ODYSSEY WRITING WORKSHOPS   
   ANNOUNCES INTENSIVE, LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES   
      
      
   This winter, the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust is offering three   
   live online courses with the same high quality and rigorous approach as its   
   acclaimed, in-person Odyssey workshop:  Showing versus Telling in Fantastic   
   Fiction, One Brick at a    
   Time:  Crafting Compelling Scenes, and Effective Endings in Speculative   
   Fiction.     
      
   Since learning is an active process, all Odyssey Online courses involve live   
   online class meetings, allowing students to ask questions and participate in   
   discussions.  Each course is designed to provide intensive focus on a   
   particular aspect of fiction    
   writing.  Challenging homework assignments allow students to practice new   
   techniques, while feedback from the instructor and from classmates helps   
   students to make strong improvements.  Each student also has an individual   
   meeting with the instructor.     
   Courses provide a supportive yet challenging, energizing atmosphere, with   
   class size limited to fourteen students.  While courses are designed for adult   
   writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, interested writers of all   
   genres are welcome to    
   apply.     
      
   Last year, forty-two committed writers from the US, Canada, the UK, New   
   Zealand, Australia, and Japan participated in Odyssey's three online courses.    
   One student commented, "Odyssey is a precious resource for aspiring writers.   
   Instruction that goes    
   beyond the basics, that teaches how to write compelling, not merely competent   
   stories, is hard to find."   
      
   Odyssey offers only three online courses per year to ensure high quality.    
   Instructors, the very best in the field, fill each course with invaluable   
   insights and information.  Working with students during class meetings and in   
   between classes,    
   instructors are able to foster illuminating discussions and provide   
   personalized, in-depth advice.     
      
   Odyssey's winter 2015 courses focus on critical writing skills:     
      
   Showing versus Telling in Fantastic Fiction   
   Course Meets:  January 1 - January 29, 2015   
   Instructor:  Jeanne Cavelos   
   Application Deadline:  December 6, 2014   
   Level:  Beginner/Intermediate   
      
   Many writers have been asking Jeanne Cavelos, the Odyssey Director, to offer   
   her Showing versus Telling course again, so after three years, it's back due   
   to popular demand.  It may never come again, so if you're interested in   
   learning key skills that    
   will enrich every part of your story, now is the time to apply.  Few writers   
   truly understand the difference between showing and telling. Even fewer   
   understand that showing and telling are not two opposing possibilities, but   
   two ends of a spectrum    
   offering a range of subtle gradations. To write with power, a writer must know   
   where on that spectrum he should be at every moment, must be able to control   
   the levels of showing and telling, and must be able to write strongly at each   
   point of the    
   spectrum.  These abilities are key to every sentence in every story.  The   
   skillful manipulation of showing and telling makes settings vivid, brings   
   characters to life, puts the reader in the middle of the action, emphasizes   
   the most important ideas and    
   moments, and conveys powerful emotions.    
      
   We will study examples of the successful and unsuccessful use of showing and   
   telling. We'll also discuss the special necessity of showing in fantastic   
   fiction, and the challenges of doing so. Students will practice showing and   
   telling across the spectrum,   
    will study works they love for examples of showing and telling, and will   
   rewrite a section of their own work, putting these techniques into practice.   
   Previous students have found this course extremely helpful.  When it was last   
   offered in 2012, thirteen    
   out of fourteen students rated the course "excellent."   
      
   "Jeanne's Showing versus Telling in Fantastic Fiction was another amazingly   
   effective Odyssey Online course that I had the privilege of participating in.   
   As Jeanne's brilliant teaching guided the discussions and led me through   
   passage after passage of    
   great writing examples, revealing their subtleties, rendering their secrets   
   and the techniques responsible for their emotional impact, and as her   
   amazingly designed assignments led me to experience such effective revision   
   tools, study them, apply them,    
   make them my own, and as it all took place among the propelling enthusiasm of   
   such a diversely talented group, I saw my weaknesses and learned to treat   
   them; I saw my strengths and learned to enhance them. I felt the gigantic leap   
   of improvement, and so    
   did my readers. Now after the class has ended, I sit in eagerness for what's   
   in store for next year." --Anahita Ayasoufi   
      
   One Brick at a Time: Crafting Compelling Scenes   
   Course Meets:  January 5 - February 2, 2015   
   Instructor:  Barbara Ashford   
   Application Deadline:  December 9, 2014   
   Level:  Intermediate   
      
   Barbara Ashford, one of Odyssey Online's most highly rated instructors, has   
   crafted an exciting new course for this winter focusing on scene structure.    
   Compelling scenes pull readers into a new world, evoke an emotional response   
   to the characters and    
   conflicts, and encourage readers to turn the page to find out what happens   
   next. Failure to fine-tune these essential building blocks of your story can   
   dilute its power and impact.  This course will explore ways to help you add   
   tension, drama, and power    
   to your scenes by    
      
   *	examining the fundamentals of scene design-from its overall shape down to   
   its individual beats;   
   *	exploring the characteristics of effective scenes and the common pitfalls   
   that can undermine their impact;   
   *	providing tools to diagnose "ailing" scenes and bring them back to life;   
   *	discussing the "special needs" of opening and closing scenes, and flashbacks;   
   *	considering each scene as "part of the whole" by understanding its role in   
   developing characters, showcasing the world, and fulfilling the implicit   
   promise you are making to readers   
      
   Many students have asked for a course on scene structure, so we're very   
   excited to be able to offer it.   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)