DATES HAVE CHANGED: Six Thursdays, October 1 - November 5, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Have you ever wondered how your favorite authors draw you so deeply into their stories that you lose track of time and place, and the world inside the story feels as real as your own? Would you like to begin learning how to create your own storytelling magic?

In this workshop, best-selling novelist Laurie Viera Rigler will reveal the basic principles and techniques behind the magic of storytelling.

The class structure includes explanations of the principles plus in-class writing exercises to put the principles into practice. If time permits, participants may read aloud the exercises they wish to share, and the instructor will offer comments and suggestions. This is a safe and encouraging environment in which there is no peer critiquing or commenting.

This workshop is open to storytellers at all levels of proficiency. The lectures and writing exercises focus on fiction writing; however, many of these techniques are also useful to writers of narrative nonfiction. Suggested (but not required) text: Stein on Writing by Sol Stein.

The workshop will discuss:

• Freeing the Storyteller Within: dispelling myths and misconceptions about what a "real writer" is and isn't, and how to get the creativity flowing.
• Elements of a Compelling Story: what does your character want, what's stopping her/him from getting it, and how do you get your reader to care about that struggle.
• Storytelling Through Scene: the basic building block of an immersive story.
• Choosing and Perfecting Point of View: Would your story work best in first-person, third-person, multiple, or omniscient point of view?
• Engaging the Senses: creating a story your reader can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell.
• Refining Your Magic: metaphors, similes, and particularity.
• Evoking Emotions: Our characters' emotional relationships with themselves and the world outside of them.
• Storytelling Through Dialogue: creating tension with conflicting agendas and subtext.
• The Dreaded Flashback: how not to get lost in the past yet illuminate the present.

Instructor: Laurie Viera Rigler is the best-selling author of the novels Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, published by Dutton / Plume. She also coauthored two nonfiction books, He Rents She Rents, a humorous, gender-specific movie rentals guide with Richard Roeper of Ebert and Roeper for St.Martin's, and Popping the Question, a collection of real-life marriage proposals, published by Walker.

Having spent several years writing her first novel and reading all those proclamations about how aspiring novelists were more likely to win the lottery than ever get published, Laurie is passionate about encouraging other writers. She spent several years as a freelance book editor working with authors of fiction and nonfiction and is knowledgeable about both the business and creative aspects of publishing.

In addition to teaching writing workshops, Laurie blogs for her own site, janeaustenaddict.com, and is a frequent guest blogger on various book and culture sites, including PBS.org's Remotely Connected.

To sign up for this class, please call Vroman's Will Call at (626) 449-5320. Vroman's charges $350.00 per student (plus tax) for this workshop.