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SUMMARY:The Writers Bridge | Publicity 101 for Authors
DESCRIPTION:Finally understand what publicists know (and what your publisher isn’t telling you)\n\n\n\nSo you’ve written a book—congratulations! Now comes the fun part: convincing the world to actually read it. Our special guest\, professional publicist Shanetta McDonald\, will demystify the often-overwhelming world of book publicity\, starting with why press coverage still matters in our digital age and how it translates into actual readers and sales.  \n\n\n\nWe’ll break down the difference between what your publisher’s in-house team handles versus what external PR agencies do\, plus help you figure out what you can tackle yourself versus when it’s worth hiring help. You’ll learn how to build your own roadmap through the publicity maze\, with practical strategies that won’t break your budget. \n\n\n\nToday’s media landscape is brutal. Journalists are drowning in pitches (they only open about 45% of what hits their inbox)\, newsrooms are shrinking\, and news cycles move faster than a caffeinated hummingbird. But don’t panic—we’ll dive into the art of media pitching. Learn how to work with news cycles\, understand lead times\, and most importantly\, how to develop compelling media angles that transform your book from just another title into a newsworthy story that editors and producers want to cover. \n\n\n\nWhether you’re a debut author feeling lost or a seasoned writer looking to up your publicity game\, you’ll leave with a FREE book media launch timeline and checklist–so you’ll know exactly what to do and when to do it–and the confidence to give your book the launch it deserves. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOur special guest \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShanetta McDonald is the founder of The Giselle Agency\, a boutique PR agency dedicated to supporting women\, BIPOC\, and queer authors with intentional\, story- and mission-driven book launches. With over 16 years of experience\, she has spent her career challenging societal norms and shifting cultural conversations. Today\, she proudly focuses on amplifying the voices of those who need it most\, marginalized groups who are making a difference. \n\n\n\nShanetta’s own writing has been featured in Allure\, Refinery29\, HuffPost\, Essence\, and Well+Good\, where she explores themes of identity\, healing\, body image\, and belonging. \n\n\n\nJoin your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS)\, Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for this lively\, funny hour of frank talk about Substack\, newsletters\, essays\, and building platform by doing what you love. \n\n\n\nFREE\, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEnjoy past recorded sessions here\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAllison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House\, Knopf\, Mantle\, St. Martin’s Press\, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building\, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers)\, Instagram (10k+)\, a mailing list (12k+)\, and Facebook (5k+)\, with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book\, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book\, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight\, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series\, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing\, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay\, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/bridge-publicity-101/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Writers Bridge
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SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Beyond Description: Creating Powerful\, Realistic Characters in Fiction and Memoir
DESCRIPTION:The most powerful characters on the page are complex and multi-layered\, and they both surprise and convince readers with (and within!) their reality.\n\n\n\nfor Fiction and Memoir \n\n\n\nNovelists create characters from nothing\, who must feel as real as anyone we’ve met. Memoirists must pack a lifetime of knowledge into selected details to show readers the people they engaged with\, as those people truly are. But too often\, writers default to physical description—characters pausing in front of conveniently reflective surfaces—or narrating our own judgements of the people we know\, rather than allowing readers to make those discoveries themselves. As an actor\, playwright\, and director\, Allison K Williams has explored character creation inside and out. \n\n\n\nIn this special 2-hour (Saturday) webinar\, you’ll learn how to use tools from theatre to analyze your own text and create stronger characters on the page. With examples from fiction and memoir\, we’ll examine how objectives\, passions\, and foibles drive characters and deepen their dramatic impact; how qualities of movement are expressed in verbs and adverbs; the difference between high-context dialogue and “stuff I needed the reader to know so I made a character say it”; and even dive into how punctuation can shape a character’s emotion in a scene. \n\n\n\nYou’ll raise your craft level and gain a tool kit to help you present all your characters\, real or fictional\, as fully rounded beings\, regardless of their word count\, and make each one memorable and worthy of their time on the page.  \n\n\n\nIn-class writing time and live editing will give you a chance to apply this to your writing right away. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis is a TWO-HOUR class\, with 20 minutes of writing time in the middle.\n\n\n\n\n45 minutes – Learn the tools of character analysis\, and key writing techniques to show character on the page\n\n\n\n10 minutes – Q&A to fully understand and apply the information.\n\n\n\n20 minutes – Revise a scene that introduces one of your key characters to heighten the character’s impact on the page and more skillfully show who they are\, what they want and why they matter. Allison will continue taking questions in the chat. \n\n\n\nOPTIONAL: volunteer for live-editing and upload your scene as a Word doc or docx to a Google Drive (link will be provided in class\, no pages will be accepted before they are called for).\n\n\n\n40 minutes – Allison will live-edit pages shared on screen\, noting where the writer is succeeding and what revisions could make the prose even more effective. During live edits\, she’ll call out specific techniques and tips for everyone to apply to their own work\, right away. \n\n\n\n10 minutes – Q&A and planning your writing from here.\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar will cover\n\n\n\n\nHOW the interplay of passion and foible creates conflict and tension within and between characters\n\n\n\nThe “CHARACTER ZERO” of Commedia Dell’ Arte and how it relates to modern prose\n\n\n\nSHOWING villainous\, abusive\, narcissistic and harmful behavior in ways that allow the reader to judge—and why moments of “good” give evil more impact\n\n\n\nWORLDBUILDING through character action and dialogue\n\n\n\nWHEN\, HOW\, and WHY to use adverbs (hint: “in a _____ tone” is needlessly verbose! Bring on the adverbs!)\n\n\n\nThe ACTOR’S TECHNIQUE for bringing to life the most minor of characters—and how to use it in writing.\n\n\n\nOBJECTIVES and OBSTACLES\, and how they make characters active in every scene.\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for\n\n\n\n\nNovelists with a large cast of characters who need distinction; or only a few characters who must hold the reader’s attention throughout the book\n\n\n\nMemoirists who want to write vivid characters without getting lost in their own emotional past experience\n\n\n\nCreative writing students and graduates of MFA programs who want to expand their writing craft with conscious practice.\n\n\n\nDevelopmental editors who want to grow their knowledge of characterization in prose and better communicate that knowledge to their author clients.\n\n\n\n“Plotters” struggling with bringing a character dossier to life on the page \n\n\n\n“Pantsers” who need to fill in background and personality without info-dumping\n\n\n\nWriters hearing feedback that their characters blend together\, or are too “black-and-white” and need more depth\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAll registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔ \n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAllison K Williams is the author of Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro From Blank Page to Book. She has edited and coached writers to Big Five and literary/university publishing deals and the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. She’s guided essayists and humorists to publication in media including the New Yorker\, Time\, the Guardian\, the New York Times\, McSweeney’s\, Refinery29\, Hippocampus\, the Belladonna and TED Talks. As Social Media Editor for Brevity\, she inspires thousands of writers with weekly blogs on craft and the writing life. \n\n\n\nBefore turning to writing and editing fulltime\, Allison was a classically-trained actor. With a BA in Theatre and an MFA in Playwriting\, she has acted and directed with American Stage\, The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival\, Eckerd College\, Western Michigan University\, and many more. Her plays for young actors have been noted by Dramatics Magazine as top-ten most produced worldwide\, and her multi-character solo show TRUE STORY won Best of Fringe at the London Fringe Festival and toured the USA and Canada. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund\, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/beyond-description/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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