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June/July Classes

Image reads "Find the Heart of Your Story: Theme, Motif, and Symbol". An image shows a hand writing on a page.

In June/July I’ll be teaching two multi-session workshops and a few one-offs. Here’s what’s coming up.

To register for any class, mail me at cat@kittywumpus.net and tell me a) which classes you want to register for, b) what rate is applicable, and how you would like to pay (Paypal, Venmo, or check preferred.)

Extended Workshops

Find the Heart of Your Story: How to Use Theme, Motifs, and Symbols in Fiction

Everyone tells you that a story needs a theme, but how do you figure out what your story’s theme is? And once you know that, how do you go about conveying and underscoring that theme without hammering a reader over the head with it? How do motifs, symbols, and other devices work to enhance the theme? We will explore theme, motifs, and symbols from a craft perspective and develop skills with them through a mixture of lecture, discussion, and writing exercises.

This class is designed for writers who understand story basics and are looking to advance and refine their short story skills. Students will work with one story over the course of the workshop in order to apply new skills as they are acquired.

Meets Sunday evenings, 7-9 PM Eastern time, June 1, 8,15,25 and July 6. (5 sessions)

Cost: Free to Schoolhouse Rock and Super Extra Deluxe Campus Pass holders, otherwise $299 for Patreon supporters; $399 for all others. Partial and full scholarships available; BIPOC, neurodiverse, and LGBTQ+ writers are particularly invited to apply.

The Basics of Fiction Series

Each two hour workshop covers what you need to know to really understand one of the fundamentals of fiction. Each session focuses on a specific aspect of fiction: characters, world-building/setting, and plot and includes writing exercises designed to hone your skills in this area.

This class is designed for newer writers who want to strengthen a specific aspect of their writing or build their skillset overall.

  • Character Basics, Saturday, June 7, 9:30-11:30 AM Eastern time
  • World-building Basics, Saturday, June 14, 9:30-11:30 AM Eastern time
  • Plot Basics, Saturday, June 28, 9:30-11:30 AM Eastern time

Cost for series/individual workshop

  • Entire three sessions $99 for Patreon supporters, $199 for all others.
  • Individual session: $49 for Patreon supporters; $79 for all others.
  • Partial and full scholarships available; BIPOC, neurodiverse, and LGBTQ+ writers are particularly invited to apply.

 

Single Session Classes

The cost of single session classes:

  • Patreon supporters at the $25 and higher levels – free
  • Patreon supporters at lower levels – $49
  • All others – $59
  • Partial and full scholarships available; BIPOC, neurodiverse, and LGBTQ+ writers are particularly invited to apply.

Ready to Rock and Roll: Planning Your Book Publicity Campaign

Got a book coming out in the next year that you want to launch? Join me for a session where we’ll talk about different facets of book publicity, what steps you can take to maximize them, and how to create a plan that will carry you through the campaign.

This class is aimed at writers who are publishing independently or with a small press, although the plan will also help those publishing traditionally.

7-9 PM Eastern, Tuesday, June 10

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You Should Take This Class: Writing Second Person

Second person can be one of the most interesting POVs to work in, due to its complexity and relationship with the reader. How do you work with a reader’s innate resistance to being told what to do in order to exploit the unsettling nature of the POV? What stories are best suited to be told in second person. Through a mix of lecture, exercises, and discussion, you’ll learn how to use this POV and what to avoid.

This class is designed for writers who understand story basics and want to explore this POV in order to refine and advance their skills.

7-9 PM Eastern, Tuesday, June 17

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Canva Basics for Creating Book Covers, Zoom Background, Social Media, and More

The Canva tool can be a huge help when trying to create graphics. Learn how to use it for the things you’re most likely to want, such as Zoom backgrounds or posts sized for specific social media, as well as how to use templates and the resize tool to save yourself time.

This class is aimed at all writers looking to create graphics for self-promotion.

7-9 PM Eastern, Tuesday, June 24

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Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.

Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.
Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.

 

"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."

~K. Richardson

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An Apology to the F&SF Community, and Particularly to Those who Look to Me for Leadership

So let me start out by saying I screwed up, and in a way that I should have known better than to do. The problem is that the Wayward Wormhole intensive writing workshop that I’m hosting is in one way absolutely not up to standard, and that is its lack of accessibility. This is particularly unacceptable given that I have called out inaccessible venues in the past.

I’ve also called out economically inaccessible stuff, and yet this workshop, unlike the other school efforts, does not have guaranteed scholarships in place to help make the workshop cost easier on anyone, although we’ve structured fees to try to fund at least two scholarships this year.

I made this poor choice in part because ““ while this is not an excuse ““ 2022 was the year of the biggest changes of my life (the end of a 20+ year partnership and a cross-country move) and I just let the wheeeeee castle vibe carry me along past any thoughts other than how do I make spending my birthday in a Spanish castle a reality? And when the voices in my head stopped saying that and one in the back nervously raised its hand and said hey what about accessibility, I told myself we’d addressed that by making sure there was a virtual version.

Except now that I’ve thought about it, that’s not enough, because the virtual version lacks some features that the on-location includes. So I apologize to the community for setting a bad example. I apologize to my teachers for having involved them in this ethical lapse. And I apologize, abjectly, to my students for having let them down in this regard.

Given that I have already made a substantial down payment that is nonrefundable and which I can’t afford to lose, what are the material steps I can do to show I understand I fucked up and mean to make it right?

  1. The first is already done. The location we have for next year is fully accessible physically, and that is a requirement for all future locations.
  2. The second is that we will be providing a yearly full scholarship in memory of Vonda N. McIntyre.
  3. The third is that a quarter of my profits from this year’s workshop will be donated to a charity that advances accessibility issues, like the American Association of People with Disabilities. (I want to research the best choice here.)
  4. The fourth is that I have learned from it and, as the friend I was talking to about it put it, gained a point in humility, so I can do better going forward and not let whee castle override the let’s look this over before agreeing notion.

So. There you have it.

Best,
Cat

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I Can Has Gimped

Okay, so I’ve realized I have to bite the bullet and learn to do some graphics stuff or else be dependent on other people, which is irritating. So here’s an attempt at a postcard advertising my classes, which I thought I’d use at cons to promote them. I know this is lame, but suggestions are very welcome. First up is a different font, I think.

Class Postcard
This is a first stab at a postcard.

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