SEMINARS & CLASSES

UPCOMING SEMINARS:
San Francisco: January 23 through March 12
ONLINE: January 23 through March 12
Corte Madera: February 4-5

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

2 0 1 2

January 23 through March 12
Story, Not Formula: Crime Writing Essentials
San Francisco Writers' Grotto
490 2nd Street, 2nd Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94107
ALSO ONLINE!

Number of sessions: 8
Meeting time: 6:30-9:00 PM
Course fee: $485 (non-refundable deposit of $100 required)

To sign up: Email David and he will provide information concerning where to send the deposit and what other preparations to make.
Class size limited to 12 students.

Description: In this 8-week course and workshop, David will guide students through the essentials of writing a compelling story in the sprawling genre routinely described as "crime." Each class will begin with a brief lecture, then student work will be discussed and analyzed for how it can best conform to its specific genre and yet creatively push the boundaries. The topics covered will be (with the understanding that student questions, needs and desires will prompt a weekly improvisational fluidity):

Week 1: Know Your Sub-Genre: Cozy, Hard-Boiled, Noir, Mystery, Police Procedural, Thriller, Suspense, Caper, Urban Novel—what is needed to reward expectations and yet surprise the reader/audience in each form (with a general introduction to and discussion of each student's work)

Week 2: The Compelling Hero: Avoiding the Protagonist Problem or Virtue is Over-rated

Week 3: Fashioning a Credible Nemesis: Don't Get Stuck on Satan

Week 4: The Crew, the Squad, the Family, the Mob: What Secondary Characters are Necessary and Why

Week 5: Setting is Character: Why does this crime happen here and not there or How to use the limits and opportunities of place to best advantage

Week 6: Suspense: When to say what, who delivers the message, and why

Week 7: Finding the Story: How to unearth the unique conflicts and desires that drive your narrative in order to avoid cliché, with an introductory peek at structure

Week 8: Structure: How to build your character and story arcs to maximize the dramatic effect of your story

Can't make the in-person class? JOIN DAVID ONLINE!

David will be teaching his crime-writing course online during the same 8-week period through LitReactor, Chuck Palahniuk's web-based writers workshop.

For more information or to sign up, go here.

And read Craig Clevenger's Q&A with David about the class and his unique take on crime writing.

Saturday, February 4—10:00 AM to 4:00 PM and
Sunday, February 5—10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
BOOK PASSAGE
51 Tamal Vista Boulevard
Corte Madera, CA 94925
(415) 927-0960

Integrating Arcs and Acts in Fiction and Film
Aristotle believed that plot was the most important and difficult challenge the writer faced. But by plot he meant the architecture of change in the hero's fortunes. Character and structure are inextricably linked. David Corbett, drawing on five iconic films—Vertigo, The Godfather, Chinatown, Silence of the Lambs and Michael Clayton—will demonstrate how the architecture of story deepens our understanding of character, with scene-by-scene breakdowns of how the drama is built. He will also, in the class discussion that follows, apply the lessons learned to individual student film and fiction projects. David Corbett is the author of four novels and is currently working on several fiction, teleplay and screenplay projects. His book on the craft of characterization will be published by Penguin in early 2013.