Author Heather McCorkle

That is a mouthful of a title for a workshop and from looking at the course outline, it is a lot to chew and digest as well, but in a good way. Thankfully it uses the acronym, OCCBWW . So if you see me using that on Twitter that's what it's all about. It boasts an impressive lineup of instructors that include, picture book author David Greenburg, author Elizabeth Rusch, author Pamela Smith Hill, author Heather Vogel Frederick, author Deb Lund, Henry Holt editor Noa Wheeler, agent Michelle Andelman, Greenwillow editor Martha Mihalick. It takes place next week in a tiny town called Oceanside Oregon. Filled with not only fantastic sessions, but also tons of writing and consultation time, it seems to focus on the actual craft nearly as much as learning. I love workshops of this nature where I get time to apply what I've learned and improve my manuscript on the spot. Since I just finished finalizing the edits for The Secret Of Spruce Knoll and turned them in, the timing couldn...

Though Halloween is over I have a bag of treats for you! Last week was an excellent week for writers on Twitter. Registration for the Writer's Digest conference has opened! You can check it out here: @WritersDigest Registration is open for the WD Writer's Conference: http://ow.ly/2YPmX Chuck Sambuchino of Writer's Digest introduces us to another new agent. Like he says, new agents are a golden opportunity for writers seeking representation. @ChuckSambuchino New agent seeking writers! Denise Little of The Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency http://tinyurl.com/2cdqcqu If you live in the New York area and are seeking a job in publishing be sure to check out this excellent link from ex-agent turned editor Colleen Lindsay: @ColleenLindsay taking resumes for awesome entry-level pub job. Love romance? Good writer? Online savvy? Read on: http://bit.ly/bAmYGD I always thought I was kind of strange because my characters talk to me. Now, agent Weronika Janczuk tells me I...

It occurred to me that those writers who read my earlier entry and have never attended a workshop might be wondering what Plot Point 1 is. I'll try to do my instructor justice by recapping it in a way that makes sense. Plot points are areas of the manuscript where something changes for the protagonist. It's a pivotal point in the story, a twist you might say. Typically a novel will have the inciting incident (or the catalyst, the thing that sets the whole story in motion), a plot point, or two, then a mid point (where your character arc really starts to develop), then another plot point or two, and finally the climax. My instructor teaches that three plot points are pretty typical though some say four or five. So when I say I'm working on plot point one that means I'm editing the first chapter where something major changes for my character. Tuesday night I discovered my plot point one needed to be broken into two chapters. I had too much going on. The action rose an...