W. Lloyd Williams

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writing workshop updated: limited to 24 participants

 Download Registration Form

We are hosting a writing workshop in Lunenburg that would be of interest to all Novelists, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Memoirist, and aspiring writers. We are privileged on the South Shore to have an Emmy-nominated writer and former UCLA instructor available to us locally.

Emmy-nominated writer offers 2-day workshop in Lunenburg, NS

Saturday & Sunday, September 29 & 30
9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Cost $195

Registration Form Here (Limited to 24 participants)

Workshop Includes: how to choose an idea, three-act structure, scene cards, storyboards, set ups, payoffs, subplots, character development, research, format, dialogue, hiding exposition, buttoning scenes, how to write great openings, great endings, big moments. How to make ‘em laugh and cry. Pitching, query letter, breaking in.  
Writers welcome at every level of experience from novice to pro.

Cynthia Whitcomb has sold more than 70 feature-length screenplays, 30 of which have been filmed, most for prime time television. Her scripts have been nominated for many awards, including the Emmy, Writers Guild of America, Cable Ace, and the Edgar.  She has taught screenwriting for many years, including seven at the acclaimed UCLA Film School.  Many of her students have gone on to great success in Hollywood and made millions of dollars. She has created roles for Jason Robards, Kevin Spacey, Gena Rowlands, Anjelica Huston, Ellen Burstyn, Melanie Griffith, Gabriel Byrne, Sam Elliott, Martin Sheen, Brendan Fraser and many other renowned actors.

Whitcomb has recently returned to her first love, writing for the theatre.  Her play Holidazed, co-authored with Marc Acito, completed a sold out, critically acclaimed six week run at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, Oregon in 2008 and was revived for another run in 2009.  The Wilde Boy was at Fertile Ground new play festival in 2010.  Lear’s Follies was produced July/August 2012 for the Portland Shakespeare Project. 
She has also written and sold two nonfiction writing books.  Her sister Laura is a successful YA novelist and has also sold two books on novel writing.

Cynthia also takes a group of writers every spring on a Trans-Atlantic cruise.  This April we’ll go to Ireland, France and England.  For more info: [email protected]

You will leave inspired and equipped.

DETAILS:
Date:  Saturday & Sunday, September 29 & 30
Cost $195
Location: Lunenburg Arms Conference Room, 94 Pelham St, Lunenburg. www.eden.travel
Parking: across the street
Accommodations: Lunenburg Arms is offering participants a 10% discount on rooms. Call 800-679-4950.
 

What to bring: notebook, pen, and/or computer for taking notes. Lunch or purchase lunch nearby.
General Lunenburg Infohttp://www.lunenburgns.com OR http://www.explorelunenburg.ca

TO REGISTER: Please print the registration form, complete, and mail with check for $195 made payable to Cynthia Whitcomb to Box 404, Lunenburg, NS B0J 2C0. Checks will not be cashed until after the workshop. The check will reserve your seat. Note: we will return your check if you pay with cash at the door.

What to Expect: Cynthia is the writer Pamela and I take the Writing Cruise with each year and after hearing Robert McKee, John Truby, Jeff Kennedy, Syd Field, Robert Olen Butler, Scott Morris, Wendall Thomas, William Goldman, Hallie Ephron, Larry Brooks, Eric Witchey, Aaron Sorkin, Karl Iglesias, Victoria Wisdom, Bill Marsilli, Terry Rossio, Shane Black, Lawrence Kasdan, and Michael Arndt, and many more, Cynthia is our favourite at teaching all the writing tools. 

Please forward this email to anyone you think may be interested or who is a member of a writing group.

Thank you for spreading the word. 

REMEMBER TO REGISTER: please print the registration form, complete, and mail with check for $195 made payable to Cynthia Whitcomb to Box 404, Lunenburg, NS B0J 2C0.

Space is limited, please register quickly.

Story Engineering by Larry Brooks

The five major elements of story physics are: 1. conceptual power (the compelling essence of the Big Idea)… 2. dramatic tension (conflict)… 3. pacing… 4. hero empathy (resulting in our rooting for something)… and 5. vicarious experience (often a function of setting and concept, as is the case in The Hunger Games).  Those last two combine to become at catch-all that speaks to the need for the reader to be emotionally involved. - Larry Brooks

I met Larry Brooks at the Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, OR. He spoke each of the three mornings on the concepts he calls Story Physics and Story Engineering. Larry looks at writing from both a structured and intuitive approach. In the end he concludes (and I would agree) that both methods are doing the same thing. The structured approach does the design before writing and the intuitive continues to write until the design works. Both end up conforming to the natural laws of story. Unlike other books on story structure,

Story Engineering

clearly explains the interaction of the plot points, plot twists, and milestones. The only chapter I found weak was concerning the Act Three - Resolution. He will have a new book titled The Search for Story coming out later this year to delve deeper into Story Physics, a prequel to Story Engineering. Combined together they are a worthwhile read.