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The Writers Circle Speakers Series
Monthly Workshops and Talks with
Authors & Industry Professionals
All workshops are on Sundays from 2:00-4:00 PM
Locations listed for each event.
Advanced registration is suggested.
March 4
Writing & Selling Your Memoir
Paula Balzer
Sages Pages, Madison
There's more to memoir writing than just telling your life story. A memoir is a well-crafted narrative about a crucial, often exceptional, time in someone's life. Literary agent and author Paula Balzer (Writing & Selling Your Memoir , Writers Digest Books) will take participants through the process of telling their most personal tales in a compelling, relatable, and readable manner. She'll also show you how to approach the genre with love, respect, and unsentimental know-how.
Paula will talk about how to find your hook and use it to catch an agent’s or the media’s attention, how to manage your material and self-edit so that your memoir isn’t flooded with details, how to structure your story for content and marketability, and ways to find, hone and perfect your voice. She will also confront the always anxiety producing issues of finding a market, agent and publisher for your book. She will leave you with an armload of creative and practical ideas to get your story out of your heart, onto the page, and into the world.
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April 1
Reading Your Writing
for an Audience
Sandra McLaughlin & Leonie Higgins
Luna Stage, West Orange
 
Your words may sing on the page – but sometimes even the best of writers fall flat when reading their own work before an audience. If you mumble, stumble, sway or flail about, read in a monotone or can't raise your eyes from the page for fear of fainting, this workshop will help you improve your public presentation and give you the confidence to read your writing with pride. Broadway actress/director Sandra McLaughlin and actress/musical theatre director Leonie Higgins of Center Stage Dance and Theatre School, will teach participants how to give their written words the respect, emphasis and flair they deserve not only on the page, but when read out loud.
Please email the passage you would like to read during the workshop to info@writerscircleworkshops.com.
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May 6
Creating Character
Judith Lindbergh & Michelle Cameron
Sparkhouse, South Orange
 
Judith and Michelle bring their successful "Creating Character" workshop to a new audience with lots of tools and exercises to help you develop three-dimensional characters. Starting with basic traits like height, weight and hair color, they will show you hold to build a unique character - one you may already have in mind or one you may not have thought of before. They will challenge you to get up and "try a character on", then discuss ways to work on your character's backstory "off the page". They'll share great tools to create your characters' pasts, presents and futures, because aren't all of us who we once were, who we are now, and who we hope to be?
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June 10
Literary Time Travel:
Adventures in Writing Historical Fiction
Susanne Dunlap,
Stephanie Cowell
Michelle Cameron &
Judith Lindbergh
Mondo, Summit
 
 
"There is no frigate like a book," said Emily Dickinson, "To take us Lands away." Historical novels not only transport us, but fully immerse us in different epochs and geographies, inviting us experience lives our modern sensibilities can hardly imagine.
Authors Stephanie Cowell (Claude and Camille), Susanne Dunlap (In the Shadow of the Lamp), Michelle Cameron (The Fruit of Her Hands), and Judith Lindbergh (The Thrall’s Tale) will take you from medieval Paris to Elizabethan London, from Victorian Crimea to Viking Greenland and beyond. While sharing their their insights into writing and research, they will reveal what moves them to write about such different historical milieu. They will also offer participants a chance to play with their own ideas for imaginative historical journeys. Bring a notebook, pen or laptop and be ready to take your first literary steps into past glories.
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July 8
Nuts & Bolts of Self-Publishing
Part I: “Decisions… Decisions…”
Heidi Sussman
Sparkhouse, South Orange
As the publishing industry evolves, it’s never been easier to self-publish. Whether you’re looking to create a printed book or E-Reader, you can produce a professional quality product with online print-on-demand companies, tools, and a few basic principles of book design. Learn the ins and outs of self-publishing as you gain knowledge about style and format options as well as how to use typography and illustration, and the importance of proper image preparation for reproduction purposes. Whether you’ve written a novel, a collection of short stories or poetry, or have a compilation of photos, you’ll learn what’s needed to make your creations come to life in print.
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August 5
Nuts & Bolts of Self-Publishing
Part II: "Plug & Play"
Heidi Sussman
Sparkhouse, South Orange
Self publishing continues this month with a hands-on workshop designed to help you create a printed book. Take the plunge to self-publish your work and see how easy it is to make a professional quality book you can be proud to sell, keep for yourself, or give as a gift. Bring your laptops downloaded with the latest version of Blurb, your project in a Word document, and some jpegs of your favorite photos and/or illustrations.
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