Workshop Description:
Let’s face it, every writer faces writer’s block at one time or another. If we’re lucky, it might only last a few hours, maybe a day or so. But for some, it can be a crippling condition that keeps you away from your story for months, or even years on end. And no one wants that.
In Vanquishing Your Villains, we’ll examine some of the problems that cause writer’s block and look at some possible solutions that will get you back into your chair with ideas flowing and fingers flying.
This workshop will cover:
- Welcome and Introdction
- Lesson One – What is Writer’s Block?
- Lesson Two – What’s Inside? – Internal causes of writer’s block
- Lesson Three – On the Outside – External causes of writer’s block
- Lesson Four – Problem Solving – How to combat writer’s block
- Lesson Five – How Not to Overcome Writer’s Block
- Lesson Six – Beginning, Middle, or End – Writing cut of context
- Lesson Seven – Brainstorming – What is it and how it can help
- Lesson Eight – Talk to Me – How the Character Interview can vanquish Writer’s Block
Instructor’s Bio:
I believe I was destined to be interested in history. One of my distant ancestors, Thomas Aubert, reportedly sailed up the St. Lawrence River to discover Canada some 26 years before Jacques Cartier’s 1534 voyage. Another relative was a 17thCentury “King’s Girl,” one of a group of young unmarried girls sent to New France (now the province of Quebec) as brides for the habitants (settlers) there.
My passion for reading made me long to write books like the ones I enjoyed, and I tried penning sequels to my favorite Nancy Drew mysteries. Later, fancying myself a female version of Andrew Lloyd Weber, I drafted a musical set in Paris during WWII.
A former journalist and lifelong Celtophile, I enjoyed a previous career as a reporter/editor for a small chain of community newspapers before returning to my first love, romantic fiction. My stories usually include an Irish setting, hero or heroine, and sometimes all three.
I’m the author of The Claddagh Series, the Wild Geese Series, the Children of the Swan Series, and the Irish Hearts Series. A lifelong resident of Montreal, Canada, I still live there with my own Celtic hero. I have two adult children.
Let the vanquishing begin!