anna destefano workshop summary

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ANNA DESTEFANO

NATIONALLY BEST SELLING AUTHOR AND SPEAKER

Anna DeStefano is the nationally best selling author of classic romance for Harlequin andSilhouette, and contemporary paranormal suspense and fantasy for Dorchester publishing.She's a two-time Romantic Times Award winner, a Golden Heart winner, and she's won theGale Wilson Award of Excellence, the Maggie Award for Excellence, and has been a finalistin numerous other awards, including the National Readers Choice awards, the HoltMedallion, and the Book Buyers Best Award.

Past President Advisor of Georgia Romance Writers (GRW), a group of over 200 publishedauthors and aspiring writers that meets monthly in Atlanta, Anna is a GA Tech honorsgraduate with 10 years of experience working in Corporate IT. A Senior Tech Writer, sheapplies the more analytical side of her personality to studying the craft of storytelling. Buther imagination rules when it's time to let the planning go and write. The result: thirteenaward-winning novels published since 2004, with the second book of her paranormalsuspense (Legacy) series to be released in 2011. Nearly half a million copies of her novels arein print internationally, translated into over 6 different languages.

Anna has taught for years as a technical trainer and as an adult educator in the fields of griefrecovery and crisis care. She's presented her interactive writing workshops to standing room-only crowds at over 60 conferences and events, including the Harriette Austin Writer'sConference at the University of Georgia, the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, theSurrey International Writers Conference, and all-day and weekend retreats for smallergroups.

For more information, visit www.annawrites.com.For detailed outlines and workshop handouts send queries to

[email protected].

Note: Several of the following workshops can be presented with literary agent MichelleGrajkowski, of 3 Seas Literary Agency (www.threeseaslit.com). Michelle has successfully soldmore than 200 titles to major publishing houses including Harlequin, NAL, Berkley,Dorchester, Kensington, Avon, Pocket, Random House (both here and in the UK), Knopf,Andrews McMeel, Warner and HarperCollins. Michelle focuses on romance, women'sfiction, Chick-Lit young adult and middle grade fiction.

Anna DeStefano www.annawrites.com [email protected]

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Craft Workshops and Seminars(1 Hour Presentations, unless otherwise noted)

Planning Through Character: Meet Your Characters First--They're your story. Planyour next novel by researching and plotting character growth--BEFORE you write the firstword. An effective process is presented for planning story arc by researching your character'semotional development from the past, through the beginning, middle and end of your novel.Once you've detailed this emotional journey, your writing is freed to find the exciting andunique plot points you'll need to show the character growth readers will identify with andkeep turning the page to enjoy.

Draft Writing: Improvisation--Twelve steps to putting your planning to work and lettingyour creativity thrive. Draft writing requires you to trust your training, your planning andyour writing, then letting yourself let go and play. Your character and story creativity arenever purer than during the rough draft stage. This workshop discusses the difficult processof writing through the end of your story, without stalling your creativity by chronically re-planning or indulging in rewriting before the draft is done.

Revision: Learn to Rewrite--Finishing the manuscript is just the beginning: Tools andtechniques for navigating the editorial revisions necessary to sell your next manuscript.Publishing is a team sport. The better your personal revision process is before you submityour work, and the better you can work with an editor's feedback and revision rewritingrequests, the more likely your chances of becoming a prolific published author. Revision fearis discussed, along with self-editing and editorial revision techniques and guidelines.

The Secret to Stumbling Across Your Plot and Character-- This fourth and finalworkshop in Anna's popular writing craft series delves into the psychology and the skill setsrequired to produce a complete, complex manuscript that's destined to sell. This workshophighlights the executive, "softer" skills a writer needs to become and stay published in achallenging market: Inspiration, Passion, Joy and Determination. Without these, the rest isjust busy work.

Process-Oriented Writing: You Control the Writing--Focus on what you control,because results beyond submitting the work for consideration are out of your hands. Asmall-step approach for sticking with the writing, while the publishing world spins at full-tiltaround you.


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Craft Workshops and Seminars, cont.(1 Hour Presentations, unless otherwise noted)

Half-day Craft Seminar: Planning and Rewriting--Illustrating the critical connectionbetween two writing extremes that work hand-in-hand. Students are encouraged to bringtheir works-in-progress so they can apply the principles taught and illustrated throughout theseminar. The author uses specific examples from her own planning, and rewritingdocuments to augment the curriculum (an interactive, intensive workshop, 3 hours).

All-day Craft Seminar: Your Creative Process from Beginning to End—Acomprehensive course teaching the integration of character planning, improvisation andrewriting techniques into your writing process. Students are encouraged to bring their works-in-progress so they can apply the principles taught and illustrated throughout the seminar.The author uses specific examples from her own planning, drafting and rewriting documentsto augment the curriculum (an interactive, intensive workshop, 5 hours).


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Communication Workshops and Seminars(1 Hour Presentations, unless otherwise noted)

Speak Up: Communication Skills That Can Make Or Break Your Career—Anintroduction to the listening skills, assertiveness and boundary techniques essential tobuilding lasting professional relationships in the fast-paced, team-oriented world ofprofessional publishing

She Said, She Said: Communication Skills That Can Make or Break Your Career--An introduction to the listening skills, assertiveness and boundary techniques essential tobuilding lasting professional relationships in the fast-paced, team-oriented world ofprofessional publishing (an interactive workshop, taught with literary agent MichelleGrajkowski, 3 Seas Literary Agency).

Talk To Yourself: Recognizing and Maintaining Career-Making Boundaries—Anintensive presentation of the techniques used to set professional boundaries and maintainrelationships with those whose communication styles differ from yours (can be presentedsolo, or with literary agent Michelle Grajkowski, 3 Seas Literary Agency).

Turn Your Proposal Into an 'I Do'-- before you sell, often a LONG time before yousell, you must learn to navigate key professional and personal relationships that will makeor break your career. The key to surviving this courtship phase? Developing business,communication and people skills that can be challenging for creative personalities toembrace. Don't be jilted at the alter. Learn how to sell your proposal and yourself to theagents and editors who want to say I Do (can be presented with literary agent MichelleGrajkowski, 3 Seas Literary Agency).

Half-day Communication Seminar: Communication Skills, Assertiveness andBoundary-setting Techniques--A comprehensive presentation of the above material,focusing on building and maintaining relationships within publishing (can be an interactiveseminar, when presented with literary agent Michelle Grajkowski, 3 hours).


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Publishing Career Workshops and Seminars(1 Hour Presentations, unless otherwise noted)

So You Want to Sign with an Agent Before You Sell: A Discussion of theUnpublished Author/Agent Dynamic--A myth-busting workshop that discusses how tohandle your business and target your writing so you have the best chance to acquire an agentwho can help secure your first publishing contract (can be presented with literary agentMichelle Grajkowski, 3 Seas Literary Agency).

Going to Market: Finding Your Publishing Home--Take the time to shop aroundbefore making decisions about your career. Everyone wants a great book deal, but how doknow which deal is right for you? This presentation includes instruction on researching yourvoice, genre, and potential publishers so you know where your work fits; watching trendswithout chasing them; planning for market changes by evaluating where your work is mostflexible; avoiding snap-decisions when an opportunity seems too good to be true; andknowing when it's time to make a move from what's safe, and risk taking your career to thenext level.

Breaking Into Romance... What Exactly Does That Mean? A discussion of currentromance genres and cross-genre opportunities in the largest segement of fiction publishing.Includes supporting statistics and industry tips and trends to help writers find their place inthis over a billion dollar a year industry.

After the Show... Key Things Everyone Should Do After a Writing Conference--So,you packed and prepared and practiced you book pitch, and you lived la vida loca at thewriting conference to end all writing conferences, and you enjoyed a few blissful moments ofsupreme success that were THE BEST MOMENTS EVER of your writing life... But nowthat you're back home, how do you make the most of the time and energy and money youinvested to go?

Pitch Seminar: An interactive workshop covering planning, prepping for andpresenting your manuscript pitch to an editor or agent--Students are encouraged tobring their story pitch, pitch to the group, modify the pitch based on seminar instruction andgroup feedback, then to pitch to the group again at the conclusion of the class (2-3 hours,depending on the size of the group).

anna destefano workshop summary

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