*Please Note: If paying by Paypal, please
send money to workshops@carolinaromancewriters.com.
Registration Deadline: April 24th
Register Now!
May 1 - 15, 2008
Spilling the Beans: Secrets, Lies, and
Backstory (Mini)
With Lynn Kerstan
Secrets and Lies are the “juicy” bits in a story. They cause trouble for the characters. Readers love them. But authors too often fritter away their considerable power, which makes for wimpy stories.
Backstory, often overused and abused by writers, can be an effective means of uncloaking a character and revealing his/her deepest motivations.
This workshop focuses on how to use secrets, lies, and backstory for maximum story drive and emotional impact. We’ll examine what to reveal; when to reveal it, and the very best ways to develop suspense and create “big moments” in your story.
We will also look at prologues, flashbacks, “flashbits,” techniques for feeding information seamlessly into the story, and writer traps like Infodumps, Premature Backstory, “As you know, Bob,” Secrets Not Worth Keeping, and those pesky Lies Without Consequences.
Lynn Kerstan, former college professor, folksinger, professional bridge player, and nun, is the author of nine Regency romances, seven historical romances, and three novellas.
A five-time RITA Finalist (one win), she is regularly featured on awards lists. Two of her novels have been selected by Library Journal for its “Best Books of the Year” list (2002 and 2003), and Dangerous Passions was named to Booklist’s Top Ten Romances of 2005 list.
For many years a teacher of English literature and writing at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and the University of San Diego, Kerstan now conducts popular fiction workshops for writers groups. Recent appearances include conferences in Orange County (CA), San Diego, Phoenix, Victoria, and Calgary, along with seminars and workshops in Colorado Springs, Indianapolis, Seattle, and Memphis.
*Please Note: If paying by Paypal, please
send money to workshops@carolinaromancewriters.com.
Registration Deadline: April 24th
Register Now!