craft and seminar day trip

Ossabaw Writers’ Craft & Seminar Day Trip

APPLICATION DEADLINE: October 1, 2024

Where shades take us to the past.

Ossabaw Island Writers’ Retreat announces the opening of applications for our Fall 2024 Writers Craft and Seminar Day Trip, held Saturday, October 26, featuring workshops and seminars led by our nationally recognized faculty (including Lenore Hart, David Poyer, Tony Morris, Chad Faries, Christina Olson, Laura Valeri, and more). A great opportunity to recharge the creative energies on one of the most beautiful barrier islands of the Atlantic.

WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION: $475 tuition covers  lunch, craft seminars, readings and ferried transportation to the island. One-on-one manuscript consultations with nationally recognized faculty available for $75.

University student, military personnel, teacher? Upload a photocopy of your official I.D. in the application form below and receive a $50 discount.

We’re also offering a $25 discount for Sisters in Crime members. Just fill out application below and upload a copy of your membership receipt.

APPLY ONLINE: Fill in and submit convenient online form for easy, quick application.

Craft and Seminar Day-Trip Application

  • Max. file size: 512 MB.
    Sisters in Crime applicants must submit copy of invoice/receipt for membership uploaded under the "choose file" option above. Student/Teacher/Armed Service Member discount applicants must upload a copy of their official I.D. under the "choose file" option above. Teachers
    Applicants wishing to participate in a one-on-one manuscript consultation must upload their file as PDF of Word document under "choose file" option above. Fiction and nonfiction manuscripts limited to 15 pages, double-spaced. Poetry limited to 5 poems, no more than 10 pages.
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Ossabaw Writers’ Retreat Craft Sessions

Inspiration, that Orphic moment of detached awareness can only be charmed by one who has practiced the craft of writing in times of expiration—when the muse has passed.

Faculty will present a one-hour craft lecture covering an element of creative writing. Topics might include: character development, tracing the narrative path, working in the reflective mode, structure, viewpoint, dialogue, style, tone, sound and rhythm, images, order, etc.

Each of the faculty members bring their own unique approaches and experiences to the writing craft topic areas which will, in turn, afford participants an exciting opportunity to gain valuable insight into the processes and mechanisms that are the foundation of the creative writing practice.

SATURDAY

9:00 am

Craft Session #1: Don Cellini will present: Writing in Translation: Inspiration, that Orphic moment of detached awareness (whose infrequent, disobliging appearance confounds and frustrates many a poet), can only be charmed by one who has practiced the craft of writing in times of expiration—those times when the muse has “passed.” In this seminar I will look at the role of imagery in our writing to evoke the stories and pictures that will give your work the breath of life that will awaken your readers to your story or poem.

10:00 am

Craft Session #2: Lenore Hart presents Free-For- All: An in-depth and straight-forward analysis of what makes writing click, providing writers with a bag of tools, including character development, dialogue, setting and style, to tell stories that keep readers engaged.

11:00 am

Craft Session #3: Lee Griffin presents Summary Writing: To keep the story interesting and alive, and the reader reading, we must Show, Not Tell. Often this happens by letting your story unfold through a series of scenes. But the same rule (showing, not telling) applies as well in summary. By choosing revealing details, vivid descriptions, scenes that are not much longer than a snapshot, you can economically give all the background information needed to bring your piece to the time and events in which your story takes place.

1:00 pm

Craft Session #4: Amy Condon presents The Job of the Beginning: Whether you are writing a biography, a memoir, speculative or literary fiction, you will spend more time getting the beginning right than any other part of your story. This short session homes in on the key ideas you need to focus on to craft a beginning that sings and makes the reader turn the page.

2:00 pm

Craft Session #5: Laura Valeri presents Plot is Not A One Way Street: Got an idea but don’t know where to start or how to tell the story? Think you might have a good start but don’t know where to take your idea next? This lecture will explore the interconnectedness of narrative structures and plot, reviewing different methods for plotting short stories and how these may be influenced by your narrative style. From the long story to the 25 word-long hint fiction, we will review several ways of thinking about plot and narrative structure that will expand your notion of what a story can be.

3:00 pm

Craft Session #6: Danelle Lejeune presents Writing Everywhere: Writing takes place not just at the writer’s desk, but in the super market, at the gym, walking the dog. How to stay alert to the writing that goes on in our life as we live.

4:00 pm

Craft Session #7: Publishing Panel with David Poyer, Lenore Hart, Amy Condon, Tony Morris presents Getting Published: An essential part of any desire to write is publication. This panel will outline some of the essential ideas and tools you will need to develop in order to raise your chances of securing an agent and finding a home for your work.