California Writers Club — Marin Branch

RSVP HERE

Ideal for any writer who wants to polish prose and write vibrant characters and improve sentence level writing.

Your characters are sassy or stern, enthusiastic and effusive, and they’re waiting to leap off the page into readers’ minds. This confab unspools the essentials of voice, from character’s secrets and fears, their attitudes and personality, and teases apart the mysteries of syntax and sentence structure in ways that will not remind you of high school English class. You’ll come away from this confab with an overarching sense of what comprises voice and how to wield it more confidently in your own work.

We’ll Cover:

• Essentials of character voice, like experience and attitude
• Essentials of tone, like imagery and mood pieces
• Key elements of syntax and sentence structure (not dull grammar!)
• And more….

Jordan Rosenfeld is author of the novels Fallout, Women in Red and Forged in Grace and six books on the craft of writing, including the Sound of Story: Developing Voice and Tone in Writing, How to Write a Page-Turner, the bestselling Make a Scene, Writing the Intimate Character, A Writer’s Guide to Persistence, Writing Deep Scenes and Write Free. Her freelance writing has been published in hundreds of publications, including: The Atlantic, The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, Scientific American, Writer’s Digest Magazine, and many more. She is also an editor, writing coach and teaches online classes. Jordanrosenfeld.net

RSVP HERE

An elevator pitch is a key component to selling your art, whether it's a novel, a play, or other written concept. Crafting an elevator pitch requires you to think critically about your message and distill it to its core elements. This process helps you gain clarity on your goals, values, and what makes you or your offering unique.

You may not be ready to make a formal pitch to agents and publishers, but you should always be ready to talk about your book with clarity and confidence. You never know who you will meet. The time to practice your pitch is before you find yourself sitting on a plane next to a publisher. This special two-part event will get you ready!
Part 1: Create Your Elevator Pitch. Tues. February 3rd, 6:00-7:30 pm. Pitch-O-Rama veteran publisher Brenda Knight will coach us through the basics of a great elevator pitch: what do publishers and agents want to hear? What will turn them off, and what will pull them in? RESERVE MY SPOT

Part 2: Now, Practice It! Tues. February 17th, 6:00-7:30 pm. Stand up before a friendly, informal audience and deliver your 3-minute pitch. If you wish, the audience can provide feedback. CWC Marin Board Member Daniel Bacon will be the moderator. RESERVE MY SPOT

About the Coach: Brenda Knight is a twenty-year publishing veteran, starting at HarperCollins. She authored American Book Award-winning Women of the Beat Generation, Rituals for Life and Wild Women and Books. She is President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Women’s National Book Association, which hosts the annual Pitch-O-Rama. Knight has worked with many bestselling authors including Mark Nepo, Phil Cousineau, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, and Paolo Coehlo. She is the founding editor of Viva Editions, a division of Cleis Press.
Want to know more about Pitch-O-Rama? Check it out here