SEMINARS & CLASSES
Praise for David's workshops:
"Just wanted to drop a note to say thanks for a terrific workshop. Your suggestions and insights were extremely helpful. I love your passion and appreciate that you love what you do. After leaving on Saturday, I felt that the chances of my book being published increased significantly.
Again, many thanks and best wishes for a joyful journey."
—Richard Rachlin, on The Outer Limits of Inner Life
Read about David's ONLINE COURSES
2 0 1 3 SEMINARS
ONLINE COURSE!
May 16-June 13, 2013
The Craft of Character
Litreactor
You can't sustain a book or a story without compelling characters.
Vivid settings are good. Clever plot twists can keep people engaged. But if your reader can't identify with your characters, the game is over before it's started.
David Corbett has written incredibly rich characters in novels like The Devil's Redhead and Blood of Paradise. And he's an immensely talented teacher, with the ability to deliver writing lessons in a clear, in-depth manner.
He recently took his teaching to the next level with the release of The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV. This guide has already earned a ton of accolades—every one of them deserved.
This four-week, hands-on writing intensive is a practical lesson on how to craft compelling characters and bring them to life on the page.
In this course you'll explore the dramatic roles and functions that characters can assume in a story. Then you'll learn how to shape language to depict that variety of characters. Finally, you'll develop techniques for creating compelling scenes and fluid dialog to make those characters come to life.
Along the way, you'll have writing assignments to put these tools into practice, and you'll receive critiques from both David and your classmates. In addition, there will be opportunities for discussion and Q&A sessions.
Price: $399
Enrollment limited to 15 students. Register now.
Thursday, July 25, 1:00-3:30 PM
The Character of Crime: Weaving the Character Web in the Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Sub-Genres
Book Passage Mystery Writers' Conference
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
In this workshop, David will explain the key roles that make crime fiction work, with focus on the specific demands of the three major subgenres of crime fiction—mystery/ detective, crime, and thriller—and an emphasis on maintaining dramatic tension, creating moral complexity, and avoiding cliché.
Students need not enroll in the Mystery Conference to attend. Register here.
Sunday, August 25, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
Trust Your Story
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Boulevard
Corte Madera, CA 94925
Advice so simple it can't possibly be right: Just tell the story. In fact, take the vast majority of writing problems—what details are essential and which discardable, how to balance inner life against action and dialog, how to create variety among the characters, how much backstory is necessary, etc.—none of these can be solved without getting grounded in the story you're trying to tell. In this one-day workshop, David and the class will review 12-page manuscript submissions from each student and discuss them in detail to reveal how story guides the revision process.
Students must register and send manuscripts 10 days prior to class.
Student/Client Praise
The following is a small sample of student and client appreciation in response to both classroom and online courses I've taught and manuscript critiques I've provided:
- "I LOVED this class. The material was perfect—his lectures showed me how to look at things like arc and characterization in a whole new way—and the organization was right on the money. This is the best $500 I have ever spent."
- "Awesome class. The material presented was perfect. Top-notch."
- "The class touched my soul—Mr. Corbett is honest, authentic, and has a genuine passion for the process. He listened, remembered our individual pieces and asked probing and informed questions. The class was an experience of pure creativity."
- "Hands down, the most enjoyable, beneficial course on writing I have ever taken, and I've taken many."
- "I learned tips about forming characters that went untouched in conferences where I have paid a substantial registration/workshop fee and gone home disappointed."
- "He brought inspiration AND instruction."
- "Excellent thinker and teacher."
- "MORE DAVID CORBETT!"
