Workshop and Critique Day – August 29

Join us on Saturday, August 29 for a writing workshop led by Sherry Thomas called
Hot and Memorable: A quick and non-dirty guide to writing great love scenes.

About the Workshop:
Sex sells. But sex isn’t easy to write. Even in this age of the erotic boom there are plenty of writers, both published and unpublished, who cringe at the thought of the love scene.

But from a writer’s point of view, a sex scene isn’t about sex any more than a lightning bug is about lightning. It is all about the story. In this hands-on, audience-participation workshop, Sherry Thomas demonstrates exactly that—using context, conflict, and complexity rather than anatomical descriptions of sex to arrive at a love scene that is both searing and suspenseful.

About the Critiquing:
After the workshop, those who have submitted material in advance will be splitting into groups for critique sessions (see below for details). If you don’t choose to participate in the critique, we encourage you to stick around and write!

Where: Milwood Branch of the Austin Public Library
12500 Amherst Dr. Austin, Texas 78727
(512) 974-9880

When: 10:15am – 4:30pm, Saturday August 29th

To Bring: Please bring a sack lunch and printouts of any material you’re critiquing

Suggested Donation: $10

Critique Information:
If you’d like to participate in the critique portion of the August 29th writing day, you need to send in your pages by Monday, August 17th WEDNESDAY AUGUST 19th. Send them to: special-projects@austinrwa.org.

You should send in one scene, up to 10 pages. Please make sure the scene breaks at a natural point—don’t cut or extend mid-scene to get exactly 10 pages. If you need to go over by one or two pages, that’s fine, and it’s also fine if you only want to send in 2 or 3 pages total.

The scene can be from anywhere in your manuscript or short story. If it’s any scene other than the opening scene, please include a brief set-up paragraph explaining where we are in the story. Optionally, you can include specific questions or aspects of the writing you’d like critiqued. (”I’m looking for general feedback on the character of Mary – do you find her motivation in this scene believable” for instance.)

Please use standard submission-style formatting, which is how you’d send your work to an editor or agent. Standard submission format is double-spaced, in a readable font like Times New Roman our Courier. Remember to put page numbers, your name and the working title of the work in the header or footer.