Conference 2019
Conference 2019
30 Great Events over Three Days
March 12, 13, 14, 2020
Register Here
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Thursday March 12
Two Half-Day Seminars
Includes Lunch and Writers Cafe
2018 Conference
Tim Esaias
Morning Session: 9:00 – 12:00
What to Put In & What to Take Out:
How to remove meaningless stuff from your prose,
and put content back in.
Develop an action plan for facing the rewrite of your novel, or any piece of prose fiction. We’ll start with all the Horrible Things you need to excise (Tim dishes out a full blast of anti-bobble-headism, along with attacks on saidisms, compulsive modifications, and references to the beheading of Charles I); and then we’ll move on to the important matter of adding significant details, POV signifiers, color characters, theme music and more. Tim will suggest a series of focused “preliminary passes” to make through the manuscript, each addressing a specific issue. There will be exercises; chocolate; and, of course, malt balls.
Afternoon Session: 1:30 – 5:00
Selected Elements of Style
Style makes or breaks your chance of a sale, but what the heck is it? How can you make it your servant? Timons Esaias will shed a modicum of light on the dark mysteries of style. We’ll discuss the key rules, the genre differences, and how to think about the morass of conflicting advice you’ll encounter. Tim promises three specific style tools that should fit in any writer’s kit: the Churchillian Sword, the Vanilla Verb-Pair Demon, and Uranium Enrichment to Weapons-Grade Prose, with exercises for each tool. We’ll discuss the use of Templates, and engage in a Style Analysis exercise covering 7 genres. Bring questions about everything from spelling to musical rhythm. Suitable for all genres. Required text is Strunk & White, because love it or hate it, you should all have it.
Writers Cafe: 7:00 – 9:00
Lehigh Room – Facilitated by Bart Palamaro
Get ready for Friday night Page Cuts or Saturday Agent/Editor pitches by bringing your pitch or opening page and we will give you instant feedback! Or just bring the first page of your manuscript for a critique.
ALL registered Conference attendees are welcome to attend this Conference version of GLVWGs monthly read and critique meeting.
It’s a fun time!
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Friday, March 13
Includes Lunch, Thursday’s Writers Cafe plus all Friday evening activities including
Page Cuts Critique (with $10 fee) , Foundation of a Story, and Reception.
2018 Conference
2018 Conference
JD Barker : 1:30 – 5:00 PM
Full Day Writing Development Workshop
Submit your novel in advance to have it critiqued by the number one international best selling author. Obviously not all submissions can be critiqued, but he will ask for volunteers, and choose a number of works at random if no one is willing.
Works in progress in any genre are welcome.
One of the best ways to improve your writing is to have a mentor read and critique your work. Almost as good, and sometimes even better, is to hear the critique of other folks work and compare it to how you responded to the writing.
This is a rare and not-to-be-missed opportunity to improve your craft by having a world renowned successful author share his expertise with you. JD Barker worked as a “Book Doctor” for over twenty years, refining what works, what pulls the reader in, and what impresses the agents. Do not let this opportunity pass you by.
JD will call for volunteers from the audience, and if no one is willing, he will choose a number of works at random from all submissions and focus on those.
He’ll isolate the problem areas and through brainstorming, work with the audience to correct the issues. Things like passive voice, adverbs, bad dialog tags, unnecessary filler words, showing vs. telling, weak start, etc…
Work will be critiqued anonymously, unless you volunteer, in which case everyone will know who you are.
Submit your work (MS WORD or APPLE PAGES ONLY PLEASE) The link to submit your work will be in your registration acknowledgement email.
Page Cuts Critique Sessions: 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Advance registration necessary
sessions fill quickly.
The Panel Judges
Chris Ochs Reads an Entry
Page Cuts critique sessions are optional ($10.00 session charge) Participants will be assigned to a room headed by a team of publishing professionals who have been asked to provide feedback on your work. This kind of “cold critique” i.e. where first impressions count, is exactly like someone reading the first page of your novel at a bookseller, whether on line or in a store. That impression is what determines whether they buy your book. Don’t pass up this opportunity to get that first page polished so it shines!
Your work will be read aloud by a room moderator and commented upon by our panelists. No names will be used, all works are COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS. Opinions of workshop panelists are theirs alone and do not represent the opinions of GLVWG.
Limited readings. Participants who have been informed of their successful enrollment should bring to their session four copies of the first page of a longer work (fiction, creative nonfiction, or memoir) along with four copies of a 100-word overview of the entire work.
Copies must be formatted. Double-spaced, 12 pt. “Times” font, 1-inch margins, Title & Genre at top of page. No names please. Print to start at the top of the page.
LIMITED SEATING: additional $10.00 charge with any registration
Peggy Adamczyk: 7:00 – 8:00 PM
Peg Adamczyk
The Foundation of a Story –
Laying the Groundwork Before Your First Draft.
- Go from Idea to Concept by using Brainstorming Lists, ‘What If’ questions, and Mind Mapping techniques to help develop story ideas into workable concepts
- Techniques for developing and organizing the hidden Theme of story with techniques from Dwight Swain Elements of Plot, Michael Hauge Story Spine or Desire line, and tag/ log lines.
- Creating and getting to know your settings and characters by using the ‘Sphere of Influence’ techniques used in marketing.
- The introduction of modified version of Michael Hauge’s Three Act Structure that will allow both outline writers and descriptive writers to control the flow of their plot without hindering the journey.
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Saturday, March 14 Overview
20 workshops, Agent./Editor pitch sessions, marketing consults,
author publicity photos, plus lunch and Keynote address,
Door Prizes. Saturday Registration Includes Thursday Writers Cafe,
all Friday evening activities including Page Cuts Critique ($10 fee), The Foundation of a Story, and Reception.
Carrie Turansky
Harrison Demchick
Jeanette Windle
Michael Ventrella
Tim Esaias
JD Barker
Check-in and Announcements in Lehigh Room: 8:00 – 8:50 AM
Saturday Afternoon: 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Book Fair, Flash Literature Writing Contest
Charles Kiernan Taking Orders
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Flash Literature – 2018 Conference
2018 Book Fair
John Evans
2018 Door Prizes
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Additional opportunity: Author Publicity Photos by Joan Zachary
$40 at Registration – Only 10 Sessions Left!
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Go to the Registration Page and choose Member, Non-Member or Student registration.
Then choose Full Conference Registration or which day(s) you would like to register.
Depending on day(s) chosen, there may be other options, such as Friday evening
Page Cuts Critique or Saturday Agent/Editor pitch session,
Author Publicity Photos and Marketing Consults.
For Hotel Accommodations and Directions see:
Directions and Lodgings
Click to learn more about our Presenters
Agents and Editors and Marketing Consultants.
Then subscribe to the Write Stuff Blog for Agent/Editor Interviews
See you there – The GLVWG Conference Committee
Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group 