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Saturday Night Write

Previous Topics

2017

May 20: Effectively Handling Narration

June 17: How to be a Better Self-Editor — With special guest Blake Atwood

July 15: Making a Competent Character Weak

August 19: Truth and Lies in your fiction

September 16: Going Meta

October 21: Planning a Series

November 18: Scene and Sequel

December 16: Introducing Information Without Infodumping

2018

January 20: Making Your Character Arc

February 17: Promises, Promises

March 17: Writing as Letting Go

April 21: Outlining Strategies

May 19: New Takes on Old Ideas

June 16: Creativity Exercises

July 21: The Steps to Romance with Special Guest Speaker Amanda Arista

August 18: Writing Despite Distratcions with Special Guest Speaker Trakina Prevost

September 15: How NOT to Write Dialogue

October 20: High Stakes Plotting

November 17: Focus on Secondary Characters

December 15: Metaphorically Speaking . . . with Special Guest Amber Helt

2019

January 19: Organizing Your Writing Practice with special guest Storm Huyen

February 16: Aliens and Anthropomorphic Characters

March 16: The Benefits of Hands-On Research with Special Guest Bud Humble

April 20: Archetype vs Cliche

May 18: Designing a Mystery Plot / Subplot

June 15: Seeding in Literary Devices to Make Your Story Feel Complete

July 20: Sticking the Landing: Creating a Strong Resolution

August 17: What to Leave in and What to Leave Out with Special Guest Terry Detrich

September 21: Nonstandard Words With Special Guest Peter Keenan

October 19: Tension and Conflict

November 16: Story Vs. Situation

December 21: No Meeting

2020

January 18: Villain, Antagonist, Obstacle

February 15: Filling in the Cast: Secondary Characters

April 18: Making Your Worldbuilding Seamless

May 16: Poetic Language Techniques for Fiction Writers

June 20: New Takes on Old Ideas

July 18: Avoiding Infodumps (While Keeping Readers from Getting Confused)

August 15: Writing the Difficult Bits (The PartsYou Find Emotionally Difficult or Have a Hard Time Approaching

September 19 – Generating Exciting Plot Elements

October 17 – Getting in Touch with Your Characters’ Emotions

November 21 – Managing Point of View

December 19 – Using Foreign and Created Language in Stories

2021

January 16 — Maintaining Tension in Your Fiction

February 20 — Finding Your Voice

March 20 — Imbuing Your Work With Meaning

April 17 — History in Fiction

May15 — Getting to Know Your Hero

June 19 — Effective Action Scenes.

July 17 — Using Internal Monologue

August 21 — Plot Twists

Sept 18 – Perfectly Pacing Your Fiction

Oct 16 – Adding Detail to Your Story

Nov 20 – Build a Better Monster

Dec 18 – How to Tighten Up a Story

2022

January 15 – Writing Like Cats & Dogs: How to Include Believable Animals

February 20: Giving Your Character a Goal

March 19: Making You Villain Consistent Yet Unique

April 16: Designing Character Wounds and Flaws

May 21: Making Character Relationships Complex

June18: Understanding A Story and B Story

July 16: Drama vs Melodrama — This month we will discuss Drama vs. Melodrama.

August 20: Designing an Impact Character

September 17 – Understanding Catharsis in Fiction Writing
October 15 – These are the Jokes: Including Humor in Fiction
November 19 – Picking the Most Effective Setting For Your Story
December 17 – Crafting the First Paragraph

2023

February 18 – Writing a Meet Cute
March 18 – Creating Your Personal Essential Reading List
April 15 – How (and if) to Use Prologues and Epilogues
May 20 – The Art and Science of Writing Sensory Descriptions”
June 17 – Making the Most of Your MacGuffin
July 15 – Effective Foreshadowing
August 19 – Understanding Deus Ex Machina
September 16 – Understanding and Using Irony
October 21 – Using Your Story’s Premise to Discovery Write
November 18 – Popular Plotting Methods
December 16 – The Psychological Underpinnings of Storytelling
January 20 – Understanding the “Mirror Moment”