Thursday
9:00 – 10:15 Welcome & introductions
10:30–12:00 Small group critiques
We will meet in small groups led by a faculty member. Each person will receive a 30-40 minute critique of their 25 pages.
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 3:30 Small group critiques continued
3:30 – 6:00 On your own (write, visit, take a walk)
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner
Followed by free time or informal “get to know you” session and “open mic” to share first pages.
Friday
8:00 – 8:45 Breakfast
9:00 –10:15 Jennifer Thompson: Developing secondary characters to ultimately create a well-rounded story
10:30 – 12:00 Laura Ruby: Written on the Body: Emotion in Fiction. Looking at the various ways one can inject more emotion into fiction.
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 4:00 On your own (write, visit, take a walk)
4:00 – 6:00 Samantha Palazzi: Understanding characters as a therapist might. How to go deeper to assist in plotting and discovering what your book is really about
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner and Activity To be Announced
Saturday
8:00 – 9:00 Breakfast
9:00 – 10:30 Faculty: Favorite Scenes
This session will focus on great scenes. Faculty members will present favorite scenes and explain why they like them. We will talk about what constitutes a scene and how to transition from one scene to another.
10:45 – 12:00 Jennifer Chen Tran: Topic to be announced soon
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:15 – 2:45 Faculty: Editing
Faculty will edit first and last pages before our very eyes and discuss the editing process.
3:00 – 6:00 On your own (write, visit, take a walk)
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner
Followed by free time or informal get together – Speed Scrabble? Wine? Chocolate?
Sunday
8:00 – 9:00 Breakfast
9:15 – 11:00 Check back with critiques
Time to check back with your small groups and talk about lessons learned and next steps.
11:15 – 11:30 Final words
Inspirations from faculty and reflections from participants, naming goals, thank yous, and goodbyes.