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Day Four
7/17
Wednesday
8:30 a.m.
Breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Seminar 10: Suspense Essentials: How to Ratchet Up the Tension No Matter What Genre You Write
Seminar 11: Moral Dilemmas: How to Shape Moments that Challenge, Reveal, and Shape Your Characters
10:15 a.m.
11:30
Seminar 12: Debunking the Traditional Advice on Writing Great Dialogue
12:30
Lunch
1:30 p.m.
7/16
Tuesday
Writing, Peer Critiques,
One-on-one meetings, Excursion
4:00 p.m.
Seminar 13: Common Editing Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
5:15 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 7
5:45 p.m.
Dinner
6:30 p.m.
Scene Study in Film
8:00 p.m.
Social time
Day Five
7/18
Thursday
Breakfast
8:30 a.m.
Seminar 14: Troubleshooting Your Novel—What You Need to Know
9:00 a.m.
10:15 a.m.
Seminar 15: Secrets to maintaining Believability (Even in High Stakes Stories)
Seminar 16: Emotional Resonance: The Interplay of Authenticity, Honesty, and Voice
11:30
Lunch
12:30
1:30 p.m.
Writing, Peer Critiques,
One-on-one meetings, Excursion
4:00 p.m.
Seminar 17: Myth-conceptions: What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About the Writing Life
5:15 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 8
5:45 p.m.
Dinner
7:00 p.m.
Outing
9:30 p.m.
Social time
“Steven James is one of our most sought-after teachers and talented speakers. He presents his extensive knowledge of storytelling in an entertaining and informative manner. He lives story, and thanks to his sage advice, his students’ stories come alive.”
—KIMBERLEY HOWE, Executive Director, International Thriller Writers
Day Six
7/19
Friday
8:30 a.m.
Breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Seminar 18: Creativity and Idea Wrangling
10:15 a.m.
Seminar 19: Q&A with Steven James
11:15 a.m.
Closing Comments
11:45 a.m.
Checkout
Advanced Fiction Institute
A tentative schedule of the week.
“Steven is both a deep thinker about story and someone who can make amorphous concepts as easy to understand as an Aesop fable.”
—DONALD MAASS, renowned literary agent and fiction instructor
Day One
7/14
Sunday
4:00 p.m.
Check in
5:00 p.m.
Orientation
6:00 p.m.
Dinner
Seminar 1: The Temporal Aspects of Story & their Advantages and Drawbacks
6:45 p.m.
Social time
8:00 p.m.
Day Two
7/15
Monday
Breakfast
8:30 a.m.
Seminar 2: Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules
9:00 a.m.
10:15 a.m.
Seminar 3: Delve, Pivot, Propel: How to Create Memorable and Stunning Plot Twists
Seminar 4:
Peer Critiquing: Mastering the CROWN Technique
11:30
Lunch
12:30
1:30 p.m.
Writing, Peer Critiques,
One-on-one meetings, Excursion
4:00 p.m.
Seminar 5: The First Ten Pages: What You Need to Know, Include, and Avoid
5:15 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 1
5:45 p.m.
Dinner
6:30 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 2
7:15 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 3
7:45 p.m.
Social time
Day Three
7/16
Tuesday
8:30 a.m.
Breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Seminar 6: Scenes and Interludes: How They Differ and How to Weave Them Together
10:15 a.m.
Seminar 7: Webbing: the CHAIR Technique, and What It Means for Character Development
11:30 a.m.
Seminar 8: Heroes and Villains: How to Bring out the Best (and Worst) of Your Characters
12:30 p.m.
Lunch
1:30 p.m.
Writing, Peer Critiques,
One-on-one meetings, Excursion
4:00 p.m.
Seminar 9: How to Write Yourself Out of a Corner (and Why You Should Write Yourself into One First)
5:15 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 4
5:45 p.m.
Dinner
6:30 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 5
7:15 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 6
7:45 p.m.