Category: Writers Seminar

Seminar
Saturday, February 16, 2008

Whether you’re writing to impress an editor, agent or publisher, your finished product should reflect the highest standards of professionalism. Whether you’re turning out autobiographies, corporate newsletters, or other writing projects, every professional endeavor requires editing and proofreading. Our two accomplished experts, editor and publishing consultant Monica Faulkner, and IWOSC President, PR consultant and proofreader-copyeditor Flo Selfman demystify the editing process, as well as the nuts and bolts of proofreading and copyediting.

A sampling of questions to be addressed…

Presented by: Monica Faulkner and Flo Selfman

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Seminar
Saturday, January 19, 2008

Guest speakers Gerald Everett Jones and Helen Jupiter have each found a way to expound on the universe through blogs. If you’re a writer, blogging can be a powerful tool for promoting your ideas, expertise, book or platform both on purpose and accidentally in a “viral” form. With the right positioning, a blog can show up in Internet searches all over the world, compounding your media exposure exponentially. Let our experts explain why, where, when, and how to blog on a budget.

Presented by: Gerald Everett Jones and Helen Jupiter

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Seminar
Saturday, November 17, 2007

Powerhouse writing partners, Marvin J. Wolf and Larry Mintz, explain the subtle dynamics behind writing a successful screenplay. Several of their projects have aired on the small screen since their collaboration began in 2001. Between them, the men represent more than 70 years of professional writing.

Presented by: Marvin J. Wolf and Larry Mintz

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Seminar
Saturday, October 20 , 2007

Levine’s talk gives you the tools to immediately and permanently super-charge your career. In more than 20 years as founder of Levine Communications Office, he has cultivated several effective tactics for success, which can be applied to many types of business.

Move than motivate, he’ll teach you how to structure your career like a super-success. His Guerilla P.R. (Harper Collins) is the most widely used text around the world for beginner public relations courses. His most recent book. Broken Windows Broken Business (Warner Books) uses the metaphor of broken windows to describe the small problems in business that escalate into serious consequences. Levine’s book offers a road map on how companies can fix broken windows promptly.

Presented by: Michael Levine

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Seminar
Saturday, September 15 , 2007

Become a valuable “edutainer” with an arsenal of talking points that can be used effectively during an interview or any media opportunity and discover why passion is the secret to presence. Mindy Bradish, Director of Membership and Events at the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, thought her patter to chamber members was working until hearing Convery’s 15-minute speech. Bradish hired Convery for an additional two-hour meeting with the entire staff. “I realized that while I could get away with my pitch, she could teach me to take it to the next level…From that two-hour meeting, I took away ten different sound bites and a polished elevator speech, which I started using that very day,” says Bradish.

For this IWOSC seminar, she’ll share her tips on how to convey your specialty and position yourself as an expert resource to the media — in 60 seconds or less.

Presented by: Ann Convery

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Seminar
Saturday, July 21, 2007

What do YOU think?

Ever since 16th-century writer Montaigne created the essay form, scribes and littérateurs have experimented with the boundaries of non-fiction prose. Today, the display of private experience as public intimacy through memoirs, one-person stage performances, and personal essays has become an increasingly important part of the writing business.

From magazines to such book series as “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” personal essays have a home in today’s literary marketplace. In this IWOSC seminar, author Marvin J. Wolf will discuss both style and sales, helping participants identify their own unique experiences worth writing about.

Presented by:

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Seminar
Saturday, April 21, 2007

You write brochures, flyers, press releases, and reports for your business clients. In this hands-on, interactive seminar, you will learn how to optimize your clients’ business-to-business communications.

Instructor Trish Lester teaches techniques that will help improve your clients’ communications to other businesses as well as directly to the consumer.

Presented by: Trish Lester

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Seminar
Saturday, February 17, 2007

You wrote a screenplay. Now learn how to get a good agent, manager, producer, and deal.

Agent Victoria Wisdom has represented screenwriters as diverse as 2007 Oscar nominee writer/director Deepa Mehta (“Fire,” “Water”), Ernest Thompson (“On Golden Pond”), and Christopher McQuarrie (“The Usual Suspects”).

In this workshop, she will help you understand…

Presented by: Victoria Wisdom

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Seminar
Saturday, November 19, 2006

IWOSC is pleased to present humorist and author Michael J. Herman’s workshop, “The Profitable Pen: New Approaches to Making Money as a Writer.” According to Herman, the reason writers are perpetually broke is because they don’t understand that writing is not just an art form or a craft, it is a business, plain and simple. Until you approach it as such, he says, you will never make any money!

In this dynamic, humorous, fast-paced, irreverent, and revolutionary program, Herman will show you…

Presented by: Michael J. Herman

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Seminar
Saturday, November 18, 2006

Grant writing is truly satisfying work for a writer, but it has a reputation for being a stodgy, bureaucratic form. But during the course of IWOSC’s November Saturday Seminar, Kim Zanti, who has spent two decades in the fundraising, business communications, corporate identity, and public relations sectors, hopes to dispel that notion!

In truth, your well-thought, persuasive and passionate words, sent to carefully-evaluated foundations and/or other funding sources, can result in children being educated, affordable housing being constructed, or an arts program being established. While you are earning money as a writer, you are also bringing hope to people and help to organizations in need.

This IWOSC-sponsored grant writing seminar offers writers…

Presented by: Kim Zanti

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Seminar
Saturday, Oct 21, 2006

So, you have a great idea for a book. Now you need to sell that idea to an editor and publisher! In this IWOSC seminar, Marvin J. Wolf, the author of a dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles, presents the art and science of writing successful book proposals.

A book proposal is a sales pitch, the information (both form and content) that publishers use to decide whether they want to publish your book and how much money they will devote to it. In this seminar, you’ll learn how…

Presented by: Marvin J. Wolf

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Seminar
Saturday, September 30, 2006

A key in nonfiction magazine and book writing of the past several decades is the increasing use of creative and literary writing techniques in the telling of a true tale.

Instructor Deanne Stillman is a widely published writer whose book of literary nonfiction, Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave, was an L.A. Times Book Review “best book of 2001.”

Presented by: Deanne Stillman

Seminar
Saturday, August 19, 2006

If you are an author, writer or publisher of any sort, whether of books, via the Internet, games, or any other kind of publisher, intellectual property laws affect you very directly.

This seminar is designed to give an overview of the laws of copyright, trademark, contracts, and other issues related to publishing and writing. It includes information on how those laws and issues have been impacted and modified by the Internet, as well as the business and entrepreneurship issues related to writing and publishing.

Presented by: Ivan Hoffman

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Seminar
Saturday, July 15, 2006

Get me rewrite! Screen scribe Tom Lazarus, author of Secrets of Film Writing and former IWOSC panelist, is back with a new book, Rewriting Secrets for Screenwriters: Seven Strategies to Improve and Sell Your Work.

One of the important, if not the most important, parts of screenwriting is rewriting.

Presented by: Tom Lazarus

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Seminar
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Poets and writers take such care with words; you edit, massage and repeat them until a plain collection of letters and spaces embodies a place, a time, a person on the page. But all too often, when you read the piece aloud, something goes flat. The writer speaks the words but never draws the listener into the poem or story.

How to Tell a Poem will teach you how to release the piece from the page. This workshop is not about memorizing and microphones; it is about using your words, your voice and your imagination to enter the world of the work. It is about getting out of the way so that the poem or story can speak for itself.

Presented by: Deborah Edler Brown

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Seminar
Saturday, May 19, 2006

Whether you’re opening a pizza parlor in Peoria or trying to forge a successful career penning powerful prose (or poetry), successful people have traits in common. Is there something in their DNA? Can it be learned? Or is it a combination of both — the nature vs. nurture argument.

You will get information and inspiration here that you can’t get anyplace else. Plus, expect an extensive Q&A session.

Presented by: Michael Levine

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Seminar
Saturday, April 15, 2006

In addition to writing well, today’s screenwriters, novelists, playwrights and journalists must also be able to convince editors, producers, and publishers to read their work. Pitching your writing — and yourself — is an art that all professional writers must master.

In this interactive, fun workshop, you’ll learn how to pitch yourself and your writing with ease, and you’ll learn this art from an expert: independent film producer Suzanne Lyons. You’re also invited to bring a “raw” pitch for your screenplay, stage-play, novel, non-fiction book or article to the seminar and get personal feedback from our seminar leaders on how to polish and improve your approach.

Take advantage of this rare opportunity to prepare yourself for the upcoming 2006 PitchFest and other career networking opportunities.

Presented by: SUZANNE LYONS

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Seminar
Saturday, March 18, 2006

IWOSC is pleased to present comedian, screenwriter, and author Marilyn Anderson’s workshop, “How to Do Your Own Publicity & Promotion —Successfully!”

In this dynamic, informative, and fun-filled seminar, you will learn…

Presented by: Marilyn Anderson

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Seminar
Saturday, February 17, 2006

Today’s effective professional writers use the Internet as both a tool and a marketplace. Learn how at IWOSC’s January Saturday Seminar, when iMedia Editor in Chief Brad Berens discusses writing for the Internet, and Internet marketing expert Cliff Allen speaks about webmastering.

The workshop will cover the differences between writing online and off; site metrics and how they inform editorial decisions; how to design, implement and manage a website; tips on creating a good website; and personalization, e-mail marketing, and data mining. In addition, Berens will talk about iMedia’s current needs and its marketplace for freelancers, including his freelance budget.

Presented by: Cliff Allen and Brad Berens

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Seminar
Saturday, January 21, 2006

Even seasoned writing pros sometimes need to brush up on basic grammar and usage – as evidenced by the often-comical mistakes we sometimes see in newspapers and magazines.

Has the lazy language of e-mail made your professional communications sloppy? Do you agonize every time you prepare an article or a query letter because you’re afraid it contains grammar and punctuation errors? Some of this you may not have learned in school, or you may have forgotten.

Participants will gain grammar confidence in a review of few simple rules that can correct dozens of the most commonly made errors in written and spoken communication. Topics to be covered include…

Presented by: Flo Selfman

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Ongoing Workshop

Oliver Mayer leads an ongoing writing workshop. Playwrights, screenwriters, novelists, poets, short story writers, and journalists were all welcome to start with any next session.

This ongoing workshop was held the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. in Westwood. IWOSC members $30 per month; Non-members: $40 per month.

Presented by:

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