A. Publishing 101

Establish Yourself as a Published Writer

Lin Johnson

Session 1: Getting Your Idea to the Right Audience

Every manuscript begins with an idea, but that idea needs to be focused for a specific audience. Learn to do so, then find the right publication or publishing house for it.

Session 2: Structuring Your Manuscript for Maximum Impact

If you want people to read your articles and book chapters, you need to grab them in the first few sentences. Learn how to do so, then explore ways to develop your content and bring your manuscript to a satisfying conclusion.

Session 3: Developing a Reader-friendly Style

Learn to edit your work and communicate clearly to today's readers.

Session 4: Submitting Your Manuscript So an Editor Will Read It

If you want to get your manuscript read in a publishing house, there are specific rules to follow. Learn how to format your manuscript and write query letters.

B. Fiction 101

Decked-Out Fiction

Brandilyn Collins

Session 1: Desire

Not your desire to write — the character's desire to do. What does your character want? Do you really know the answer? (Many novelists think they do — until their story starts to sag.) You need to understand this concept fully. Because what your character wants — what deep down drives his actions and reactions, his thoughts and dreams — will catapult him through your story. Weak desire equals weak novel.

Session 2: Emotion

Human emotions are interconnected and multilayered, building upon each other. These emotions force action, which in turn produce more emotion. Novelists need to understand human passions and the way they act upon each other. All too often, authors don't go far enough. The result is a shallow novel, a story that fails to move the reader. You'll leave this hour understanding more about emotion than you ever have.

Session 3: Conflict

Hardly a new word to novelists. But we will study its deeper layers. Do you understand conflict as it springs from and works against your protagonist's desire and his or her conflicting emotions? When we look at conflict this way, we see it's not an entity to itself, something out of left field that knocks your characters around. Many times it's driven by your characters' choices.

Session 4: Kick

Here's where you add the extra zing. We'll look at techniques such as chapter hooks (no, they're not just for suspense), tone, book titles (there's a reason I've never had a publisher change one of my novel titles), effective backstory (including a whole new way of looking at this issue), and the opening sentence.

C. Fiction 201

Romance that Sells

DiAnn Mills

Session 1: Writing Romance from the Heart

Learn how you can write a story that avoids the shortcomings so common to inspirational romance novels. In this hands-on session we'll examine excerpts from published novels, discuss the goals of a romance writer, and analyze what's important in a quality romance.

Session 2: Creating Credible, Colorful, Compelling Characters

This hour shows the writer how to establish strong inner and outer landscapes that force the reader to become involved with the characters. The way these characters resolve conflict reveals their strengths, weaknesses, and values. Learn how to create well-rounded characters that make stories unforgettable and unpredictable.

Session 3: Plots that Dance Across the Reader's Heart

Your characters may be colorful and credible, your setting thoroughly researched, your dialogue impeccable. But if your book lacks a substantial plot, it will sit at the starting gate. This session shows how to plot a novel by using character motivation to establish conflict and tension. We will dissect plot methods used in different genres and also discuss point of view.

Session 4: The Keys to a Runaway Romance Novel

A page-turning novel carries the reader away to an unforgettable adventure. The characteristics of the setting — including imagery and symbolism — guide that journey. By using sensory perception and witty dialogue and studying the techniques of award-winning movies, the writer can transport a Christian romance novel far beyond the ordinary.

D. Nonfiction

Refine Your Ideas for Maximum Results

Dr. Dennis E. Hensley

Session 1. Hands-on Basic Sources for Ideas

Learn how to plumb the Yellow Pages for articles related to corporate business insights, entertainment sources, personality profiles, and emerging technologies. Use newspaper want ads to discover unique business articles and public service pieces. Study college catalogs for fascinating subjects to report on and expert sources to quote. Article ideas are limitless, if you know where to seek them.

Session 2. Spin-off Topics From Initial Concepts

Cannibalizing a nonfiction book can lead to a dozen excerpt articles. One short story can lead to a series featuring the same characters or to a novel. A short skit can become a stage play or movie script. A book on time management can have a sequel about life motivation. Companion topics are easy sales because they are allied to something with a proven track record.

Session 3. New Angles for Overworked Topics

Finding the unusual within the mundane with open new markets. Don't write about buying roses for Mother's Day, interview a florist about who buys meat-eating plants. Don't write about assertiveness training for women or minorities, write about assertiveness training for children (no sissies or bullies). Learning to give a new edge to a routine topic will hold readers' interest.

Session 4. Expanding Markets for Finished Projects

First, learn to target your proper market. If your life story is worth only an article and not a book, then reduce your scope. But don't overlook all options for your big project: translation rights, excerpts, condensations, audio books, graphic adaptations, serialization, training film or movie options. Milk it.

E. Articles

Meet Readers Where They Live

Lisa Crayton

Session 1: Basic Housing (Writing Basics)

Articles are a mainstay in consumer, technical, and professional publications. Learn the basics of writing compelling, reader-focused articles that assure a sound foundation for your writing. Discover how to identify and break into freelancer-friendly markets best suited for beginner and intermediate writers.

Session 2: Varied Dwellings (Writing to Publish)

Writing saleable articles takes more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Discover the tools to slanting articles that sell — and resell. Topics include how to tailor material to address unique needs, specific audiences, and even specific genres.  

Session 3: In Broken Vessels (Writing from the Heart)

The fact that no one's perfect underscores the need for  authentic personal experience pieces that readers can relate to. Discover keys to writing articles, devotionals, and essays that resonate with the hearts of readers … and editors.

Session 4: Beyond the Pew (Writing Naturally)

It's so easy to throw in a Bible verse or biblical principle in our writing and say, “It is finished.” It's more difficult to write non-preachy prose that effectively incorporates such verses and principle while reaching Christian and non-Christian audiences.

F. Creativity for Big Kids

McNair Wilson

Sessions 1 and 2: Recapture Your Creative Spirit

Is everyone born with creative abilities, or are there just a few special and gifted folk roaming among us? What characteristics do you share with the most actively creative people in history? The time to recapture your creative spirit is now! We will also tackle the most common roadblocks to creativity.

Sessions 3 and 4: Brainstorming Secrets of a Theme Park Designer

Most of what you've learned and used to brainstorm is wrong . Does anybody really know how to create lots of creative ideas, quickly and without arguing and belittling the ideas and contribution of others? After ten years as a Disney Imaginer, McNair Wilson knows. The Seven Agreements of Brainstorming (that works) is a foolproof system you will learn (and use) that has been used to create $1.3 billion theme parks and the best, ever, 40th birthday party.

A. Thick-skinned Manuscript Clinic

Jerry B. Jenkins & Andy Scheer

Two doctors of wordiology will diagnose and treat the opening pages of fiction and nonfiction samples submitted in advance by conferees — demonstrating and explaining the required changes to make the work publishable.

( Repeats on Saturday with new conferee examples. )

To submit a sample: Evaluation is limited to the first 12 conference registrants (six fiction, six nonfiction) who submit a two-page prose sample (no poetry or writing for children) to Andy@ChristianWritersGuild.com . Mark the subject line “2009 Thick-skinned Manuscript Clinic” and “fiction” or “nonfiction.”

Format: Fiction samples should be the first two pages of a novel or short story; nonfiction samples the first two pages of a book or article. Submissions must be Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format documents ( .doc or .rtf files), double-spaced using 14-point Times New Roman with 1.25 inch side margins and 1 inch top and bottom margins.

B. Fiction First-page Clinic

Brandilyn Collins

A bookstore browser picks up your novel. Turns it over to read the back-cover copy. Opens to read the first sentence, maybe the first paragraph. If it's really good, maybe the whole first page. Browsing time: 30 to 60 seconds. With so many books and so little time to capture a browser's attention, does your first page have what it takes to close the sale?

In this session, learn what your opening lines must accomplish. Then practice those principles by analyzing on-screen the initial pages of six conferees' novels.

( Repeats on Saturday with new conferee examples. )

To submit a sample: Evaluation is limited to the first 12 registrants who submit the first page of their novel to Andy@ChristianWritersGuild.com . Mark the subject line “2009 First-page Clinic.”

Format: Samples should be the opening page (no more than 250 words) of a novel. Submissions must be Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format documents ( .doc or .rtf files), double-spaced using 14-point Times New Roman with 1.25 inch side margins and 1 inch top and bottom margins.

C. Fiction Dialogue Clinic

DiAnn Mills

Learn the principles for effective fiction dialogue — and see them put into practice in this hands-on clinic. As we analyze and edit sections of dialogue submitted in advance by six conferees, you'll learn to identify and correct dialogue problems.

( Repeats on Saturday with new conferee examples. )

To submit a sample: Evaluation is limited to the first 12 registrants who submit a dialogue sample to Andy@ChristianWritersGuild.com . Mark the subject line “2009 Dialogue Clinic.”

Format: Samples should be between 125 and 250 words and be drawn from only one scene. Submissions must be Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format documents ( .doc or .rtf files), double-spaced using 14-point Times New Roman with 1.25 inch side margins and 1 inch top and bottom margins.

D. Research

Dr. Dennis Hensley

1) How to Find Great Information

This session will focus on Internet databases, city “beat” contacts, expert panel references, and library options. Learn shortcuts, time-savers, and special sources.

2) Conduct Effective Interviews

Interviews are essential for creating personality profiles, performing background research for novels, and obtaining information for nonfiction books. This session will cover listening skills, background research, effective body language, insightful questioning, source verification, masterful writing, and successful marketing of the written piece.

E. Business of Writing

1) Book Proposals That Sell

Lin Johnson

Book editors and agents don't want to see your entire manuscript up front. Instead, they want to receive a detailed proposal. Learn to write a proposal that will grab an editor's or agent's attention, then convince the publisher's marketing and financial decision-makers.

2) High-traffic Author Websites

Lisa Crayton

You have a website, now what? Learn what works and doesn't work when developing an author website that meets your needs, enhances your platform, draws traffic from target audiences, and even generates potential writing (and speaking) engagements.

F. Writers as Speakers

McNair Wilson

1) The Author, Live!

The best publicity for any book is that book's author appearing live — and being a fascinating, prepared, and engaging speaker. Don't wait until you are invited to speak to discover you don't know how — and are scared to try. There's more to speaking in public than, “My book is called Blah, Blah . It's about glug and post-glug . Now I'll read some stuff and then answer your questions unless you don't have any.” (As your audience gets up to grab a double latte. They'll need it.)

2) Ready for Your Close-up?

What if someone shoves a TV camera in your face? (Do they pay for appearances on Good Morning, Altoona ? What are the dress restrictions for radio?) This workshop will help you prepare to speak to the media: radio, TV, and print interviews. Get practical tips for maximizing the typical media appearance.

Registration is full-time only. Spouses are welcome to stay with you at The Broadmoor (more information about transportation and lodging). General sessions, workshops, and meals, however, are open only to registered WRITING for the SOUL conferees. If you'd like to have your spouse join you for the meals and the special speaker presentations at mealtime please see fees below.

Conference Fee (Meals are included. You are responsible for your own lodging and transportation costs. Spouses may stay in your room for no additional charge but must purchase the special Meal/Speaker pass to eat with you.)

PAYMENT PLANS AVAILABLE.

Please call (866) 495-5177 or email us for details.

Cancellation Policy. Refunds must be requested in writing prior to January 5, 2009. Written cancellations received before the deadline will be promptly refunded, less a lost deposit (nontransferable) of $150. After the refund deadline, no refunds will be issued.