It's Back : LitCon 2020

Submitted By Saskatchewan Festival Of Words

In Partnership: Saskatchewan Festival of Words and the Saskatchewan Writer’s Guild

Are you a budding writer? Do you want to learn more, ask questions and discover how it is done? Secrets about the business. Then LitCon 2020 is fast approaching with the information you need.

On March 21, 2020 we are back with the one day literary conference filled with workshops and pitch sessions for emerging, indie, and self-published writers. The event will take place at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre from 9AM to 5PM, hot lunch will be provided. Tickets are $20. To register, please visit the festival of words website: www.festivalofwords.com/litcon.

This year’s LitCon workshops are:

Plotting in Scrivener with Suzy Krause

Book club fiction writer Suzy Krause brings quirky humour and wit in her novels with the assistance of Scrivener. Find out how to use this program to its full potential - for plotting, organizing, editing, and beyond - as Suzy walks us through exercises to plot our own novels. Bonus: Scrivener is offering a discount on their software for all attendees.

How to Let Your Voice Shine in Genre Fiction with Donna Gartshore

There’s no denying that readers want and expect certain things when they read romance. We all know the rules but does that mean we write by some “fill-in-the-blanks” formula? Absolutely not! In this workshop I will offer suggestions on staying true to your own voice and making the “formula” work for you, not against you.

Finding the Line -- Where Policing Meets with TV and Movies with Kim Calfas

Ever wonder what's realistic in your favourite program or Hollywood blockbuster? Well now you can learn the truth. This session will address some of the wide variety of crime drama positives and negatives as viewed from the real world of investigation. Have questions? Our session will be very interactive, so this will be the time to ask.

Active Dialogue in Kids Lit with Alison Lohans

Crisp dialogue makes a story come alive as characters interact, showing their motivations and growing conflict that keep a story spinning. Weak dialogue will quickly sink a children's story. This workshop explores aspects of the give-and-take of talk in children's fiction - from nonverbal body language when vocabulary may not be adequate to express what needs to be said, to more sophisticated types of dialogue used by older kids. How do we get directly into a child's point of view, avoiding adult abstractions? There will be opportunities to construct dialogue from a child-centric perspective.

The Nuts and Bolts of Chills and Thrills with André Harden

Anticipation – be it suspense or dread – can be a delicious feeling. We forge it by “suspending” horrible or explosive consequences over a scene then sawing the clarity of what might happen against the rope of when or whether it will happen. This workshop focuses on the scene/sequence level, identifying key elements of suspenseful situations and giving participants the opportunity to play at enhancing a situation of their own creation.

Slush Pile Readings with Heather Nickel, André Harden, and Melanie McFarlane, and Reader: Hannah Elich

Slush Pile readings are a chance for the writer to get feedback anonymously. Everyone who wants to participate will turn in a page of work that they are wanting feedback on. The Reader will read out the piece and then the panel of editors will give their feedback verbally. No names are announced and the work remains anonymous.

Spots are limited so register today at: www.festivalofwords.com/litcon to participate in this amazing opportunity to develop your skills as a writer.