TAKE A DEEP DIVE

Ready to dive deep into marketing, revisions or pacing at the WFWA 10th Anniversary Conference? Check out these masterclasses with publishing experts! Masterclasses give you the opportunity to immerse yourself in a topic over three hours in a small session with limited seats available.

Explore the opportunities below and save your seat when you register for the conference! All masterclasses will take place on Saturday afternoon following the conclusion of the conference.

MASTERCLASSES

Saturday, September 23, 2023

1:00pm - 4:00pm

$125 - Only 40 seats available in each class

*Please note that a masterclass costs $125. If you'd like to register for one, please email technology @ womensfictionwriters.org to purchase it, or to be added to the waitlist.

Ready, Set, Publish: Everything you need to know on the road to your debut

Author, educator, and the force behind the transparency-in-publishing movement BEFORE AND AFTER THE BOOK DEAL, Courtney Maum will treat participants to a journey through the wilds of querying and agent partnerships to the crest of publication itself, followed by real talk about what it looks and feels like when your first book is behind you. Jam-packed with actionable, practical advice and taking a compassionate stance toward the act of writing in a culture obsessed with brands, this masterclass is appropriate for writers of all levels—even those who have published books before.

Presenter: Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide that Vanity Fair recently named one of the ten best books for writers, BEFORE AND AFTER THE BOOK DEAL and the memoir THE YEAR OF THE HORSES, chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach, executive director of the nonprofit learning collaborative “The Cabins,” and educator, Courtney's mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. You can sign up for her publishing tips newsletter and online masterclasses at CourtneyMaum.com

Kill Your Darlings: Strategies for Falling in Love with Revision

As any seasoned author will tell you, the magic of writing always, ALWAYS begins during the revision process. Revision is where we tighten the plot and focus the prose. Revision is where the story goes from basic to riveting. Revision is where the characters in the story go from being one dimensional to having souls. The first half of this workshop will focus on how to develop characters, through revision, that readers will be moved by, and the second half of the workshop will focus on ways to elevate one’s plot and prose. This workshop is not about line editing but instead it is about how to focus on the big picture items in story writing so that when you do get to the finetuning of the novel, the heavy lifting will already be done.

Presenter: Angela Jackson-Brown, associate Professor of Creative Writing at Indiana University and an award-winning writer, poet and playwright. She is the author of The Light Always Breaks (2022), When Stars Rain Down (2021), House Repairs (2018), and Drinking from A Bitter Cup (2013). When Stars Rain Down was a finalist for the 2021 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction.

Unputdownable: How to Create and Sustain Momentum Throughout Your Story, Essay, or Novel

We cobble together our manuscripts all by ourselves, one sentence and scene at a time. In the process of creating characters and establishing setting, we can sometimes forget the most basic truth: that we are telling a story. How do you grab a reader’s attention and hold it through the messy middle and all the way to the gratifying end? In this session, we’ll talk about planting seeds, raising narrative stakes, and maintaining focus on what matters most as you revise. The goal? To sweep up your readers in the fever dream you’ve created, and leave them feeling transported. 

Presenter: Christi Clancy is a novelist based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her debut novel, The Second Home, came out in June 2020 and has been optioned by TriStar for a limited television series starring Game of Thrones’ Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, who will also executive produce. Her second novel, Shoulder Season, came out in July 2021. She received a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and taught English for almost a decade at Beloit College.