June Online Workshops

June 1-26, 2009 Standard Workshop
STORY AEROBICS: SHAPING UP SAGGING MIDDLES
Presented by Raquel Rodriguez

After a brilliant start, does your story slow down and loose it's sparkle?  Do your characters run out of things to say?  Too early in the story for a love scene, and you don't have a dead body to thrown in?  Learn how to confront these stumbling blocks that cause your problem scenes with a few simple steps and exercises. 

Learn to define the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the real situation.  Recognize how your story choices can help strengthen motivation, or change the direction for more realistic conflicts.  Learn how not to get stuck on minor characters or problematic scenes, and put your time into pages that will move your plot forward.  Get to the heart of the difficulty and extrapolate the answer to get your scene flowing again to engage your reader in this 1-month workshop.

Areas covered:
- Enhance your tension
- Up the stakes
- Add realistic conflict
- Cutting "deadwood" to move your story forward

Growing up around ghosts and having written stories since her teens, native Texan and published author Raquel Rodriguez  is used to things that go "bump" 24/7.  With a passion for Science Fiction, anything paranormal, Space Opera, and writing romance, Raquel blends these elements into her passionate stories with twists of action and suspense.  She has studied, taught and lectured about Parapsychology for over 25 years, utilizing Astrology, Astrological Tarot and Vogler’s 12 steps to plot her stories.  Raquel 's personal motto is, "Never give up, never surrender!" and she writes at least five FF&P romance stories per year with her specific story planning and plotting techniques.  For more information, please visit her website at www.RaquelRodriguez.com.

*Please Note: If paying by Paypal, please send money to workshops@carolinaromancewriters.com.

Registration Deadline: May 25th             Register Now!

June 15-28th Two-Week (Mini) Workshop
Loglines - Just the facts, Ma'am
INSTRUCTOR: Cindy Carroll

A good logline can make people sit up and take notice. Whether you write books or scripts the logline is an essential part of your marketing material. And it can also help you stay on track. Just the facts, Ma'am covers what makes a good logline and how to use it to stay focused on the story.

Topics covered:
1. Introduction
2. I already have an idea - turning your idea into a logline.
3. Generating ideas - how to generate ideas for loglines.
4. High concept - just having a high concept doesn't mean you have a logline.

Assignments and feedback provided for student loglines.

INSTRUCTOR'S BIO: Cindy Carroll joined RWA in 1992 and started out writing novels but turned to scripts when an idea for one of her favorite television shows wouldn't leave her alone. That first attempt, and her second teleplay for the same show, garnered her honorable mention in the Writer's Digest 76th Annual Writing Competition in the screenplay category. She graduated from Hal Croasmun's screenwriting ProSeries intensive in June of 2008. Her interview with David Rambo, writer/producer for CSI appeared in the summer special edition of The Rewrit, the newsletter for Scriptscene, Romance Writers of America's screenwriting chapter. Currently working on the rewrite of her second feature, Cindy is also developing two new television pilots.

Registration Deadline: May 25th             Register Now!