What do you want to know?

Well I have the most trouble with plotting, so I would love to have a workshop on plotting. It doesn't matter exactly who would present it, but it would be great if they had written romance novels that used more than one plot structure, and if they were a writer who made a plot outline before starting to write. The important thing would be that they should identify how many basic plot shapes are used in romance novels, make an outline demonstrating each, and hand them out, then the workshop part could be identifying which of the patterns you wanted your own novel to fit and developing an outline of yours using the example outline as a reference. Also a handout bibliography of good books which teach plotting basics and other aspects of plotting would be handy, but the workshop should not waste its time with the basics that most people should already know.

Weaponry for Writers - most people don't know a danged thing about lethal force and its tools, knives, guns, swords, etc., yet they still want to write action scenes. I'll read some historical with a duel and wince, since it's painfully clear the writer never once tried a fencing class. Or someone has a safety or a silencer on a revolver, or calls a semiauto an assault rifle or thinks a plastic gun will get through an x-ray machine.

Historical Gaffs - This is for folk who keep putting modern idiom in their historicals, fail to attempt the most basic Google research, and can't be bothered to totter down to the library to crack open a book or three to find out who's buried in Grant's Tomb. It's also for people who go into overkill on their research and cram in so much the story is lost.

How to Kill a Book Deal 101 - The most effective ways to destroy your career as a writer! Don't read Elements of Style, do phone up editors and agents a mere week after they've gotten your query, don't bother with spellcheck, trash published writers you hate to make your stuff sound better, get blotto at conferences, stalk publishing insiders with your MS, write nasty letters to agents who reject your stuff, threaten to flounce off to PubliSHAMerica, post your whole novel on the Internet, blog about what idiots are running publishing--name names!--and.....never send anything in, 'cause THAT would be selling out, yanno.


Of course *I* would present all three and have done so.

For me, I would like a workshop on creating action scenes in literary. It's so difficult to show how the pace is ridiculously fast as different characters (Maybe the MC, maybe a secondary character) duke it out in different scenarios. Because, for all I know, no real fight is as slow as a chess match.

I'm starting to get more and more requests to present my "Understanding Author Contracts" workshop. It's surprising how many authors, even multi-published ones, really don't understand the implications of some of the clauses. An entertainment attorney would be good for that (which I'm not)---preferably one who's published in fiction too.

Cathy C said:

I'm starting to get more and more requests to present my "Understanding Author Contracts" workshop. It's surprising how many authors, even multi-published ones, really don't understand the implications of some of the clauses. An entertainment attorney would be good for that (which I'm not)---preferably one who's published in fiction too.

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That would be a great topic. I draft & negotiate intellectual property contracts for a living and understand publishing contracts better than most people, but I'd like to see what's the most acceptable terms, and why, in the publishing world.

The most effective ways to destroy your career as a writer! Don't read Elements of Style, do phone up editors and agents a mere week after they've gotten your query, don't bother with spellcheck, trash published writers you hate to make your stuff sound better, get blotto at conferences, stalk publishing insiders with your MS, write nasty letters to agents who reject your stuff, threaten to flounce off to PubliSHAMerica, post your whole novel on the Internet, blog about what idiots are running publishing--name names!--and.....never send anything in, 'cause THAT would be selling out, yanno.

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So that's where I'm going wrong.

You're sucking all the fun out of my life....

For romance specifically -- I'd like a workshop on the subgenres, and whether I'm flogging a dead horse with a fantasy romance ( I definately am in England -- they don't even stock them in the big chain bookshop here)

Erin said:

That would be a great topic. I draft & negotiate intellectual property contracts for a living and understand publishing contracts better than most people, but I'd like to see what's the most acceptable terms, and why, in the publishing world.

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And, of course, what's "acceptable" to one person is onerous to another, which is why entertainment law is so interesting! I've been an IP and real estate paralegal (PLS/ACP, member of the Texas Bar Association Paralegal Division--for you legal-types out there keeping notes) for 20+ years, but I've learned more since publishing 5 years ago than in the previous 15 in a law firm.

I try to present the topic in such a way that it doesn't exclude any publisher---NY, small press, ebook or subsidy, but makes the author THINK about what they want out of the contract. If you don't know what you can get, you can't ask. Too, a lot of people have "unstated expectations" of a publisher/editor that they've never actually articulated in print or out loud. It does no good to get huffy after plans are waylaid by reality when the publisher had no clue what you had in mind.

The class really is an incredibly valuable tool in a writer's toolchest, no matter what they want out of their career, and no matter who teaches it (so long as they're qualified.)

I'd love to see something on writing category romance.

I know that the best way to learn how to write category romance is to read the line you want to write for, and I've tried that, but I still can't get it. There's something I'm not getting about structure or plotting (I'm a plotter rather than a pantser) or *something*. I've even tried Googling for like a category plotting template, and have found nothing.

Cathy,

I would love to take the workshop / class on publishing contract. I was fortunate enough to find a reputable literary attorney to look over mine before I signed it, and I was amazed at the kind of things she suggested I change. (not because they were bad or unreasonable, but because I never even thought to ask...!)

Cathy C said:

I'm starting to get more and more requests to present my "Understanding Author Contracts" workshop. It's surprising how many authors, even multi-published ones, really don't understand the implications of some of the clauses. An entertainment attorney would be good for that (which I'm not)---preferably one who's published in fiction too.

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This is a wonderful idea!

I'd also like a workshop on how a pub works. The departments, the postions--what to expect, and not to expect. Who does what, and who you should contact for this, that or the other.

Contracts, yes. And marketing/promo. How on earth do you tell which efforts at author-promo pay off, and which are a waste of time? You'd think after the last few years of publisher/author partnership, we'd already have these data, but it's still all anecdotal and "what worked for me."

I'd like both of these...when do I start packing?

Contracts, how to painlessly (ugh!) write a synopsis, and query letters.

At least I have a dh who used to practice law, so that's not so bad, but the synopsis and query letters make me want to rip my hair out. Fortunately a good friend of mine helps me with them, she's published and has a great eye for what works and doesn't, but I have such a horrible time getting a basic one worked out to get to that point!