2019 High School Writing Conference Session Offerings

Writing the College Application Letter: from ideas to a full draft with Cornelia Paraskevas
The class is a two-part workshop designed to help students create an engaging draft of their college application essay. During the first part of workshop, we will  look at sample college application letters that have been highly successful  and discuss what makes them exceptional.  Then, we will work on generating rich ideas and organizing them into a very rough first draft. 

 During the second part of the workshop—and with one-to-one feedback from an experienced writing tutor—we will transform these rough drafts into polished college application letters. 

Students will need to come with rich ideas, an open mind, and lots of writing 'energy.'

Something Old, Something New with Colette Tennant
Creative writers live in a tricky place somewhere between an old world and a new one. The old world is all the writing that has come before us. The new world is the creative works we will write someday. Where do our poems and short stories and novels get written? In between those two worlds. We'll practice some exercises that will help us negotiate that tricky in-between place. You'll come away from the workshop with at least two new poems.

Writing for Film and Video with BrAd Steiner
Course writing for film and video is a whole different kind of writing. This is a crash course on script writing for fun and profit. We'll go into what format to use for your scripts and why. And talk about why pre-production and writing is 10 times more important than production and shooting.

Creating 3-D Scenes with Linda Clare
Make your fictional scenes come alive with cinematic techniques.

Writing the Truth with Linda Clare
Learn how to write TRUTH, someone else’s truth and your truth. 

Scholarship and Resume Writing with Sarah Muir
How to be authentically you in your writing. Write scholarship essays that are real, memorable, and impactful. Resumes are a quick snapshot of you and your experience and accomplishments, but don’t fake it! Whether you are writing a lengthy scholarship essay or a concise resume, learn some tips to make them the first rate.

Playwriting with Joe Silva
A chat about the art, skill and discipline of writing a play. And the commitment. And the work. And the frustration. And the rewards. Topics will include:

  • Intros

  • Why write?

  • Realizing the Play

  • Planning the play

  • Organizational Tools

  • Structure (Storyline)

  • The Emotional Trail

  • How Character Development Informs Dialogue

  • OMG!  Now I Have to Sit Down and Write!

  • Why Write?