Mastering Writing craft Webinars
Replay Library
Raise Your Writing to the Next Level & Learn Crucial Writing Skills at Your Own Pace
To celebrate the launch of my replay library—and to thank you for being part of my writing community—I’m thrilled to offer you a limited-time discount off my standard replay prices.
Each replay is available for 14 days from the time of rental to give you plenty of time to watch your favorite parts, dig into the references mentioned, and put the tips and techniques discussed to work in your own writing.
You’ll find a full list of replays below. Just scroll through the list or use the search box to explore your options. Don’t see your favorite topic on the list? More replays will be available very soon!
If you have any issues renting or accessing your replays, please reach out to Jon at support@janecleland.com.
Search for the webinar you’d like to watch and scroll through the results using the box below.
You can also scroll through the replay list below!
Full Replay List
Story Arcs:
A Big Picture View of Storytelling
Every novel has a shape, and so does every series. Readers feel both, whether they can name them or not. This one-hour webinar replay takes a big-picture view of story arcs—classic structures within a single book, longer arcs across a series, and what it takes for a story to be both unique and universal.
You’ll see how the arc you design at the outline level reaches all the way down to the page. Learn how to meet genre expectations without writing something readers have already seen, how to use the midpoint to pivot a story with real weight, and how emotional reactions and word-level choices either reinforce your arc or quietly work against it. We’ll also look at the question many series writers wrestle with: how to give each book a satisfying ending while still building toward something larger, and how to keep plot lines varied from book to book.
The Perfect Enemy:
Crafting Antagonists Your Readers Will Love to Hate
Your main character needs an opponent worthy of the challenge. This FREE one-hour webinar focuses on the craft of building fully realized opponents—characters with their own goals, logic, and methods, whose choices put your main character’s hopes and dreams at genuine risk.
Learn how to develop credible motivations for this character—whether they’re working against your lead directly, evading discovery, or protecting a secret at any cost. Discover how to align their choices with your story’s stakes so that every scene they influence carries real weight, regardless of your genre.
FREE!
FREE Replay:
The Anatomy of a Bestseller:
Discussing Suspense, Structure & Plot with Edgar Winner and Bestselling Author Chris Pavone
Join me for a FREE one-hour discussion with Edgar and Anthony Award winner Chris Pavone about the craft behind internationally bestselling thrillers. Chris spent nearly two decades as a publishing editor before his family moved to Luxembourg, and that experience of dislocation, secrets, and reinvention became the raw material for The Expats, his debut novel and instant New York Times bestseller.
Discover how Chris draws on real life to build complex, twisty plots; how he manages the tension between what readers know and what characters conceal; and what nearly 20 years on the other side of the publishing desk taught him about writing fiction that sells.
Whether you write thrillers or any other genre, you’ll come away with concrete ideas for making your own stories richer and more gripping.
Tropes, Clichés, and Conventions, Oh, My! A Writer’s Guide to Genre Expectations and Fresh Storytelling
Do you know the difference between a trope and a cliché—and why it matters on the page? This one-hour webinar cuts through the confusion to give you a practical framework for understanding genre conventions and reader expectations, and how to use that knowledge deliberately in your own writing.
Learn what tropes really are (and what they aren’t), how they differ from clichés, and why readers in different genres don’t just accept conventions—they expect them. Discover how to layer multiple tropes in a single novel and how to recognize when a beloved convention has crossed the line into tired, predictable writing.
You’ve Finished Your Novel—Now What? Everything You Need to Know to Get Published
You’ve typed “The End” on your manuscript—but is your novel truly finished? And what comes next? This webinar replay guides you through the critical decisions and essential skills needed to move from finished draft to published book.
Learn how to assess whether your manuscript is ready for readers, understand your publishing options from self-publishing to traditional paths, and discover what agents look for in queries and pitches. You’ll explore the editing process, learn to write compelling synopses and query letters, and gain clarity on which publication path aligns with your goals and strengths as a writer.
Whether you’re considering self-publishing or seeking traditional representation, this replay provides the roadmap you need to take confident next steps toward seeing your novel in print.
Nurture Your Creative Spirit:
Feel Better, Write Better—Listen to the Pros
Ready to rediscover the joy in your writing practice? This FREE webinar offers pro-tips for stress-free creativity that will help you reconnect with your creative spirit and develop sustainable practices that support both your well-being and your craft. When you feel better, you write better!
Rent this replay to learn proven strategies from successful authors who’ve mastered the art of sustainable creativity. Discover how to create a writing routine that energizes and inspires you, nurture your creative spirit through practical daily habits, and build a writing practice that brings you joy and consistency—even during busy times.
The World in a Word:
Writing Descriptions that Bring Your Stories to Life
Elevate your story’s environment beyond mere backdrop to a compelling, sensory-rich universe that grips readers. Learn to deploy telling details and craft fresh spins on familiar scenes, transforming your prose into a portal through which your narratives are not just read, but experienced. Discover the process of illuminating your worlds and crafting immersive experiences that stick with your audience long after they close the book.
Rent this replay today to breathe life into your descriptions, ensuring your writing captures the essence of every scene with tangible precision and imagination!
FREE!
FREE Replay:
From Investigative Reporter to Bestselling Novelist:
Discussing the Art of Story with Multi-Award Winner Hank Phillippi Ryan
Join me and award-winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan for an insider’s guide to crafting authentic suspense. With 37 Emmy wins for investigative reporting and five Agatha Awards for her bestselling novels, Hank’s dual career offers unique insights into the craft of storytelling.
Discover how Hank crafts novels without outlining or plotting in advance, her secrets for building characters with emotional truth, managing dual careers, and using journalistic techniques to create thrillers that feel both gripping and believable. Whether you write thrillers or any genre, you’ll gain powerful tools to elevate your storytelling craft.
Mastering Plot Twists
The stories that keep people on the edge of their seats and up all night, from family sagas to thrillers and from romances to sci fi, are filled with unexpected twists and turns.
By integrating plot twists, plot reversals, and moments of heightened danger (TRDs) at tactically sound moments, your stories will captivate readers with their I-can’t-wait-to-see-what-happens-next unpredictability. When your plot twists come at the right moments, your pace will be quicker and the action more focused, and these are the nuanced, multifaceted stories that sell, and that find a devoted reader- or viewership.
Mastering Suspense, Structure & Plot
Your manuscript has conflict and characters with goals, but does it have the tension that keeps readers frantically turning pages? In this webinar replay, master the craft of using suspense, structure, and plot to transform a well-written novel into an unputdownable one. Learn how all four types of conflict work together to create authentic tension—and discover how to identify and repair the weak points where suspense collapses.
From diagnosing flat suspense to building momentum through revision, this webinar equips you with concrete strategies for strengthening your story’s engine. Whether you’re wrestling with a sagging middle, unsure what readers should know, or struggling with pacing that doesn’t match genre expectations, you’ll find actionable insights that immediately improve your manuscript. Rent this replay and master the suspense and structure that make stories impossible to put down.
Finding Your Voice:
Developing Your Unique Writing Style to Hook Readers and Wow Agents
Tired of bland, generic writing that sounds like everyone else? This powerful webinar reveals the 12 key elements that make your voice distinctively yours, with insights from top literary agents who explain exactly what they mean when they say “voice.” Learn why most writers struggle to let their authentic selves shine through and discover the proven techniques to break free from derivative prose.
Stop sanitizing your writing and start standing out. Through real examples from bestselling authors and a practical twelve-step analysis process, you’ll identify your natural voice and learn how to bring it forth consistently. Perfect for writers at any stage who want to create the kind of authentic, compelling prose that makes agents say “I know exactly who wrote this.”
Tell Your Story to Beat the Bots: A Writer’s Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI
Ready to make your writing stand out in an AI-driven world? This replay delivers practical, research-backed creativity techniques you won’t find in any chatbot—like the 5-step process and conceptual blending method for creating immersive, emotionally authentic stories.
Perfect for fiction and nonfiction writers, you’ll discover how to harness your unique creative strengths, craft settings that come alive through your characters’ eyes, and deepen the emotional truth of your work. Unleash the skills that bots can’t emulate!
Deconstruct Your Favorite Books:
Apply the Lessons to Your Own Work
This webinar shows how to deconstruct those books you wish you’d written.
We’ll look at ways and means of assessing structure, plot, character transformation, setting, and other key variables, seeking out patterns you can apply to your own work. You’ll be able to create stories that shine with originality using the tactics you’ve identified as relevant and meaningful in your genre. A three-point checklist helps you translate theory (your deconstruction) into practice (your original writing).
FREE!
FREE Replay:
Breaking Through Barriers to Writing Success with Publishing Guru, and Acclaimed Author of The Business of Being a Writer,
Jane Friedman
Explore how to navigate the often confusing world of publishing and elevate your writing career. In this replay of my discussion with Jane Friedman, you’ll learn practical tips and strategies to help you succeed, thrive, and break down the barriers that keep writers like you from reaching publishing success.
Seize this chance to hear from an industry expert and acclaimed author who knows the ins and outs of the publishing business!
Demystifying the Editorial Process: Illuminating the Path to Creative Clarity
Discover how to refine your writing and navigate the world of editing in this one-hour webinar replay. Learn practical self-editing tips and explore the key differences between developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, and proofreading—and how to know what types of editing your manuscript needs to truly shine.
Whether you’re preparing your manuscript for submission or self-publishing, this session will provide the information you need to make clear decisions about your editorial journey.
Fact-Based Storytelling:
How to Use the Truth to Create I-Can’t-Put-It-Down Urgency in Any Genre
Want readers glued to your pages? Discover how to use fact-based storytelling to create “I can’t put it down” urgency in any genre. You’ll learn techniques for weaving details (real or crafted!) seamlessly into your narrative, adding authenticity without info dumps.
Learn to make your stories plausible, credible, and utterly compelling. Click to find out how to harness the power of truth for maximum narrative impact.
FREE!
FREE Replay:
A Literary Agent Tells All:
Navigating the Creative Process with Industry Insider, Agent, and Author Jessica Berg
Discover essential strategies for transforming your writing dreams into author success with tips from an industry insider. This replay of my discussion with Jessica Berg explores the creative process, high-concept stories, and the publishing hurdles that every writer faces.
This is the perfect opportunity to learn about polishing that big idea, crafting compelling queries, and setting yourself on the path to writer success.
Writing with a Through-Line Plot (or Storyline)
Learn to craft compelling stories with a through-line plot! Master conflict, resolution, twists, and character-driven narratives in this webinar replay.
FREE!
FREE Replay:
Your Path to Publication: Bestselling Author Connie Berry Tells All
Join me and USA Today bestselling mystery author Connie Berry in this hour-long FREE webinar replay as she discusses her path to publication, her writing process, and her detailed approach to research.
Connie shares anecdotes about her journey as an author and the inspiration behind her Kate Hamilton Mysteries, offering valuable advice for aspiring and experienced authors alike.
We explore essentials such as character development, plot structuring, and the importance of setting in creating compelling stories.
This in-depth discussion also addresses common pitfalls and pro tips on navigating the traditional publishing landscape.
The session wraps up with a Q&A, shedding more light on the craft of mystery writing and the nuances of getting published.
The Metaphor Machine:
On Adding Richness and Texture to Your Work
Learn to craft powerful metaphors that transform your writing from ordinary to extraordinary with this systematic approach to metaphor creation.
Maintain Your Momentum:
Three Proven Techniques to Keep the Writing Fire Burning Bright
Learn three proven techniques to defeat writer’s block, organize your story details, and keep your creative momentum flowing in this practical writing webinar.
Lessons Learned:
Four Things I Wish I’d Known at the Start of My Writing Career
From building relationships to nailing down the best promotional strategies, join me in a must-watch webinar replay to supercharge your writing journey. Perfect for authors at any stage!
Thematic Writing:
How to Use Figurative Imagery, Atmosphere, and Allegories to Add Richness and Depth to Your Writing
Master strategies to add thematic heft by integrating symbolic imagery, atmospheric descriptions, and visual and word allegories. Raise the bar on your writing!
Narrative Threads:
Mastering the Art of Transitions
In this one-hour webinar replay, I explore how chapter breaks, white space, typography, and more can help you seamlessly weave transitions into the fabric of your story.
You’ll learn to effortlessly guide readers through your narrative’s ebb and flow by taking control of temporal shifts, locations, and perspectives to maintain pulse-pounding tension and clarity in your storytelling.
Rent the replay today and get ready to master the art of transitions.
FREE!
FREE Replay:
An Author’s Guide to TikTok with Special Guest, the BookTok & AuthorTok Queen and Author, Jess Zafarris
During this FREE one-hour replay, Jess Zafarris shares her expertise and shows how you can leverage TikTok to reach a wider audience, explore new storytelling approaches, and build buzz around your works.
Discover innovative ways to harness the platform’s vast potential not just for entertainment but as a springboard to take your storytelling—and visibility as an author—to new heights.
Jess’s expertise will help you look beyond the common misconceptions that TikTok is solely for dancers or the Gen Z demographic, illustrating its power to connect with a diverse, global audience across all ages using approachable examples and actionable strategies that you can put to work to immediately start sharing your stories and building your community of readers.
The Grand Finale:
Crafting Captivating Endings Readers Won’t Forget
The most gratifying endings leave readers more than satisfied—they leave them awed. Which is to say, you need to plan your ending as carefully as every other part of your story. In fact, Joyce Carol Oats says, “The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written.”
Whether that process works for you or you write more organically, by the end of your story, your primary and secondary plotlines (or storylines if you’re writing, say, a memoir) have to reach their proper conclusions with no loose ends dangling. All character and thematic questions must be addressed, all conflicts resolved, and any moral quandaries settled. That’s the minimum.
To leave your readers enthralled and breathless and clamoring for more, your ending has to be, as Margaret Atwood put it, “… completely unexpected and inevitable.” The strategies discussed in this webinar replay can help you achieve this lofty goal.
Plotting Perfection:
Overcoming Saggy Middles with Ever-escalating Conflict
Learn the secrets to mastering the middle of your story and crafting narratives that never lose steam.
You’ll come away from this replay equipped with strategies to analyze, understand, and tighten your plot and pace, helping you craft page-turners that are not only engaging but structurally sound.
Don’t miss this invaluable opportunity to learn how to give your stories a consistent pulse of excitement and drama, turning even the most meandering plots into captivating tales readers love.
Crafting Evocative Prose:
The Essence of Captivating Storytelling
Having a brilliant plot, relatable characters, or an exciting idea is not enough. You must know how to pick the perfect words to create sensory experiences and emotional connections with your readers.
From memoir to horror, romance, and thrillers, and from literary nonfiction to fantasy, sci-fi/spec, and mysteries, crafting evocative prose is essential to writing stories readers can’t put down—and recommend to their friends.
In this webinar replay, you’ll learn how to craft prose that not only tells a story but also evokes a palpable response in your readers, keeping them coming back story after story.
The Anatomy of Charm:
Secrets to Crafting Characters Readers Can’t Resist
Do your characters lack that magnetic charm that draws readers in? Want to master the art of creating characters who are irresistibly alluring yet complex?
Charm is not just a trait. It’s a powerful storytelling tool. Explore the intricate layers that make a character charming in this webinar replay.
Beyond the Surface:
The Role of Inner Reflections in Writing Captivating Fiction
Struggling to portray authentic reactions? Unsure how to reveal those emotions that live below the surface? Wish your characters felt more relatable and multi-dimensional?
During this one-hour webinar replay, we will explore how to harness the power of inner reflections to add depth, complexity, and intrigue to your storytelling and leave a lasting impression on readers.
The Perception Gap:
Create Compelling and Twisty Plots Using Your Characters’ Views of the World
Do your characters feel flat and one-dimensional? Are your plots meandering without clear conflict to propel the story forward? Leverage perception gaps to breathe life into your characters and ratchet up the tension in your stories!
Whether you write cozy mysteries, pulse-pounding thrillers, or sweeping sagas, this one-hour webinar replay will revolutionize the way you develop characters and plot. Join me and learn how to leverage perception gaps to craft authentic, multifaceted characters that leap off the page.
Isolation: A Tool for Suspense
Want to discover how to effectively use isolation in your stories to intensify emotions, escalate tension, and engage readers?
During this webinar replay, we’ll delve into the multifaceted strengths of isolation as a narrative tool, exploring the two types of isolation and how they interact to amplify suspense.
You’ll leave the session armed with actionable insights and techniques that you can immediately apply to your own writing, crafting stories that resonate deeply with your readers and leave them eagerly turning the pages.
Creating Characters that Resonate with Emotional Truth
Join me for a discussion about how to create relatable characters. We’ll look at how they should dress, the nuance of body language, what they should say (and avoid saying), and how they should act so they connect with readers on a deep, meaningful, emotional basis.
Boost Your Creativity to Beat the Bots
Awaken your creative spirit and show the world that imagination outshines algorithms! Join me for this one-hour presentation and reinvigorate your storytelling journey!
We’ll journey through unpredictable idea generation, the impact of a flexible mindset, and the thrill of conceptual blending. In a world fascinated by AI, we’ll affirm your irreplaceable role in storytelling by showcasing how we humans can weave unrelated ideas into compelling narratives—something no algorithm can mimic. Loaded with examples, you’ll leave the webinar with actionable ideas to immediately elevate your writing.
Ready to redefine the boundaries of creativity? Don’t miss this opportunity!
The Art of Revealing Backstory
The past informs the future. The people who populate your stories have a past, and that past dictates, or at the very least informs, their actions.
Sharing that backstory is tricky, though. Share too much information, or share it before readers care about your characters, and they’re likely to lose interest.
To write a page-turner, every sentence must propel the story forward via incident or character interactions, and backstory takes us out of the action, slowing the pace. To reveal backstory effectively, you need to first assess which aspects should be revealed. Then you need to determine how best to share that information.
Learn how to integrate backstory into your narrative while keeping your readers turning pages during my one-hour presentation!
FREE!
FREE Replay:
Mastering the Agent Hunt: Learn What Agents Want with Special Guest, Adam Chromy
Adam Chromy is a published author, screenwriter, film/tv producer, and literary agent, operating his boutique New York City agency, Movable Type Management for more than 20 years.
Join us as we explore how the best agents don’t simply bring attention to your books, but partner with you to help build momentum, hone your approach, and, ultimately, achieve greater levels of success.
Forks in the Road:
Jane’s Character Transformation Roadmap
Immersive stories readers can’t put down require characters they can connect with. By aligning character motivations with incidents that result in transformation over the course of the story, you create realistic, believable characters and ensure that they act in ways that feel natural and draw in readers.
Just as Jane’s Plotting Roadmap helps you delineate your plot and control the pace of your story from the inciting incident to the final twist, Jane’s Character Transformation Roadmap will help you to track how your character develops throughout your story, streamlining the process of creating compelling characters your readers won’t soon forget.
Using Point of View to Maximize Reader Engagement
How do you know the best point of view (POV) for your story?
From big-picture revelations to tightly held secrets, POV is a critical part of deciding what your readers (and characters) know and experience throughout your story.
Choose the wrong POV and readers won’t connect with your story. Worse still, if you use too many POVs, readers end up confused, not intrigued. Use my POV decision-making model to discover how to determine what’s best for your story!
Set the Stage:
Using Setting to Add Intrigue & Suspense
Time is more than an era and place is more than a physical location. Time and place should reflect the culture, language, habits, standards, values, shared beliefs, customs, food, mores, pace of life, and so on—and most importantly, what your sleuth thinks of the setting.
From cozies (typically a small town with a sweet and decent feel) to noir (dark and gritty, with a veneer of danger), each subgenre of crime fiction comes with a set of reader expectations when it comes to setting.
Learn how to maximize the impact of your setting (and meet reader expectations) in this webinar replay!We’ll also consider how your characters’ behavior and personalities can drive decisions about your settings and how to use place to add intrigue and suspense.
Mastering the Writing Process
Writers often feel overwhelmed and unsure if they’re doing it “right.” If you’re feeling out of control, disorganized, insecure, or anxious, you might have the wrong idea about the anatomy of the writing process. It’s not linear or binary—it’s messy. And that’s okay… discovery and realignment are part of successful storytelling.
In this workshop, you’ll discover strategies for ensuring that your writing process is as efficient as it can be—that it’s right for you. We’ll discuss multiple approaches that have worked for other authors so you can adopt those ideas that, taken together, will create a writing process that’s perfect for you.
FREE!
FREE Replay:
Writing and Selling Middle-Grade Fiction with Special Guest, Beth Vrabel
Do you know what middle grade readers (and agents) want?
Beth Vrabel is a freelance journalist and prolific, middle grade fiction author of a dozen middle grade novels, including the Cybils’-nominated Caleb and Kit, the ILA award-winning A Blind Guide to Stinkville, and the “Pack of Dorks” series.
Int this discussion, she generously shares her expertise on all things middle grade fiction.
Structure at the Chapter Level: Keep ’em Reading with Big Bangs and Cliff Hangs
Want to know my secret to hook readers and keep them turning pages?
How you start and end your chapters can make or break readers finishing your book!
This webinar replay will focus on my “Big Bangs and Cliff Hangs” approach to chapter structure.
The replay also includes a bonus tip segment, bonus handouts, and an easy-to-use writing checklist not shared during the live event!
The Mechanics of Effective Writing:
Grammar, Punctuation, Formatting & Organizing Your Work
Your story might be amazing, but can you write it well enough to convince agents and captivate readers?
Effective writing is a core skill to compete for attention in today’s competitive publishing market. Dig deep into the nuts and bolts of effective writing in this webinar!
Astonish Your Readers with Perfectly Planted Clues
Clues aren’t just important to the central plot of your story, they’re often the key to rich and satisfying subplots, too! If your clues aren’t clever, your story might come off as poorly planned or contrived.
In this workshop, we’ll discuss tips and techniques to wow readers by seamlessly weaving clues into your stories in ways that will make you look like a plotting genius!
Revising Your Own Work
You’ve finished your manuscript—now what? It’s time to polish the story, add complexity to the characters, and burnish the prose. In other words, it’s time to revise! This webinar will show you how to take your manuscript from draft to submission-ready!
Three Surefire Techniques for Writing Next-Level Prose
Want to know the secret to writing killer prose?
At its best, prose can stir emotions, drive your plot or storyline, and create a lasting impression on your readers.
Join me as I discuss three proven tactics for writing page-turning prose.
FREE!
FREE Replay:
Writing Short Fiction that Sells with Special Guest, Linda Landrigan
Have you ever considered writing short fiction?
Join me in conversation with Linda Landrigan, editor-in-chief of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, one of the premier publishers of short crime fiction!
Write for Your Readers:
Give ‘em What They Want
Do you know what your readers want?
In your efforts to write a story that’s meaningful and interesting, it’s deceptively easy to forget your audience. Readers come to your work with specific expectations. Fail to meet those expectations at your own peril!
Learn how to analyze readers’ expectations in your genre, and to apply what you learn to character development and plotting during this workshop!
Writing Synopses & Queries
Hooray! You’ve finished your book. Now what?!
As writers, we wear many hats—many not related to writing at all! Understanding what agents and publishers expect in your synopses and queries is essential if you hope to stand out in today’s crowded market!
In this workshop, you’ll learn the ins and outs of writing synopses and query letters for fiction, literary nonfiction, and memoirs—what to do and what not to do.
Subplots Aren’t Secondary
In this workshop we’ll discuss integrating two subplots into your story to help control pacing and serve as scaffolding, supporting and serving your primary plot—crucial.
You’ll be able to use a four-step checklist to help you develop appropriate subplots, one focusing on an interpersonal issue, the other relating to a nonfiction element of your story—also crucial.
Raise the Stakes for Your Protagonist—and for Yourself
To create edge-of-your-seat excitement, raise the stakes for your protagonist. High stakes lead to emotional truths that resonate with readers.
To move your writing career to the next level, raise the stakes for yourself. Learn more about the craft of writing. Set deadlines. Submit your work.
This webinar will inform and inspire you with specific tips and tactics for success.
FREE!
FREE Replay:
The Inside Scoop with Special Guest, Paula Munier
Want to know the secrets to finding an agent in today’s competitive publishing market?
Paula Munier is a top editor, literary agent, and USA Today best-selling author.
During our discussion, she will share her tips on writing books that agents won’t be able to resist and how to find an agent in the first place.
Plotting with an Unreliable Narrator
Unreliable narrators add complexity and intrigue to your stories.
There’s a risk, though, since unreliable narrators must have a credible reason to be unreliable. You can’t add a character who lies, for example, simply because you want to hide the truth.
This presentation delves into the plotting and character-development complexities associated with the five types of unreliable narrators.
Openings that Kill It
Join me while we discuss my three-step process to figuring out where to start your stories (crucial) and how to layer in a narrative question that drives your plot and informs your characters’ decisions (also crucial).
We’ll also examine exceptional examples of openings that kill it in crime fiction.
What Did You Say? Writing Dialogue that Sings
Dialogue is one of three narrative tools to move the plot along and reveal character (in addition to description and action). Each character must speak with a unique voice—an amalgam of style, tone, intonation, and word choices. During this workshop, you’ll learn what you need to write dialogue that rings with truth. Spend an hour with me while we discuss this crucial concept.
Find Your Path to Publication
Join me as I discuss the publication options available for your next work.
Topics will include comparing and contrasting the Big Five (traditional publishers), small presses, hybrids, and DIY self-publishing; discussing how to find a literary agent; and reviewing the editing process—from developmental editing to line editing and from copyediting to proofreading.
Mastering Story Structure
Structure is the foundation of your story. In this workshop, you’ll discover when to use a linear structure and when a nonlinear structure is the better choice (crucial).
No matter your genre, this methodical approach will help you create page-turners that sell. Let’s discuss how to apply these indispensable lessons to your writing projects—in any genre.
Whisper, Don’t Shout
Master strategies to add thematic heft by integrating symbolic imagery, atmospheric descriptions, and visual and word allegories. Raise the bar on your writing!
The Art of Backstory:
Using Flashbacks & Flash-forwards
Flashbacks and flash-forwards allow you to reveal backstory not by telling a character’s history, but by showing the events that made the character who he is today. It’s a risky proposition, though, because many times, it’s a thinly veiled excuse for an info dump.
During this webinar, you’ll learn a 3-step decision-making tool designed to help you determine whether to use one or both of these techniques, and if so, how to implement them well.
The Perception Gap
Perception gaps occur when what one character perceives differs from what another character perceives.
Capitalizing on these perception gaps allows you to use your characters’ views of the world to create compelling and twisty plots and reveal meaningful information.
Join me as we discuss how to (and how not to) use this technique to level up your writing and hook readers time after time.
Using Red Herrings:
The Art of Distraction
One of the secrets of writing success is creating complex and surprising plots is a deliciously sneaky technique writers use to befuddle readers—red herrings.
By using red herrings the same way that a magician uses sleight of hand, you’ll be able to divert your readers’ attention from the actual to the illusionary; if done well, your readers will believe what they see on the printed page—an irresistible way to draw them in and keep them turning pages.
Writing with a Through-Line Plot (or Storyline)
In this discussion, we talk about writing with a through-line plot (crucial) by breaking it down into three distinct sections: mastering plot twists, the importance of subplots, and the final twist—or that surprise twist that comes after what readers believe is the last twist.
Don’t see a topic that interests you? Tell me about it! I schedule a new webinar every month to cover topics crucial to creating compelling prose, twisty plots, relatable characters, and successfully publishing your book.
Click the button below for additional opportunities to meet me or work with me online or in-person. Any questions? Contact me directly.
