Outstanding writing workshops this summer: How to Write Great Dialogue, Writing for Children & for Young Adults, and Writing Your Life

How to Write Great Dialogue

The writer’s most important tool

Offered in two locales

Saturday, July 15, 2017

10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Unity Church, Unit 8, 3075 Ridgeway Drive, Mississauga, Ontario (Map here.)

And

Saturday, July 22, 2017

10:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

London Central Library, Tonda Room, 251 Dundas St, London (Map here.)

Accessible to beginners and meaty enough for experienced writers, this workshop will show you how to use dialogue to make your stories more dynamic and dramatic.Whether you’re writing fiction or memoir, you need to be able to write great dialogue that both sounds natural and packs dramatic punch, and you need to know how to mix your dialogue and narrative so that your characters come alive. Come to this workshop and learn both the basics and the best tricks of the trade.

Fee: 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 paid in advance or 46.90 + 13% hst = 53  at the door

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Writing for Children & for Young Adults ~ the world’s hottest market

With literary agent Monica Pacheco

Saturday, August 12, 2017
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Collingwood Public Library, 55 Ste Marie St, Collingwood, Ontario (Map here)

Note: Starting in September, I'm offering a weekly Writing Kid Lit course in Oakville. See here. ~Brian

If you want to write the next best-selling children’s books or just want to create stories for your own kids, this workshop is for you. Learn how to write stories kids and young adults will love and find out what you need to know to sell your book.

Special option: You may, but don't have to, bring 3 copies of the opening couple pages (first 500 words) of your children’s book or young adult novel (or 1,000 words if that will get you to the end of your picture book or to the end of your first chapter.) If you’re not currently working on a children’s story, don’t worry, we’ll get you started on the spot!

Guest speaker Monica Pacheco is a literary agent with the McDermid Agency.  The McDermid agency represents literary novelists and commercial novelists of high quality and writers of nonfiction in the areas of memoir, biography, history, literary travel, narrative science, investigative journalism, popular culture and lifestyle. The agency also represents children's and young adult (YA) writers and writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy.

Monica joined the agency in 2008 and represents a growing list of writers, focusing on Young Adult, science fiction and fantasy, and literary fiction Her clients include Sarah Polley, Yves Meynard, Madline Ashby, Sarah Henstra, Irina Kovalyova, Janice Pook, Eli K.P. William, and Bram Stroker Award–winning horror writer David Nickle.

Fee: 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 paid in advance or 46.90 + 13% hst = 53  at the door

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Writing Your Life & Other True Stories

Saturday, August 19, 2017

1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Cyril Clark Branch, Brampton Library 20 Loafer’s Lake Lane, Brampton, Ontario (Map here)

Have you ever considered writing your memoirs or family history? This workshop will introduce you to the tricks and conventions of telling true stories and will show you how to use the techniques of the novel to recount actual events. Whether you want to write for your family or for a wider public, don't miss this workshop.

Fee: 37.17 + hst = 42 paid in advance or 39.82 + hst = 45 if you wait to pay at the door

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Image by Mary Steer

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He teaches at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers and is the author of a children’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Tribute Publishing). But his proudest boast is that he’s helped many of his students get published. 

Read reviews of Brian’s courses and workshops here. 

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.