From Flat to all That: Bringing Dimension to Your Story & Characters with Chris Tebbetts

Let’s take a closer look at your work in progress—story arc, individual scenes, settings, character, and theme—and interrogate those elements for what else might be true about them, all with an eye on infusing your story with more dimension, more humanity, and more resonance. Lastly, we’ll focus on how to do all of this with economy, and to make your story elements work harder for you than they already are, by doing more than one thing at a time. The session will include a selection of hands on exercises, a 15 minute work session, and a discussion/Q&A.

This workshop will include an crash course on Visual Outlining which offers a variety of tools for conceiving, outlining, and taking stock of our stories in progress in order to create visual spreads that help us vision (and re-vision) the work we’re trying to accomplish. We’ll cover color coding; visual spreads; grids and tables; storyboarding; map-making; and several other methods that may help writers see their plots and characters in a whole new way. We’ll also look at how writers can draw from the filmmaker’s storytelling vocabulary to inform our own choices on the page.

CHRIS TEBBETTS is the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling MIDDLE SCHOOL series with James Patterson, as well as the bestselling STRANDED series with Jeff Probst from TV’s “Survivor.” Chris is also the author of two YA novels: ME, MYSELF, AND HIM and M OR F? (with Lisa Papademetriou); the bestselling adult thriller 1ST CASE (also with James Patterson); and the middle grade fantasy-adventure series, THE VIKING. His work has received children’s choice awards in Oregon and Hawaii, as well a Sunshine State Young Readers Award nomination, and a nod on the New York Public Library’s annual list of Books For the Teen Age. He offers author talks and writing workshops for any age from fourth grade through adult, online and (when feasible) in person. Chris has visited schools around the country and taught for the Antioch Writers’ Workshop, Highlights Foundation, Adirondack Center for Writing, and others. Find him online at christebbetts.com and @christebbetts.

This workshop will be held via Zoom. Registration is based on a sliding scale suggested donation $5-25