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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250415T180000
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SUMMARY:So You’ve Written a Novel – Now What?
DESCRIPTION:The first time I typed THE END on a manuscript\, I didn’t know what to do next. There’s a lot of information and encouragement on HOW to write a book\, but not a lot on what to do after you’ve written the thing. And the advice you find online can be woefully misleading\, confusing\, or at its very worst —fraudulent. \n\n\n\nThis 8-week workshop aims to fully lay out the roadmap to traditional publishing for someone who’s finished\, or is close to finishing a fiction manuscript. The journey of getting your story from your laptop to an actual book you can pick up at Indigo follows a very specific series of steps. From landing an agent\, to signing with a publisher\, to contract details\, this course will take you\, in minute detail\, through every step\, with a centerpiece intensive workshop formulating your all-important Query Letter\, along with details on crafting your logline and your pitch kits. \n\n\n\nDesigned for absolute newbies to the world of publishing\, this workshop will offer you tips and tactics to maximize your chances at every step\, and by its end you should have the knowledge and confidence to approach this perilous enterprise knowing exactly what you need to do next. Because typing THE END is only the beginning. \n\n\n\nThere is no submission required prior to the first session\, but participants will be expected to write loglines and query letters and share them with the group as the workshop progresses. They will also be expected to read and critique each other’s work. \n\n\n\nToronto-born\, Montreal-based writer and illustrator Sherwin Sullivan Tjia has written many odd and eclectic books. Their 2005 collection of pseudohaikus\, The World is a Heartbreaker\, was a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s A. M. Klein Award. Their 2010 graphic novel\, The Hipless Boy\, was a finalist for the Doug Wright Award for best emerging talent\, as well as being nominated for 4 Ignatz Awards. Their 2011 Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style book from the POV of a housecat entitled You Are a Cat! won that year’s Expozine Award for best English-language book. Their latest graphic novel entitled Plummet is about a woman who wakes up one day to find herself in literal\, perpetual freefall. It was optioned for animation and named one of CBC Books’ “Top 20 Graphic Novels of 2019.”
URL:https://qwf.org/event/so-youve-written-a-novel-now-what-2/2025-04-15/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250415T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250415T220000
DTSTAMP:20260618T070823
CREATED:20241212T160000Z
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SUMMARY:Make It Make Sense: Writing Memoir
DESCRIPTION:Writing a story about something that really happened seems like it should be easy: after all\, compared to something like fiction\, a lot of the work is already done for you. You already know what happens! But as anyone who has attempted to make art about their own life and experience can attest\, the practice can feel a lot more complicated when you actually get down to it. Life doesn’t always make sense — but a good story has to. \n\n\n\nLed by Tara McGowan-Ross\, the author of the Hilary Weston Prize-shortlisted memoir Nothing Will Be Different\, Make It Make Sense is a workshop that engages directly with the complicated questions that can impede creativity when writing about real life. What makes memoir different from other kinds of nonfiction? Why does writing about yourself honestly so often feel like lying through your teeth? What are the ethics of writing about other people? And what gives me the right\, in our complicated global environment\, to take up space telling my own story at all? \n\n\n\nThis workshop aims to foster a sense of confidence and capacity in a genre that is both highly marketable arts entertainment and powerful personal reflective practice. Participants will be asked to think critically about memoir from the perspective of both writer and reader in a discussion-based environment that features short lectures\, collaborative dialogue\, peer editing\, and revision to foster a sense of ease in one of the most fraught and risky modes of self-expression. \n\n\n\nMake It Make Sense is designed for writers of all skill levels who feel they are psychologically blocked in their memoir-writing practice. Participants will be encouraged to develop a solid foundation of confidence and understanding so that they can live with the sense of uncertainty (or even danger) that often makes this genre so challenging and exciting. Participants will be required to write a short piece for peer editing and workshop with their cohort and encouraged to revise that same piece based on feedback. Not all revised pieces will be workshopped.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/make-it-make-sense-writing-memoir/2025-04-15/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T200000
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SUMMARY:Listening for the Poem
DESCRIPTION:This workshop engages poetry through a listening practice. \n\n\n\nListening shifts attention away from prosaic sense-making and toward poetic meaning-making. Through listening\, we can quiet our inner editorial voice\, make unexpected leaps of thought\, create new patterns of association\, and attune to the fullness—the timbre\, tone\, and sway—of any given moment. \n\n\n\nDeveloping a listening practice also carves out dedicated time\, space\, and attention for writing. Listening permits an encounter between you and your voice\, which emerges when you do not self-consciously construct it. Listening halts self-critical chatter\, allowing you to tune in to your natural rhythms\, embodied knowledge\, and inner language. \n\n\n\nYou will be invited to engage in a directed listening experience\, on your own time\, before each workshop. During this experience\, you will compose the poems that will be brought into workshop\, which will be spent reading new poems aloud and providing feedback on one another’s writing. The idea is that you will bring in new work during each session to share\, with writing taking place on your own time. Consequently\, this is a writing-intensive workshop. Short readings and audio files will be assigned\, and participants will need a recording device for one exercise (phone is OK). \n\n\n\nThe workshop will fully engage the intellect and life experiences of all the writers in the room as we talk shop about craft\, poetics\, and more. New work is privileged to demonstrate the limitless potential we have within us to create poetry—the potential to hear poetry in everyday life. \n\n\n\nJay Ritchie is an English PhD candidate at McGill University and holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of Listening in Many Publics (Invisible Publishing\, 2024)\, which was a finalist for the QWF’s A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry\, and Cheer Up\, Jay Ritchie (Coach House Books\, 2017). He has taught creative writing at UMass and Bishop’s University. His writing and music have appeared in Maisonneuve\, SAND\, on CBC Radio One\, WMUA Amherst\, Frozen Section Radio\, at the PHI Centre\, and he performs expanded poetry readings using portable cassette players and field recordings.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/listening-for-the-poem/2025-04-16/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250416T210000
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SUMMARY:Don’t Quit Your Day Job…Yet: Freelance Writing for Print and Internet
DESCRIPTION:The Internet has boosted demand for articles\, photo features\, website text\, and niche content for both online and print outlets. The technical skills to post\, blog\, tweet\, and upload are common – especially amongst the younger generation! \n\n\n\nLess common\, however\, is the combination of these skills with the ability to write clear\, concise\, targeted\, interesting\, and well-structured prose suitable for small screens\, short attention spans\, F-pattern skim reading\, and search engines. \n\n\n\nConducted by a professional journalist\, author\, freelance writer and PR lecturer\, this workshop is designed to enhance the communications skills of freelancers\, publicists\, bloggers\, and other writers. It will also help you acquire the business and survival smarts you’ll need if you want to earn money from your writing. \n\n\n\nVariations of this workshop have been delivered online and live\, for credit and non-credit purposes at McGill University\, UCLA\, Shaanxi University\, and various arts groups. \n\n\n\nThrough discussions\, examples\, simulation exercises\, and peer review\, workshop sessions are conducted in a “real-life” context that aims to get participants published after the course. \n\n\n\nExercises are written and reviewed during sessions to mediate feedback and prepare participants to work within time limits. The instructor will set a main homework assignment\, to be reviewed before it’s submitted for publication: \n\n\n\n\nA third-person profile\, based on an interview\, which describes an interesting person\, their occupation and achievements.\n\n\n\n\nor \n\n\n\n\nA researched\, first-person narrative analyzing a subject of topical interest.\n\n\n\n\nSessions will cover all aspects of choosing\, planning\, pitching\, writing\, and editing the article. \n\n\n\nParticipants enrolling in this workshop should have a clear idea why they want to write\, what they want to write\, and for whom. They should also consider whether they intend to sell their writing to external outlets\, give it away\, or use it for personal\, career/business development. \n\n\n\nWorkshop schedule \n\n\n\nWeek 1 \n\n\n\n\nCourse introduction\n\n\n\nOvercoming writer’s block and generating story ideas\n\n\n\nChoosing the right topic at the right time\n\n\n\nDifferences between print and online writing\n\n\n\n\nWeek 2 \n\n\n\n\nAnalysis of techniques\, tone\, and content of publications\n\n\n\nInverted pyramid writing\n\n\n\nResearching and selecting relevant material\n\n\n\nSearch engine optimization\n\n\n\nOnline vs print reading patterns\n\n\n\n\nWeek 3 \n\n\n\n\nWriting catchy leads\, headings\, and subject lines\n\n\n\nBasic writing structures\n\n\n\nShow don’t tell – writing for the senses\n\n\n\nSimiles\, metaphors\, allusions\, and other writing devices\n\n\n\nCutting jargon and superfluous words\n\n\n\n\nWeek 4 \n\n\n\n\nInterviewing techniques and psychology\n\n\n\nTurning an interview into a profile\n\n\n\nUse of quotations\n\n\n\nChoosing a publication for your article\n\n\n\nPitching stories\n\n\n\n\nWeek 5 \n\n\n\n\nWorking with editors\n\n\n\nBuilding your network\n\n\n\nCaption writing\n\n\n\nSourcing\, choosing\, and editing pics\n\n\n\nTravel writing\n\n\n\n\nWeek 7 \n\n\n\n\nWriting as a business\n\n\n\nQuoting for jobs\n\n\n\nTax and invoice issues\n\n\n\nMarketing\n\n\n\nSelf-publishing\, hybrid publishing\n\n\n\n\nWeek 8 \n\n\n\n\nCourse review \n\n\n\nPreparation to submit workshop article for publication
URL:https://qwf.org/event/dont-quit-your-day-jobyet-freelance-writing-for-print-and-internet/2025-04-16/
LOCATION:Online via Zoom
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250419T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250419T163000
DTSTAMP:20260618T070823
CREATED:20241212T160000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T183720Z
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SUMMARY:Short Genre Fiction: From Start to Finish
DESCRIPTION:Whether you’re an old hand seeking fresh inspiration or a newcomer working on your very first short story\, we’d love to see you in this workshop! \n\n\n\nRich is the author of 250+ stories; his work has picked up numerous accolades\, and has been translated into over a dozen languages and adapted to screen. In this workshop\, he distills fifteen years of professional experience into a wide-scope\, step-by-step approach to brainstorming\, writing\, and revising short stories\, then homes in on specific techniques and advice tailored to your individual goals. \n\n\n\nYou’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how short stories come together\, new tools in your toolkit\, and a renewed zest for writing. \n\n\n\nSample topics: \n\n\n\n\n\nGleaning ideas from life\, music\, art\, fiction\,\n\n\n\nCombining ideas\, creating interesting juxtapositions\n\n\n\nPlotting\n\n\n\nGenerating endings\n\n\n\nDifferentiating characters\n\n\n\nRevision and submission\n\n\n\nTips for the daily (or nowhere near) writing practice\n\n\n\n\n\nRich Larson was born in Niger\, has lived in Spain and Czech Republic\, and is currently based in Canada. He is the author of the novels Annex and Ymir\, as well as collections Tomorrow Factory and The Sky Didn’t Load Today and Other Glitches. His fiction has been translated into over a dozen languages\, among them Polish\, French\, Romanian\, and Japanese\, and has been adapted into an Emmy-winning episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/short-genre-fiction-from-start-to-finish/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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