NCWN

All-Day Workshops: Spring Conference 2008
Saturday, April 26

To register for an all-day workshop, choose between the workshops listed below. The workshop will meet in the morning, and then resume after lunch.

Register Here

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ALL-DAY FICTION WORKSHOP: Dialog as Combat: Developing Urgency in Your Work, with Valerie Nieman
Part 1 - 9:00 - 10:30 am
Part 2 - 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Of the tools we have for revealing character and furthering plot, dialog offers both immediacy and depth, action as well as access to emotional nuance. We speak to gain information and leverage. We speak to tell our own stories and to "talk it out" when we are confused. Dialog reveals and conceals, attacks and withdraws. In this day-long fiction workshop, we'll use some metaphors of combat to analyze how dialog operates in fiction. We will look at participants' submitted work and do a writing exercise over lunch to give us fresh material for discussion.

ALL-DAY NONFICTION WORKSHOP: There Is No Such Thing As a Dull Subject, with William R. Trotter
Part 1 - 9:00 - 10:30 am
Part 2 - 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Whatever your aspirations as a writer, it's almost mandatory to have a certain fluency in non-fiction unless you luck into a job so agreeable and secure that you can afford to go your own way. Unless you're dealing with extremely esoteric technical stuff (theoretical physics, say), it's always about people, in some aspect or another, and where you have people, you have "characters," just as in a novel. There's usually an angle you can play for fun or drama, without overstepping the parameters of your assigned subject matter -- it may take some digging, but it's always there!