Fools in Love - 10am-11am PDT

Taught by Aminah Mae Safi

Character is at the heart of every good story. Aminah Mae Safi knows this to be true. Who do we remember from that tale of tales, A Thousand and One Nights, even more than any individual story? Scheherazade, the woman who cheats death with stories. She's the eternal storyteller. But she's also one of the most memorable characters in the history of literature. Structure and story, that's essential to the journey of the rom-com. But character? Character is what makes a romance memorable. Character is why we go back and re-watch. Why we re-read. And why we invest in stories for years to come. And that is the goal of this seminar, to help you create characters with depth and heart, so that your reader roots for them from the moment they appear on the page.

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Fools in Love will guide you from those dreaded archetypes into fully fleshed out and inclusive characters. This session will bring in examples from multiple genres of romance alongside multiple media types in order to get down to the nitty-gritty of what makes a winning lead for your romance. We'll also break down how to build your romantic counterpart, so that your romance builds to big, capital "L" Love. Course will be a combination of lecture, discussion, and exercises. Bring a notebook and pen–we're gonna be generating new characters, or deepening the ones you already have, for your next great romance.

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From Meet Cute to HEA - 11am-12pm PDT

Taught by Amy Spalding

In the years that Amy Spalding has coached and edited romcoms and romances, she's realized she often gives very similar notes to beginning -- and experienced! -- romance writers. The goal for this session is to give you the tools to avoid these common pitfalls, whether it's in the outlining/planning phase, revising your completed manuscript, or at any stage in-between!

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Romantic comedies involve a certain kind of magic. Even with that ending foretold, a good one still somehow really puts us through the wringer. So let's make that magic happen! From Meet Cute to HEA will guide you on structure, character journeys, B-plots, and so much more! You'll leave this session empowered to outline your story about two love interests who live and learn before they get that happily ever after, and ready to iron out those little snags that can hold back a new manuscript. Early drafts are tough enough; these tips will help you elevate your work more quickly and write more engaging meet cutes, more frustrating why-nots, more thrilling first kisses, more heartbreaking dark nights of the soul, and, ultimately, happily ever afters that feel earned and beautiful.

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Comfort Break - 12pm-12:30pm PDT

Eat a snack, take a quiet moment, pet your cats!

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Good Sex (Scenes) - 12:30pm-1:30pm PDT
Taught by Zan Romanoff

Everyone knows that sex scenes are tricky: they require us to write for a public audience about one of our most private acts. And in a romance, where sexual connection is often one of the driving forces of the story, writing a suitably climactic (sorry, not sorry) sex scene can be utterly terrifying.

Zan Romanoff has ghostwritten a half-dozen romance novels, which means she's done it all, so to speak. Good Sex (Scenes) will focus on how to separate yourself from your shame, develop a vocabulary around writing good sex, and make sure that every page of your book smolders. Together, we'll look at examples of scenes with evocative physicality and plot-driving sensuality, and talk about how sex operates in a romance novel, as well as how to write it so that it leaves the reader... satisfied. From figuring out how to represent kink on the page to making good old P-in-V feel new again, we'll cover it all-- so you're welcome whether your HEA is traditional vanilla or pushing the boundaries of what romance can be. 

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Post-Workshop

A private HEAWTF Facebook group will be available to any interested attendees to find community, share resources, and look for critique partners, etc.