CIRCLE OF MISSE - Gastronomy & Creativity In France -

Where is There?: Tightening, Editing, Sending It Out

October 6-10, 2010 (Wed-Sun)

You’ve finished. Or maybe you’re half-way through. You’ve worked hard and the story is good. But you know it’s not ready to release into the wider world. Or you’ve given it to a writer friend (maybe even an agent or publisher) and they’ve returned it, praising many things, but saying that it “needs tightening”. Or the even more ambiguous, “it’s working well, but it’s just not there yet”. Where is there? This four-day course will show you and give you the tools to get your short story, novel or creative non-fiction there.

Through a series of examples, exercises and hands-on editing, editor and writer Wayne Milstead, will teach you the techniques to ensure your writing masters the five requirements for a solid manuscript. You will learn how to break rewriting down to size, look at your work structurally, how to think objectively about weak areas, and, most importantly, how to resolve them.  Wayne will share real-world examples, teach you to think like an editor, and help you to apply these directly to your work. Areas covered will include: showing versus telling, dialogue, unity, voice, pacing, viewpoint, logic problems, characterization, proportion, setting and plot.

Bring a story or a chapter of your book (up to 5000) words. For novelists and non-fiction writers, bring a chapter you suspect needs particular help as it offers you the chance to resolve the problems, have a solid chapter and apply those techniques and lessons learned to the work as a whole. It doesn’t have to be the first chapter, but, in addition to the benefits mentioned above, first chapters offer us a chance to perfect those crucial opening 1500 words that a reader (and a potential publisher) uses to decide whether to keep going or not.

Short story writers should try to bring a “finished” story with a beginning, middle and end (even if there are rough patches) as this allows us to apply the full panoply of techniques and you leave with an edited story that you can consider sending out to literary magazines and use as an example to edit your other stories.

Wayne will meet with each participant individually during the week to discuss the particulars of their writing sample and goals. On the last day, he’ll include a session on next steps and strategies for finding markets for your work and approaching literary magazines, agents and publishers.

Being away from the distractions of our daily lives in an inspiring setting, allows us to focus on our writing and see it in fresh new ways. We’ve designed the schedule to help you accomplish your writing goals. While we’ll cover a lot of ground and get plenty accomplished, the atmosphere is always supportive, enthusiastic and relaxing. We’ve scheduled lots of breaks, time for an excursion to a local site, and opportunities to simply relax.

Book now - Limited places left

Biography

Wayne's articles, essays and short stories appear in journals, anthologies, newspapers, magazines and online in both the U.S. and U.K. In 2005, he was one of three fiction writers selected by Arts Council England for a New Writing Ventures Award, Britain's top prize for emerging writers. He has also won a scholarship from literary agents Curtis Brown and a National Academy of Writing bursary. His travel writing appears most recently in The World is a Kitchen and Encounters with the Middle East, both from Traveler's Tales Books.

Born in Texas, he lived in Washington, D.C. for many years. He now divides his time between the U.K. and France. He has a B.A. in dramatic literature from George Washington University, a J.D. in law, and an M.A. in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. He's also worked in journalism, law and management consulting.

He has studied at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center in Massachusetts, been resident at the David and Julia White Arts Colony in Costa Rica, and participated in the emerging writer program at the New Writing Worlds symposium at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.

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