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Day Four
8/5
Wednesday
8:00 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
Personal Time: Writing, Peer Critiques, One-on-one meetings, Excursions
4:00 p.m.
Seminar 13: Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules
5:15 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 5
5:45 p.m.
Dinner
6:30 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 6
7:15 p.m.
Scene Study in Film
Day Five
8/6
Thursday
Breakfast
8:00 a.m.
Seminar 14: Troubleshooting Your Novel: What You Need to Know and Film Discussion
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.
Personal Time: Writing, Peer Critiques, One-on-one meetings, Excursions
4:00 p.m.
Seminar 17: Heroes and Villains: How to Bring out the Best (and Worst) of Your Characters
5:30 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 7
6:00 p.m.
Dinner
6:30 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 8
7:00 p.m.
TBD
“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
8/7
Friday
8:00 a.m.
Breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Seminar 18: Creativity and Idea Wrangling
10:15 a.m.
Seminar 19: Salmagundi and Closing Thought
11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
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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
8/2
Sunday
4:00 p.m.
Check in
5:15 p.m.
Orientation
6:00 p.m.
Dinner
Seminar 1: The Temporal Aspects of Story & their Advantages and Drawbacks
6:45 p.m.
Social event
8:00 p.m.
Day Two
8/3
Monday
Breakfast
8:00 a.m.
Seminar 2: Delve, Pivot, Propel: How to Create Memorable and Stunning Plot Twists
9:00 a.m.
10:15 a.m.
Seminar 3: Peer Critiquing: Mastering the CROWN Technique
Seminar 4: The 8 Lacks that Torpedo Good Manuscripts (Don)
11:30
Lunch
12:30
1:30 p.m.
Personal Time: Writing, Peer Critiques, One-on-one meetings, Excursions
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.
Q&A with Donald Maass
8:15 p.m.
Social Time
Day Three
8/4
Tuesday
8:30 a.m.
Breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Seminar 6: Writing the Moments Only You Can Write (Don)
10:30 a.m.
Seminar 7: Webbing: the CHAIR Technique, and What It Means for Character Development
11:30 a.m.
Seminar 8: Scenes and Interludes: How They Differ and How to Weave Them Together
12:30 p.m.
Lunch
1:30 p.m.
Personal Time: Writing, Peer Critiques, One-on-one meetings, Excursions
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 3
5:45 p.m.
Dinner
6:30 p.m.
On-the-spot critique 4
7:15 p.m.