Spring Fling offers a great variety of workshops focusing on business, craft, and the writer’s life. For more info on workshops and presenters, visit our virtual conference portal.
Thursday, July 23
Romance Your Brand (All-Day Master Class)
Presenter: Zoe York
Friday, July 24
The Emotional Arc
Presenter: Tere Michaels
This workshop focuses on the emotional arc; how to craft, analyze and revise the heart of your story.
Instagram for Authors
Presenter: Stephanie Scott
With 1 billion monthly worldwide users and growing, Instagram is a major league social media platform—and it’s full of readers! Learn strategies to reach them.
Heating Up the Pages: A Deeper Look Into Erotic Romance
Presenters: Measha Stone, Livia Grant
Shed the light on erotic romance and expose all of the elements that make it a bestselling subgenre.
Writing Alpha Heroines
Presenters: Angelina M. Lopez
Learn the secret to creating strong heroines ready to take on whatever stands in their way that readers will root for.
Don’t Be a Jerk: Critique for Better Writing
Presenter: Sarah M. Anderson
Writers at every stage of their journey can benefit from a fresh set of eyes and honest, constructive feedback. Join award-winning author Sarah M. Anderson as she demonstrates tips, tricks and techniques to help writers learn how to give effective critiques, how to take them, and how to apply them to their writing, all without being a total jerk about it.
All About Character: Using Character-Themed Word Choices to Power Your Manuscript
Presenter: Elizabeth Essex
Using examples from best-selling authors, Elizabeth Essex gives writers powerful tools to optimize characterization through ‘character-themed’ word choices in their individual genres, or sub-genres, and to help them built a mindset and vocabulary that empowers characters on the page.
Cross-Promo: Teaming Up for Discoverability and Visibility
Presenter: Priscilla Oliveras
This presentation shares tips and tools learned through various cross-promotion efforts. We’ll start with author self-evaluation and move into topics such as identifying comp titles and authors, pinpointing common contributions to the market, and how/when to know it might be a good idea to team up with an author(s).
Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: Worldbuilding Without Magic or Monsters
Presenter: Jeannie Lin
Worldbuilding – The mind immediately leaps to fantastic settings and altered realities, but the care and craft needed to construct so-called “ordinary” worlds cannot be overlooked. Join bestselling historical author Jeannie Lin and dig deep into the process of forging rich, imaginative worlds and the characters who live in them without the aid of super powers, magical creatures, or the apocalypse. (SFF & paranormal writers are welcome – but please check your fangs at the door. You won’t need them here.)
Ten Tips for Tighter Tension
Presenter: Molly O’Keefe
Whether you’re writing women’s fiction, young adult or the steamiest erotica, there’s only one thing that keeps readers turning pages – tension. This workshop will help you dig deep into your manuscript so you can turn up the tension and write can’t-put-it-down books.
Punch Up Your Brand and Build Buzz Like a Pro
Presenters: Scarlett Peckham, Alexis Daria, Melonie Johnson
Punch up your brand and build buzz for your next release like a professional publicist whether you’re indie or traditional, whether it’s your first book or your fifth.
Award-winning authors Alexis Daria, Melonie Johnson, and Scarlett Peckham will discuss how writers at any stage in their career can use their brand to build a platform and generate buzz that will reach readers and sell more books. This workshop will demystify the strategies that professional publicists use to build advance buzz organically and on the cheap, using the unique strengths of your own author brand.
Better, Faster, Stronger First Drafts
Presenter: Kate McMurray
This workshop covers how to plan your manuscript and your time to write stronger first drafts in less time.
Marketing on a G-String
Presenters: Christina Hovland, Dylann Crush
A fast-paced workshop by two recovering marketing entrepreneurs on how to sell books, brand your best self and blow your goals out of the water without busting the bank.
Dynamic Dialogue
Presenter: Allie Pleiter
Multipublished author Allie Pleiter leads you through all the ways you can use dialogue within your story to pack a far bigger punch than “she said.”
Creating Three-Dimensional LGBTQ Characters and Storylines
Presenter: Michele Zugnoni
Diversity has become increasingly important in today’s mainstream media market. As writers, that means creating diverse characters with unique voices. In this presentation, we’ll uncover the secrets to creating diverse characters who identify as LGBTQ. We’ll learn ways to create realistic LGBTQ characters; the dynamics of creating rich plots which include LGBTQ characters; and how to avoid the pitfalls of cliché when creating LGBTQ characters and storylines.
Self-Publishing: Mountain, Molehill or Money Pit
Presenters: Vanessa Knight, Amy Alessio
This is an introductory class on the how to self-publish complete with lists.
Riding the Train of Scene and Sequel
Presenter: Terri Reed
Learn to drive your story forward through disasters and new decisions by utilizing Dwight Swain’s Scene and Sequel, modified for romance novels, with award-winning author Terri Reed.
From Page to Screen
Presenter: Erin Hennicke
Ever wonder how your favorite books get adapted for the stage, screen or TV? Just how does one go about getting their own work optioned for film or TV? Erin Hennicke, Director of Film/TV at one of the largest literary scouting agencies, has worked in film & TV for over 20 years, and will walk you through the process, step by step. From getting your work in the hands of the right literary agents, to submitting it to studio executives and producers, from the negotiating process through the deal announcement, to finally (and hopefully), the cameras start rolling on scenes from your work! All this and everything in between in From Page to Screen.
Saturday, July 25
Even Superman Had a Day Job
Presenter: Maggie Wells
An updated version of Maggie’s 2018 “Don’t Quit Your Night Job” workshop—reformatted for more class discussion and brainstorming exercises.
Falling in Love With Facebook Ads
Presenter: Christina Hovland
In this fast-paced workshop, Christina will show what works and what doesn’t, Facebook ads setup, and how to determine your budget!
Building Believable Worlds
Presenter: Ava Cuvay
Effective Worldbuilding for everyone… the Why, Who, and How to do it.
Basic Concepts for Writing Trauma Survivors
Presenter: Adriana Herrera
In this workshop authors will understand basic concepts about trauma and how it can impact a life. They will learn about the different types of trauma. Participants will also learn about trauma reactions and reminders. and how they manifest in the body as well as impact thoughts and behaviors.
Building Your Street Teams: Secrets to Selling More Books
Presenter: Penny Sansevieri
How to build your fan base from the ground up, how to engage them so they will help you market your book!
Going Deep: Quick and Dirty Tips to Deepen POV
Presenter: j. leigh bailey
This workshop will provide quick and dirty tips to deepen point of view by understanding character awareness, limiting marks of authorship, cutting filter words, and focusing on showing vs telling—letting the character own the page by leaving barely a trace of the author.
The Not-So-Magical Care and Feeding of Authors and Readers
Presenters: Shae Connor, Sasha Devlin, Dylan St. James
This panel will discuss how authors can support each other at every relationship level, from fan to professional acquaintance to friend.
They will also explore ways to handle everything from negative reviews to overly invasive inquiries without straying into the realm of the Badly Behaving Author.
Mastering the Art of Great Conflict
Presenter: Sarah MacLean
We know that the wallflower makes the perfect heroine for the rake; that the vampire makes the perfect hero for the vampire hunter; that the thief makes the perfect match for the detective. These matches work because of their innate initial conflict, but how do we keep conflict alive for an entire book? Join New York Times best-selling author Sarah MacLean for a workshop on how to build and maintain great conflict as you write your romance.
What to Do When You’re Stuck: Four Methods to Plot Your Way Out of Writer’s Block
Presenter: Alyssa Alexander
When your previous plotting methods no longer work and you need to shake things up, you can try new ways to get past that writer’s block.
Rocking That Hybrid Life
Presenter: Vanessa Riley
Explore the options and paths an author will encounter when choosing to straddle the fence and build a career with Indie and Traditional Releases.
Conflict, Characterization and Dialogue
Presenter: Alyssa Cole
In this workshop, Alyssa Cole will discuss how you to use these elements to create memorable characters and romances that readers don’t want to put down.
AMA – Sarah MacLean
In this AMA (Ask Me Anything) session, Sarah MacLean will answer audience questions about the romance industry, writing, and publishing.
Culture Building Is Not Just for Multiculturals
Presenter: Sonali Dev
Culture Building is World Building between the cracks and under the foundation of your story. Learn how to layer your storytelling with the nitty gritties of human existence that make up the world your characters live in.
Using Email to Grow Your Writing Business
Presenter: Holly Mortimer
You’ve heard all the stats and you know you need to implement an email marketing strategy, but you’re completely unsure how you’ll ever find the time to write a single email, let alone a series of them. You use the same subject line over and over again, you feel you’re uninteresting and all you keep getting are freebie seekers joining your list.
Holly’s workshop takes you through her simple techniques to ensure you always have content, shares her favourite subject lines that convert and teaches you how to build a welcome sequence that moves browsers into buyers with her workshop Using Email To Grow Your Writing Business. She’ll even teach you how to save time and energy when it comes to sending emails.
The Success of PIE (Performance, Image, Exposure)
Presenter: Regena Bryant
In this workshop, participants will identify and address the necessity of balancing each of the elements of PIE (performance, image and exposure) throughout their careers.
Keynote
Please join us as Alyssa Cole closes out our 2020 conference with her keynote speech.