The 2025 list is coming soon! Below are the Workshops from last year:
PANELS
Panels are held throughout the Conference (Check session schedule for times).
First Page Reads: (Lunch Breaks 12:00 – 1:30pm) Submit yours HERE!
When an agent or editor’s inbox is overflowing and other responsibilities are calling, how far do they read a first page before moving onto the next submission? Listen to industry experts respond to the anonymous first pages of conference attendees and find out if they stop reading, and why.
Click HERE to goto the Schedule Page to see Where and When these classes are taking place.
WORKSHOPS
Descriptions for each 50-minute conference workshop are listed alphabetically by instructor.
Creating Memorable Characters
In this class, equally suitable for fiction writers, screenwriters, and TV writers, we will view and analyze various movie scenes and dissect them to see what makes the characters memorable. You will learn the power of subtext: how to embed details of motivation—thoughts, wants, goals, secrets, flaws, and delusions—into physical behavior, speech patterns, and specific habits that echo throughout your story. You’ll receive handouts from DYC, a list of characters to be familiar with, and a series of questions you can pose for your own work, as well as analysis of scenes and Q&A. Come to class with your most important characters in mind and leave with a better understanding about how to bring them to life. We will also go through select exercise from Marilyn’s co-authored book “Dating Your Character”.
Navigating Emotional Corridors
Your character’s personal journey is front and center in every great story — showing how she. deals with disappointment or pain. But sometimes, developing writers treat this character arc purely from a plot standpoint. Establishing and resolving conflict can put writers in an overly analytical headspace. Topics covered: Deepening your character’s arc. Defining your character in relation to the agenda of other characters. Ensuring you don’t just have conflict, but that you have meaningful conflict stemming from diverse POVs. Throwing your character into theoretical scenarios… to see what makes her tick and how you can exploit uncovered weaknesses. Getting into your character’s head, feeling the pulse of a scene. Making a scene unfold and expand so it feels like a real-time, but still interesting, development.
Writing in Different Genres and Under Different Names
What’s in a name, and what’s it like to write as somebody else? The presenter has written in several different genres (mystery, thriller, sci-fi, western, sports, horror, and mainstream to name a few) and under three different names. He’ll explain the reasons for this, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of writing under a pseudonym and writing in various genres. The presenter is the author of fifty books and over one hundred short stories and articles.
Writing a Dynamic Openings and Then Some
The opening of you short story or book has to be dynamic and interesting to the reader, but what does this entail? The presenter will go over the techniques used to create that create a good opening. Endings are equally important and a glance at the final lines will also be touched upon. Examples from the masters will be included, as well as what works and what doesn’t. The presenter is the author of fifty books and over one hundred short stories and articles.
The Basics of Plotting
Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, you must figure out the plot of your story at some point. The presenter will cover the various techniques and tips for doing this including The Ten Steps to Creating a Story. The presenter is the author of fifty books and over one hundred short stories and articles.
Queries and Querying: All the How To’s, No More Mysteries – Master Class
In this Master Class, we will demystify the all-important query letter in all its uses and components, as well as the querying process itself. This class is valuable to all writers – those looking for agents, those looking for publishers, even established writers pitching their next new project to agents, editors, reviewers, and readers. This class will be interactive-optional. Those with a current project can work on that. Those without can use a favorite published work with which to practice. Who doesn’t love brainstorming loglines for The Hunger Games, Pride and Prejudice, Eat Pray Love, The Hunt for Red October, or Goosebumps?
Science Is a Way to Add a Colorful Background to Novels
Science is a reality of modern life. Scientific observations or devices belong in all novels set in the 20th or 21st centuries. Modern mysteries and crime procedurals—if they’re realistic at all—must mention DNA, fingerprints, and/or searches of large reference data bases. Those details can be boring, or they can spark readers’ imaginations. It depends on the author. For example, the quirky woman scientist—Abby Sciuto on NCIS—made important, usually boring, scientific details interesting. However, it’s trite to make the person presenting the science as a nerd.
Covers Matter
There are many components to a cover besides the cover photo or illustration. The back cover can be as important as the front cover. Here are points to consider.
1. Shoppers in bookstores or on Amazon don’t spend much time looking at any one book.
2. Blurbs should be short, punchy, versatile.
3. Author’s bios can attract readers with similar interests. Photos of old men and women don’t always boost sales.
4. Print size and colors can encourage or turn off prospective readers.
Locations Are Characters, Too
Authors should develop locations in their books as if they are characters. If you doubt it, read Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness. The river and jungle are dominant characters in this book. Here are points to remember when writing: The location needs to be a functional, physical environment for the other characters.
The location should set the mood. Is a dark cave spooky or treacherous? Is the health food store grimy, smell of spices, or noisy with activity?
The location can be a major sales point. Does it highlight a tourist event, such as the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque? Many readers are curious about Amazon jungle or the Middle East but don’t want to travel to those locations physically.
Best uses of AI for Writers
For writers, artificial intelligence offers both opportunities and pitfalls. With a good understanding of the strengths and limitations of large-language models, you can best take advantage of the tools available to improve your writing, speed up research, and create effective marketing materials.
Market Your Book without Social Media – yes, you can!
If you’ve been wondering how to market your book without social media, this class is for you.
There’s a new trend brewing – authors quitting social media in favor of more creative ways to market their books and spending more time writing new books. But can you really quit social media? You bet. You just must get creative in other ways and this class will show you how. Here are some of the things we’ll cover in this class:
- Social media: Do you keep any or punt them all?
- Two things you *must* have if you’re going to stop playing in the social media sandbox
- Creative things you can do to get yourself out there and why you want to.
- Reaching influencers locally – yes, you can and it’s easier than you think!
- How to make your website your focal point (and why you need to)
- Can you still pitch influencers, bloggers and bookstagrammers even if you aren’t on social media? Yes, and I’ll show you how.
- A few great places to list yourself and your book, to get more attention!
This class is jam-packed with ideas and whether you want to get off of social media entirely, you’ve never been on social media, or just go social media-lite, you’ll benefit from the great many ideas and tips you’ll learn in this session!
Secrets of a Bestselling Amazon Book Page
Is your book not selling? It could be your Amazon book page. More and more Amazon book page conversion is a big issue, and it can also impact your Amazon relevancy score. What’s a “relevancy score”? This class will unpack that as well! It’s one thing to have your book up on Amazon, it’s quite another to have a book page that actually sells your book. This session will go over tips and insider information on turning your Amazon book page into a sales machine! We’ll discuss:
- Your book description: how to make it your #1 sales tool
- Understanding how Amazon “scans” your page for relevancy
- Understanding your Amazon relevancy score
- Running Amazon ads that aren’t converting? We’ll dig into that too and offer some quick remedies to help increase your ad conversion
- Your book’s tagline: how this helps to sell more books
- How to get more real estate on your Amazon book page
- Ways to use Author Central to enhance your book page
- Using video on your Amazon book page – yes you can!
- Using Author Central to enhance your Amazon Book Page in super creative ways!
- Creative ways to add Amazon keywords to your Amazon book page for better page visibility
- Amazon also boughts – why they matter to your page visibility ….and much more!
Ink to Life: Creating Multidimensional Characters
Bringing characters to life that the reader can relate to, either positively or negatively, is crucial to fiction. This session gives various tools to create believable characters. It offers a practical exercise, with attendee participation, to use one of the tools to create a solid base for a character.
Creating a Series: From Setup to Sundown
This session follows the process of setting up a fiction series. It includes tips for handling different processes. How do you plan as a pantser? And what do you do when your characters run amok? Can a planner plan too much? Where do you draw the line?
A Publisher’s View: The Ideal Author
Every publisher is different, but there are things that will appeal to many publishers. What turns a promising candidate into an ideal author? Here are some tips that will help make you an appealing prospect and an author who editors love.