This workshop also taps into Jami Bernard’s deep knowledge of story and structure, absorbed from analyzing thousands of movies in her 20 years as a leading film critic for New York City daily newspapers. She has been on international radio and television (on Oprah, too!), and has written thousands of articles for newspapers and magazines around the world. Among other adventures in publishing, she wrote a Lois Lane comic, published by DC Comics, in which Lois is based on Jami’s early days in the newsroom.SOS!
Fall in love with your book again when you master …
THE SECRETS OF STRUCTURE
A 6-Week Online Workshop for Writers Who Are Stuck, Dazed and Confused
For fiction and memoir
Are you having trouble starting, organizing, finishing or polishing your writing?
Stop endlessly rewriting your chapters (and possibly making them worse) in hopes of solving problems you’re not even sure you can pinpoint. Stop hating your book. Stop hating yourself. Step away from the Ben & Jerry’s, and get the Chunky Monkey off your back!
Most writers experience it now and again — that slow drip of conflicting advice, soul-sucking rejections and futile rewrites that sap you of the energy, clarity and confidence you need to move forward. Perhaps you have a good idea, but no idea how to get it on paper. Or you have written part or all of a novel or memoir but can’t seem to pull the pieces together. Or you have been advised to rewrite, revise, reshuffle, or seek the help of an editor, but you’re not sure why. If you’re stuck in any of these scenarios, you know the drill:
- You rewrite. You rewrite some more. You are no closer to a book deal.
- You’ve received lukewarm or mixed responses from agents and editors, even though your friends say you’re a genius.
- Every time you fix one thing, another goes out of whack.
Is this you?
You show your manuscript to an editor who tells you one thing, to an agent who tells you another, and to your partner, who is suddenly no longer speaking to you, or vice versa.
You curse the day you thought it would be “fun” or “life-enhancing” to write a book. (“Lots of people do it; how hard can it be?”)
If you don’t sell this baby soon, they’re going to cut off your electricity. It’s not that you think you’ve written the Great American What’s-it, you just want to give your book its best shot and land at least a modest advance.
You are serious about getting your novel or memoir published. Writing is not a frivolous hobby. You’re not “journaling.” You mean business.
Isn’t this what you want instead?
It’s time for you to get excited again about your book’s commercial potential and your ability to move past technical and emotional blocks.
Secrets of Structure (“SOS” for short!) is a 6-week, hands-on virtual workshop that offers a simple, intuitive way to diagnose and fix whatever is keeping your memoir or fiction from being finished, polished and published. In the process, you will gain clarity about story and structure, a deep understanding of what makes your book tick, and the confidence to write and revise your way to a final draft (yes, even if you have been stuck for 10 years).
The solution
Send us an SOS, and we’ll enroll you in The Secrets of Structure. It’s a fun, dynamic new way to whip your book into shape and attract agents, editors and publishers. It gives you the essential knowledge, tools, and a-ha! moments to unblock your blocks and unlock your book’s potential.
Secrets of Structure began as a live, 10-hour workshop in Boston for a handful of first-time book writers. They had done enormous amounts of work on their manuscripts (one already had an agent), but had lost momentum and were feeling stuck and defeated.
The results were extraordinary. Each participant achieved one or more breakthrough moments in areas not usually associated with “structure” — including uneven narrator voice, murky theme, and not enough Show Don’t Tell. The participants reported coming into the workshop feeling “overwhelmed and hopeless,” “hand-wringing — laboring over the same thing,” “like I had lost energy and continuity.”
By the end of the workshop, every participant reported a huge boost in confidence, energy and determination, along with a profoundly increased understanding of their story and what they needed to do going forward:
“By the end of the workshop, I was confident that I could write a less cluttered book.”
“Now I feel my book might just be interesting enough to sell.”
“I feel energized and productive.”
“I have renewed enthusiasm to work on moving my manuscript toward completion.”
The Secrets of Structure
The only downside to the Boston workshop was that these writers got more than they could handle. It was like that Far Side cartoon where a student has his hand up: “Mr. Osborne, may I be excused? My brain is full.”
The original workshop has been retooled and adapted to an online environment so that more writers can experience this unique learning opportunity without feeling as if their heads will explode. The result is The Secrets of Structure, a comprehensive online workshop that blends the focus and immediacy of a writer’s retreat with the convenience and utility of online technology to take a fresh look at your book’s many moving parts.
By the end of the course you will have a solid structure for your book; a working elevator pitch, agent pitch and chapter outline; an easy-to-follow blueprint for identifying the “beats” that shape and drive your story; and a customized series of Next Steps.
Why Structure?
Every book has a structure — whether you plotted it meticulously or it just sort of happened. It is the spine of your book, an invisible force that persuades readers to trust that you are taking them along on a special journey.
When structure is off, everything is off. Themes fail to resonate. Story and character arcs sag. Even the most luminous writing can fail to engage —because without the right structure, words arrive almost without context, a Tiffany gift nestled in a potato sack.
In Hollywood, structure is everything. Screenwriters know on exactly what page the hero should hiccup. Writers of fiction and memoir do not have to be bound by the same rules or worship at the same altar to reap many of the same benefits by using the foundations of classic three-act structure.
With Secrets of Structure, you will:
- Uncover the powerful themes that drive your book and make it resonate with a wide readership;
- Gain insight into what your book is REALLY about (you’ll be surprised!);
- Identify the “beats” that shape the action;
- Organize your chapters to best tell your story;
- Pinpoint what needs fixing and how to do it
- Reduce anxiety and confusion;
- Discover new perspective on story, theme and subtext; drama, conflict and suspense; voice, pacing and style; dialogue and transitions;
- Develop a deeper connection with your story and characters.
The SECRET of Secrets of Structure
What makes this program different?
You’ve probably tried other methods, from classes to coaches to voodoo. Then you’re back to being mired and miserable, and there’s only so much time and money you can throw at the problem.
Secrets of Structure offers a unique blend of proven techniques — including three simple (and simply awesome) tools you won’t find anywhere else. These tools work in concert, and Secrets of Structure is built on their collective power. The first one helps you “see” your book’s structure. The second lets you know with absolute certainty whether that structure is right for your book. The third lets you play.
1. The 3 Questions
A simple technique that quickly and intuitively helps you formulate a classic 3-act structure that invisibly supports and guides your book. It’s what shapes virtually all Hollywood movies, and immediately solves problems with timeline, story and character arc, and more. It makes fiction more marketable and tames out-of-control digressions in memoirs.
The answers to The 3 Questions are unique to your book. There are no complicated formulas or rules to memorize. You will “feel” your story’s structure rather than plot it out on a spreadsheet as they do in other popular “story structure” classes.
2. The Shiver of Truth
That brings us to The Shiver of Truth. This is a technique that answers a question that might already be on your mind: “How can I know if The Secrets of Structure is any more or less beneficial than other advice I’ve received?” It’s a fair question, but you don’t have to take our word for it:
The Shiver of Truth will tell you when it is so.
We don’t mean to get all mysterioso on you. As its name suggests, The Shiver of Truth must be experienced. Just know that at Barncat we pop it like aspirin because it is, yes, infallible.
3. Barncat Game Theory
We play. Barncat has developed its own virtual board game you can “play” online or at home. It’s a fun, interactive way to visualize and work with your book’s structure.
When your chapters and scenes are in the appropriate squares on the game board, your protagonist skips along across the squares. If something about your structure isn’t mapping correctly, your protagonist cannot proceed. Barncat Game Theory helps pinpoint trouble spots and lets you test out fixes before messing with your manuscript.
How the SOS program is structured
Length: 6 weeks
Fee: $495, payable by credit card or Paypal on secure site
Format: Weekly 90-minute live webinars
Materials: Downloadable assignments, examples and worksheets
Extras: Limited class size, thoroughly customized to participants (plenty of individual attention)
Program dates
Secrets of Structure, 6 Weeks
Section A: WEDNESDAYS, January 25 – February 29, 2012
4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. EST
January 25, February 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Section A, $495
Add to Cart
Section B: WEDNESDAYS, January 25 – February 29, 2012
7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. EST
January 25, February 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
SOS: Section B, $495
Add to Cart
(NOTE: Space in this workshop is limited, so apply early!)
The Secrets of Structure (SOS) Workshop is another swell program from Barncat
