writing workshop | Chris Andrews

Just a brief post to let everyone know I’ll be doing two presentations at the Conflux Writers Day on Saturday April 5, which is a prelude to the Aurealis Awards that night.

The inaugural Conflux Writers Day will take place at University House, Australian National University, Canberra.

The theme is ‘The Writers Journey’, which will be covered by four sub-themes – Writing Skills, Writing Processes, Submission and Publication and Building a Career.

My first presentation, Presenting Your Blog Posts for Maximum Impact will focus on:

text layout
readability
images and other features
how to keep people on your site for longer
accessibility issues and what to avoid.

My second presentation, The Elements of Novels, will feature information about:

balancing the beginning, middle and end
purpose of theme
how to distil a novel into a single, sharp, meaningful sentence
the three essential characters every novel needs (and how they work together).

In all, there will be a total of twenty sessions, plus an additional four plenary sessions by:

Joanne Anderton
Kaaron Warren
Ian McHugh
Keri Arthur

It will be well worth your time if you’re able to come.

Further information:

You might like to check out my Novel Structure Diagram which forms part of The Elements of Novels presentation.

Just a brief update to say I’m still hitting my goals, although the one with the most potential at the moment is that I’ve shipped a query to an agent. Fingers crossed yet again!

Otherwise, I’m about halfway through another proofread of my epic fantasy novel (no matter how many times I go through it I always pick up more mistakes/typos etc.

I’m also about a third of the way through the edit of my urban fantasy novel. Editing isn’t writing unfortunately, but it’s still getting stuff done.

The main news however is that Australia’s Nation, Conflux, is on this month. I’ve been doing lots of preparation for it. I’ve got:

a panel on the Thursday afternoon called Elevator Pitches with publisher Marc Gascoigne and agents Tara Wynne and Alex Adsett
a workshop on the Friday morning called Distilling Your Story, where I’ll teach people the art of creating elevator pitches/loglines/one-liners.
another panel on the Saturday evening called Star Wars, The Rebirth, where we’ll ‘create’ our ideal Star Wars 7. I’m thinking both the Rebellion and the remnants of the Empire should join forces and hunt down Jar Jar Binks. Please tell me you’re with me on that one!

While I’ll admit I’m a little nervous (all this convention participation is way outside my comfort zone), I’m also somewhat excited for the same reasons.

If you see me at Conflux before, after or between my panels please say ‘hello’, or perhaps join me at my workshop on the Friday Morning. If you can’t make it to Conflux, you can always find me Google Plus.

Conflux Writers Day April 2014

Like this:

Is it April already?

Like this:

Like this:

Like this:

Follow Chris Andrews