Million-dollar Outlines Workshop
Every year, some novels come out of nowhere to become blockbusters, while others languish on the shelves. How are books by Rowling and Meyer different from those of other authors? What are editors and movie producers looking for? Can you give your story a greater chance of being discovered—of getting large advances and a large push from both publishers and movie studios?
In looking at the answers to these questions, Dave has come to the conclusion that most authors err when they enter the field because they think too much about how to write their story line by line, without taking adequate time to analyze their audience and create a story that can attract wide audiences.
Given this, in this workshop you will be encouraged to take a story from its basic premise and then create an outline for it—developing your characters, your world, your conflicts and themes—so that you create something that can serve as a map for generating a novel or a movie treatment.
The cost of the workshop is $600 for the week. You will need to be willing to do the following:
1) Read course materials before coming to the workshop.
2) Brainstorm with others and critique others' work during the course of the workshop.
3) Be prepared to rewrite your own outline during the course of the workshop (which means that you will need a computer or typewriter, and access to a printer).
Class size will be limited to 11 people.
When and Where Are the Workshops Held?
The next workshop will be held March 7-12, 2011
At the Ramada Inn,
1440 East Saint George Boulevard,
Saint George, UT –
Phone (435) 628-2828
You may register online, email Dave, or phone Dave at 435-986-3858
Who Is Teaching and What Credentials Does He Have?
Dave is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling writer in two fields—science fiction and fantasy. He has written or edited nearly fifty novels and anthologies for adults, young adults, and middle-grade readers. Beyond that, he has worked as college creative writing instructor, a fiction editor, a videogame designer and scripter, as a movie producer, and so on.
As Dave Wolverton, he began his writing career in 1987 when he won the Writers of the Future Gold Award for his short story, “On My Way to Paradise,” and shortly afterward was given a three-novel contract by Bantam Books. His first novel spent several months on the Locus Science Fiction Best-seller List, and won a Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award as one of the best science fiction novels of the year. Dave continued writing science fiction for the following ten years, writing several bestsellers among his own novels along with tie-in novels for major franchises like Star Wars and The Mummy until at the end of ten years he decided to follow his childhood dream of writing fantasy, and began writing also in that genre.
With the move to fantasy, he changed his writing name to David Farland, so as not to confuse his audience. His first fantasy novel, The Runelords, became a runaway hit around the world and has millions of readers. The third book in the Runelords series, Wizardborn, hit the New York Times best-seller list. Dave is now completing the ninth—and last--book of the series.
Over the years, Dave has won numerous awards for his short fiction in particular, and set a Guinness Record for the world's largest book signing–a record that he still holds.
In 1991, Dave became a judge for one of the world's largest writing contests, the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, and for the next several years he read thousands of stories each year, edited an annual anthology, and taught writing classes to new writers.
As an instructor, Dave has taught workshops in conjunction with the Writers of the Future, has taught upper-division classes in science fiction and fantasy writing at Brigham Young University, has appeared as a guest lecturer and instructor at dozens of conventions, and has taught many other workshops at various universities. Some past students who have recently published include New York Times bestselling YA author Brandon Mull, New York Times bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, hot new thriller writer Virginia Baker, the talented new fantasy author John Brown, and hot new children's fantasy author Jessica Day George.
Dave has also worked as a designer on such international hits as StarCraft's Brood War, and as a video game scripter.
In 2002 Dave went to work as a movie producer in Hollywood, raising millions of dollars for independent films. There he worked with screenwriters, directors and various studio heads. He is currently the Director of Storytelling and the head of the Publishing Department for a new animation studio called CNW, Crocodiles Not Waterlilies.