My lapse in postings this past week is largely because I’ve been collecting paper cuts from organizing notes for my upcoming class on creating travelogues from the road. I’m teaching this class — really a workshop — at the annual Wild Writing Women Weekend Workshop (aka W5), an event that I organize along with the other members of the Wild Writing Women, LLC; a business that sprouted out of our longtime writing group.
“Letters Home: Creating great travelogues from the road” will be a challenge to teach in 2 hours since now there are so many factors to consider. Such as the format and publishing medium. Choose a weblog, website, PDF newsletters, or just plain email or an egroups forum like Topica or Yahoo!
There are writing techniques to be discussed, too. Lyn Bishop, the famous digital artist and my co-teacher for this workshop says that “Reading a website is like driving by a billboard.” You gotta get the attention of the reader before the click of the itchy mouse finger.
I’m also teaching Accept With Finesse, a class on rights, contracts, and negotiating with editors and publishers, and I’m co-teaching Consider Self-Publishing with Lisa Alpine.
Last year’s conference was fantastic, energizing, inspiring, and exhilarating. It’s made up of workshops, not just lectures, and the level of experience and creativity of our students is mind-boggling. We’ve got some literary agents coming to talk about their process, and Amanda Jones–a well-known travel photographer and journalist–is giving a slide show.
We’ve also got some great giveaways at our party on Saturday night…a weekend at the Capitola Venetian, among them. I can’t wait to see who wins that!
