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”
