The Craft: Writing Horror for Kids & Teens

Writing spooky tales for young readers is no simple task! Join us in-store to hear all about this complex craft from CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN, author of Shiny Happy People, and ALLY MALINENKO, author of Broken Dolls.

Happily Edited Afters: Crafting Romance Readers Will Love

How do you say I love you in 60,000 words? With the growing popularity of romantic genres like romantasy, rom-com, and crush stories in YA and even middle grade, readers are showing their undying love for love stories. But what makes a story romantic? Learn how to use beat sheets, character arcs, and more to structurally build a romance or romantic subplot that readers will love.

Make Yor Novel Unputdownable: How to Write Pacy and Compelling Stories – What makes a reader—agent, editor, bookseller, or book buyer—keep reading? How do you avoid a story that feels meandering and instead craft scenes so they follow like dominoes falling? What makes a story beat feel “inevitable but unexpected?” Follow along with structural suggestion to help connect scenes, leverage tension with cliffhangers, and create a novel that agents, editors, booksellers, and book buyers will say, I devoured in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down!

Knowing Your Story: Intensive: Sometimes the hardest part of writing is knowing what you’ve written! Learn how to best position your story through comps, selling points, and more. A brief introduction will share tips and tricks, including how to use a query to self-edit your book. In the first section, we will read queries aloud and you will receive live feedback; in the second, you will read your first page and have this reflected back to you. Leave this intensive with a fresh perspective on your book and an understanding on how agents and editors may view it.

Self-Edit Like an Editor: How to Take a First Draft to a Final Draft

Round table critique sessions and live feedback.

“How to Connect:” Avoiding Common Rejections from Agents and Editors

What does it mean when an agent or editor says they didn’t “connect” to your work? How can you avoid this feedback, and what can you glean from these sorts of rejections? Covering general writing advice from character to voice, and specific tips and tricks like “The Day Before” and “The Pause Button”—and based on six years of experience in editorial at two major publishing houses and freelance editing unagented manuscripts—this talk will delve into ways to make sure your story is something readers can connect to!