cover development, marketing, and rights of refusal for future works.
Going It Alone: Publishing Yourself
While there are myriad justifiable reasons to do so, very few authors who elect to publish independently either can, or do so, entirely on their own. At least not well. It takes a village, and there are many moving parts in erecting it. Going It Alone: Publishing Yourself is geared to six key aspects of the “self-publication” pipeline, each session conducted by writers who excel in that particular node of the process. Even for those pursuing a traditional publishing path, there are workshops that can prove invaluable to your journey.
Conferees are not required to attend all sessions. As with any other Irvine workshop, they are free to attend only what they wish (excluding the Novel Boot Camp).
Collaborating with Creatives
Leader: Kristi Fox
Objective: TBA
Editing Explained
Leaders: Cherie Kephart & Laura Perkins
Objective: Don’t panic. Editors aren’t scary monsters waiting to rip your words apart. We’re here to help. We’ve created this workshop to do just that. Sharpen your writing by learning everything you ever wanted to know, and more, about editing — such as: the top ten most frequent pieces of feedback editors give to clients, how to edit your own work, the different types of editors and what they do, and how to determine when your manuscript is ready and for what.
Indie Excellence: Glocalization and the Key to Survival
Leader: Laura Taylor
Objective: Two issues loom large on the Independent Author-Publisher horizon once a writer produces a beautifully written, skillfully edited book and makes it available for purchase: diversification and discoverability. Updated each conference with the latest information, this workshop is geared for writers who wish to globally expand their readership beyond Amazon and gain royalty income from a wide range of sources. >>Details
Many Paths, One Goal: Indie Author Sustainability
Leader: Conor Black
Objective: This one’s for writers in the beginning stages of pursuing an indie publishing career, or for authors who’ve published traditionally, but want to shift to a more profitable path. Expect to learn . . . What lead Conor to fully embrace indie publishing, and how recent changes in traditional publishing impacted this decision. The four essential pillars of every indie publishing business. Why indie publishing success is a long game, and strategies to keep playing. When it comes to marketing, packaging, and nurturing relationships with your readers—what’s worth investing in? And when should you do it yourself? The two biggest mistakes to avoid when going indie. And for all the introverts tired of hearing “just build a platform,” a powerful promotion strategy that requires zero interaction of any kind. The second half of the workshop will be devoted to answering questions from those in attendance. Bring something to write with, you’ll want to take notes!
Writing Good, Bad and Ugly Better
Leader: Kristi Fox
Objective: Calling all writers who want to write faster and freer. In this session, we’ll explore the power of fast writing, the liberation of no editing, and the inspiration found in focused sprinting sessions. Together, we’ll empower your creativity and kindle the spark that fuels your passion for writing. If you’re a plotter, bring your outline. If you’re a pantser, bring your ideas. And if you’re somewhere in between, bring whatever you’ve got. But most of all, come ready to write and bring your willingness to embrace imperfection and leave your inner editor behind. Let’s unlock the words within and set your stories free!
Your Book is Your Business
Leader: Gayle Carline
Objective: As authors, we are artists striving to create stories that resonate with readers. Once we’ve released our stories to the public, our books are a product that needs to be marketed and sold, especially if we’ve chosen the self-publishing route. This workshop covers what it takes to publish your book independently. We will talk about the realities of the costs of both time and money, the pros and cons of various platforms, and the different mindsets an author must adopt in order to see their work released for public enjoyment.
Panels, Appointments and Events
- Advance Submission One-on-One Consultations
- No-host Mixer
- Special Guest Speaker: Jasmin Iolani Hakes
- Special Guest Speaker: Cristina Leport
- Special Guest Speaker: Derek “D.J.” Williams
- Path to Publication Panel