Fiction Scribe

*Reposted from Paperback Writer

“Once again it’s time to begin planning PBW’s Fourth Annual Left Behind & Loving It, a series of virtual workshops I’ll be holding here at the blog this summer from July 13th through the 20th.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, this summer event is something I started doing back in 2006 for writers like me who don’t attend RWA National. We spend a week together online talking shop, sharing ideas, discussing writing and publishing and doing all the stuff you do at a writer’s conference except wait in long lines for bathrooms, elevators, coffee and official pins and ribbons. We don’t infect each other with anything but ideas, nor are we forced to eat bad mystery chicken, wear panty hose and heels, or arm wrestle some large chick in stretch pants over gratis Linda Howard hardcovers. It’s pretty much pure bliss.

Last year I offered an open invitation to any blogging writer to join in and hold their own virtual workshops on their blogs or web sites, and I’m repeating that again this year. If you’re willing to teach a writing or writing-related workshop(s) of any variety online at any time during that week, I’ll be happy to link to it every day I hold mine. I’ll give out more details on this later down the road, probably in mid-June.

Now it’s your turn — what sort of workshops would you like to see for LB&LI this time around? Let us know in comments.

(Update)

The details:

1. It’s open to all — anyone can hold a workshop; it doesn’t matter if you’re unpublished, published, agent, editor, employed, unemployed, student, retiree, whatever. If you’ve got something related to writing or publishing that you want to workshop, you’re in.

2. You run the show — you can do a single workshop or as many as you like, and hold them at any time during that week.

3. Linkage — if you hold your workshop on your blog during the week of July 13th through July 20th, I will link to it here on PBW for the entire week while I’m running mine.

My suggestions (all optional):

1. Keep your blog comments open so your visitors can discuss the topic of your workshop, ask questions and add their own ideas. The real fun of a virtual workshop is always the visitor participation.

2. If applicable, put together worksheets, outlines, or other helpful materials related to your topic for your visitors’ use. You can post these online as part of your workshop or have them available for downloading elsewhere (I recommend Scribd.com if you don’t have a website and/or need a place to park them; I’ve used it for the last two years to publish e-book versions of my workshops.)

3. Link to articles, web site pages and other sources on the internet that are relevant to the topic of your workshop. I especially like to find links to writers who have a different perspective than mine because they offer second opinions on the topic.

4. Consider having a giveaway(s) for your visitors. Published writers, if you’ve got some extra author copies sitting around and you can swing the postage, have a drawing for a signed copy or two. Unpublished writers, if there’s a how-to book, magazine or other resource that has helped you, consider giving away a copy of it during your workshop. Or think up your own unique giveaway — whatever you do, it will be appreciated.

Along with my usual goodie bags, this year I’m putting together some surprises. Since these are still in the works I’m going to keep quiet about them for a bit longer, but stay tuned for more details.

I’ll be posting my workshop schedule as well as another reminder on July 1st, and a call for participating bloggers to send me their workshop links beginning on July 12th (I’ll also accept links whenever you all send them to me, up through July 20th.)

Does anyone have any questions about LB&LI? If you do, please post them in comments.”