Collection Class Series in general...

The goal in nine weeks is to write and create and publish a five story collection based on a certain theme. Here in general is the layout of all nine weeks.

Week #1... General stuff about collections and the topic of the class. Assignment will be to come up with a number of possible titles and tag lines for your collection that you will be working toward.

Week #2 through Week #6... Videos about the theme of each class and each assignment will be to write a short story. Five stories in five weeks. (I will give you a bunch of prompts each week that fit the topic of the collection, but no requirement you follow any of them. They will be there just to help.)

Yes, I will read all the stories, but not for critique reasons, but to help you shape your collection. Meaning I will read each story when all five are turned in to tell you my opinion on which story to start with, which story should be put in the middle, which story to end with, and so on. Ultimately your decision, of course.

So you will get my feedback after Week #6 (not each week) on how to arrange the stories and Week #6 will, in general, talk about all the varied reasons for story arrangements in different genres and types of collections. (More to it than you would think.)

Week #7... Videos on the reason and how to write collection introductions and story introductions on each story and the assignment will be to write that and the back cover copy for your paperback edition.

Week #8... Covers and all the details. You will do a cover for me to help you with and check. Also pricing discussions.

Week #9... Videos on all the aspects of publishing a collection and the assignment will be that you will show me proof for the assignment (a link) that you have published your collection.

So in two months you go from nothing to a collection published, detail by detail, focusing on a certain subject.

A Challenge As Well...

If you sign up and write all five stories, do a cover, and do all the assignments and produce a collection at the end, that is a total win. And to add an extra reward for doing that, I will give you your choice of any Pop-Up class worth $150.00. A bonus for the win. But every assignment must be hit for all nine weeks.

PORTALS THEME...

Portals are a science fiction or fantasy idea, for the most part. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series is a portal romance using magic of a stone to move back and forth in time. Thousands of books and stories in science fiction use portals to move around in time and space. Even Stephen King used a portal in one of his most recent books to move back to 1963.

ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP

This workshop starts on Tuesday, May 3rd so every Tuesday the week's workshop videos will be up.

Each week will have around five or six or so videos, give or take depending on the topic that week. Watch them in order. That is critical.

Assignments!

The last video each week will explain the assignment and what I want. I will also write the assignment under that video. But all explanation for the assignment will be on the video.

--- You have 5 Days to get me the assignment.

--- Each assignment will need to be in a doc file with your name on it and attached to an e-mail or in the case of covers, a jpg file.

--- Each e-mailed assignment must have the following code in the SUBJECT line on the e-mail to me.

Portals Assign #

For Example: On week three, the assignment you are sending me would have a subject line... Portals Assign #3

NOTHING MORE.

This is critical because if you don't have that on the subject line, my spam filter will grab it and I may miss your assignment.

I will respond that I got your assignment every week to you so you don't have to worry.

I will give you a personal response about your assignment. It might be short, it might be long. It will depend on the assignment and how you did. Again, on the story assignments, I will not read them until after the last one is turned in and only for helping you with ordering your collection.

Sometimes on the following week, I will put up a video talking about the assignments to everyone, without using names. Just talking about trends and such. You will need to watch that video first each week before going on with new content.

Mail all assignments to [email protected]

Copyright

Just as I will not publish your assignments in any way and keep them only between the two of us, I ask you to respect my copyright on these videos and these pages. I have no problem with your spouse/partner working with you on these classes. But not your writing group or your writing partner. This is for you and you only.

And please do not save these videos to your computer or download them or share them in any way. They will remain here on your dashboard into the future for review for as long as you like, but still you would be better off taking notes as you watch each video.

That's it!

So that's how it's going to work. Very simple and direct.

Any questions e-mail me directly with the subject line "workshops" only. If you are not signed up yet, you can sign up here or write me directly.

It's going to be fun and I hope you learn a great deal from the coming nine weeks and end up with a great collection of stories published.

And come back on Tuesday, May 3rd for the first week's lectures and assignment.

Cheers

Dean