Making Money Instead of Spending It

Free Monthly Meeting, 1-hour Zoom presentation
(includes Q&A) 

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Presentation 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Sign-in and social time 12:30-1:00

 

 

with

Michael Larsen

Author and Author Coach

These twelve keys will help you achieve success as a writer and a person:

• Passion
• Purpose
• Professionalism
• People
• Productivity
• Platform
• Promotion
• Publication
• Profit
• Perspective
• Patience
• Perseverance

If you are committed to building a career, the talk will show you how. You will receive twelve pages of handouts. Mike is looking forward to your questions after he speaks, and you are welcome to ask him questions after the meeting at larsenpoma@aol.com.

Mike is an author coach who loves helping writers achieve their goals. Mike cofounded Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents, which sold books to more than a hundred publishers and imprints. Books: How to Write a Book Proposal, fifth edition, coauthored by Jody Rein; How to Get a Literary Agent; and Guerrilla Marketing for Writers (coauthored).

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Strategies For Attaining Grant Support to Enhance Your Writing Career

Free Monthly Meeting, 1-hour Zoom presentation
(includes Q&A) 

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Presentation 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Sign-in and social time 12:30-1:00

with

Denise Pate

Grant maker and grant-writing strategist

Denise is an experienced grant maker who will answer questions about the current trends in funding and provide strategies for ensuring that your application scores high in the panel review process.

Please join us to learn about these important points:

• List of grant-making agencies currently awarding grants to writers
• Current trends in grant making
• How to determine if a grant is appropriate for you and your project
• Tips on how to prepare a competitive grant proposal
• Resources for professional development (grant writing, budget building, managing a grant award)

Denise Pate is the Director of Community Investments for the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC). More importantly, she’s prepared the guidelines for many grant programs, supported the careers of many emerging writers (including best-selling author Tommy Orange of There, There) and written MANY successful grant proposals.

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Sell Your Book to a Publisher

Free Monthly Meeting, 1-hour Zoom presentation
(includes Q&A) 

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Presentation 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Sign-in and social time 12:30-1:00

 

with

Randy Peyser

Book Broker

There’s the book you want to write and a book a publisher will buy. Are they the same book?

Here’s what you’ll learn from this presentation:

• What topics are hot and what’s not.
• The quickest way to get an agent or publisher to stop in their tracks.
• The 1 thing to absolutely not do if you are serious about getting a publishing contract.
• Details about your writing that publishers always look for.
• The biggest mistakes authors make.

Randy Peyser edits and ghostwrites books and gets authors book deals with literary agents and
publishers. Books on: Hallmark TV, Oprah Magazine, TIME, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today
Bestseller Lists, and airport bookstores. She is the author of Crappy to Happy; The Power of Miracle
Thinking; and The Write-a-Book Program. www.AuthorOneStop.com. 

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Writing and Publishing Nonfiction

Free Monthly Meeting, 1-hour Zoom presentation
(includes Q&A) 

Saturday, October 16, 2021

Presentation 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Sign-in and social time 12:30-1:00

 

with

Scott Thomas Anderson

Veteran Award-Winning Journalist and Producer

Trying to fit real-life events into a pretty literary package can backfire publishers and readers, but
success can come the opposite way when writers commit to unrelenting authenticity.

Here’s what you’ll learn from this presentation:

• How to avoid the common landmines that aspiring nonfiction writers accidently step on
• How to understand the difference between the genuine rules and perceived rules within mainstream
  nonfiction
• How to step back and re-evaluate whether you’re truly seeing the best story under the surface of
  real-life events
• How to pitch a nonfiction writing project to elements of mainstream media and publishing
• How to work productively with editors on complicated nonfiction projects

Scott Thomas Anderson is veteran journalist whose work regularly appears in The San Francisco
Chronicle, The Sacramento News & Review and Distiller’s Magazine. He’s also the writer and producer
of the documentary podcast series, “Drinkers with Writing Problems,” which travels to cities around the
world to study the link between drinking culture and creative legacies. Click here for Scott’s extended biography.

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Creating a Strong Character Arc

Free Monthly Meeting, 1-hour Zoom presentation
(includes Q&A) 

Saturday, September 18, 2021

Presentation 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Sign-in and social time 12:30-1:00

with

CS Lakin

Award-Winning Novelist, Copyeditor, and Writing Coach

You know your story needs a strong character arc, but how do you create one? In this PowerPoint presentation, aided by movie clips, you’ll not only learn what’s involved in moving a character from his persona to his essence; you’ll understand what the specific six scenes are and where they are placed in a novel to craft believable character change.

     The protagonist’s transformational journey is an important consideration in fiction, and something you’ll want to ponder before you get too far in plotting your scenes.

     Why? Because stories are about a character who desperately wants something, and while all successful stories involve external conflict, those that go deep into the levels of character, showing the greatest obstacle—self—tend to be stronger stories.

Here’s what you’ll learn from this presentation:

• What specific transformational steps your character will take and how they coincide with your plot’s five turning points.
• How to believably show a character moving from “persona” to “essence” from the start to the end of your story.
• The purpose of each stage of transformation and what it needs to accomplish.
• How the theme of your story—which is your character’s inner motivation made universal—can be brought out through these key scenes.
• The transformational journey of your protagonist lies in the answer to this question: What does my character have the courage to do at the end of the story that she doesn’t have at the beginning?

     Whether you are in the plotting stage or the revision stage of your novel, it’s not too late to craft a strong character arc that will sweep readers up in a journey of the heart.

C.S. Lakin is an award-winning author and blogger at Live Write Thrive. She has written twenty novels and ten writing crafts books and works full-time as a copyeditor and writing coach. She teaches writing workshops in person and online at cslakin.teachable.com.

CLICK HERE FOR WORKSHEET

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE MEETING