Workshops/Seminars

SouthWest Writers offers workshops or seminars to advance the skills and marketability of writers. Experienced instructors guide participants through lecture, example and, often, critique to increase the quality of their writing.

What is the difference between a workshop, a seminar, and a class? A workshop is one session. Any work required of the students is done during the two-hour workshop. A seminar is a series of two-hour events focusing on a single aspect of writing — many times genre specific. A class can be more than one session and usually includes assignments to be completed outside of class.

In Person & Zoom
SouthWest Writers has returned to in-person gatherings for our monthly Saturday meetings but in a new location: UNM Continuing Education (UNM-CE). Our Saturday meetings/workshops will still include a Zoom component. Workshops will start at 12:30, after the regular meetings end. Go to the SWW Meeting Location page for more information about our meetings at UNM-CE.

For a schedule of all our events, go to this page. What workshops would you like to see offered this year? Contact our class/workshop coordinator at Info@SWWriters.com to let us know.

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Writing a Ten-Minute Play

With Andrew Mayo

• Saturday: June 10, 2023
• 12:30 – 2:30 pm (MST)
• In Person & Zoom
• SWW members: $20 ♦ Non-members: $30

This workshop will include: a brief discussion of the differences among a novel, a screenplay and a stage play; classic dramatic structure; why exposition kills drama; Desire – Action – Conflict – Escalation – Change: structure of a beat, a scene, an act, the whole play; identifying beats in play scripts – class participation; the three-act and five-act models; and writing dialogue.

Andrew Mayo is a member of Dramatists Guild, Richard Caliban’s The Playwrights Group, and formerly a Network Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. Several of his full-length plays have been produced: Blood and Water after being selected as finalist in the AACT New Play Fest, Confess and Conspire, and Wish Upon A Star.

To Register:
Call the SWW office at 505-830-6034 (Monday–Thursday, 9:00 am–noon) or use the online registration form. Our online payment portal utilizes PayPal, but you’ll be given an option to pay by credit card without signing into PayPal.

The Zoom invitation link and the password will be emailed to those who register. Please contact the class/workshop coordinator at Info@SWWriters.com for more information.

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Preparing Print-Ready PDFs with Affinity

With RJ Mirabal

• Saturday: July 8, 2023
• 12:30 – 2:30 pm (MST)
• In Person & Zoom
• SWW members: $20 ♦ Non-members: $30

This workshop showcases an introduction to Affinity Publisher and demonstrates how authors can format the text portion of their books for professional printing. High-end PDFs required by printers and most author services such as IngramSpark, Lulu, and others are usually restricted to expensive graphic arts programs that cost hundreds of dollars in yearly subscriptions. Or some use professional services that may be somewhat costly and require a number of revisions. This workshop will use Affinity Publisher, available for a full rights purchase ($55), not a subscription. A follow up with a complete series class with student participation might be scheduled if there is sufficient interest.

RJ Mirabal is a former high school English, speech, and drama teacher who now pursues writing adult and children’s books featuring fantasy, sci-fi and dog stories among other interests. His books have been finalists in the New Mexico/Arizona and NM Press Women Book Awards for several years. His latest books are the first two installments of the Dragon Train Quest Series for teen and young adult readers.

To Register:
Call the SWW office at 505-830-6034 (Monday–Thursday, 9:00 am–noon) or use the online registration form. Our online payment portal utilizes PayPal, but you’ll be given an option to pay by credit card without signing into PayPal.

The Zoom invitation link and the password will be emailed to those who register. Please contact the class/workshop coordinator at Info@SWWriters.com for more information.

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Let’s Make a Scene

With Charlene Bell Dietz

• Saturday: August 12, 2023
• 12:30 – 2:30 pm (MST)
• In Person & Zoom
• SWW members: $20 ♦ Non-members: $30

Scenes communicate our stories, so they must be strong. We measure the strength of a scene by the degree to which it engages readers and by how much a scene changes the story. Participants will experience the difference between what makes a scene and what doesn’t. We’ll discuss the importance of the scene’s five building blocks and show how to increase the scene’s effectiveness by what it accomplishes. Participants will learn how these building blocks can be turned into absorbing moments by keeping the reader’s imagination active, avoiding a huge pitfall encountered by even excellent writers. Then each participant will be given a handout of fourteen tasks that scenes perform. Participants will use their own work, or provided examples, to identify the hierarchy of tasks the scene accomplishes. This determines the power within their scene. This workshop will give participants tools to create more effective, engaging, and dynamic scenes.

Charlene Bell Dietz’s Flapper-Scientist series won numerous awards, along with two Kirkus Reviews stars. The Spinster, the Rebel, and the Governor won a NM Press Women 1st place novel award. Read her short stories in the 2016 RMFW and 2019 SWW anthologies, and her articles in Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

To Register:
Call the SWW office at 505-830-6034 (Monday–Thursday, 9:00 am–noon) or use the online registration form. Our online payment portal utilizes PayPal, but you’ll be given an option to pay by credit card without signing into PayPal.

The Zoom invitation link and the password will be emailed to those who register. Please contact the class/workshop coordinator at Info@SWWriters.com for more information.

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Workshop and Class Refund Policy
If you cancel one week before the beginning date of the workshop or class, you will receive a full refund. Cancellations after one week prior up to 24 hours prior to the beginning of the workshop or class will receive a credit only toward a future workshop or class of your choice. If you do not cancel or don’t show up for the workshop or class you will receive no refund and no credit. For multi-session classes, if you miss a class, you receive no refund. We pay our instructors based on how many students enroll, so you are part of that roll count if you don’t cancel as detailed above.

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Workshops you might have missed:

2023

♦ Criticism Tips and Tricks, How to Take it and How to Give It
with Patricia Walkow and Chris Allen
♦ Finding Your Niche Markets
with Rose Marie Kern
♦ Creating a Book Tour
with E. Joe Brown
♦ Book Award Competitions: Get a Running Start
with Sara Frances
♦ “Who, What, When, Where, and How” of Copyright Compliance
with C. Daniel Miller

2022

♦ Writing a Page Turner
with Hallie Ephron
♦ Finding Your Niche Markets
with Rose Marie Kern
♦ Social Media 101
with Elizabeth Layton
♦ Keeping Your Eye on the Prose (not the press)
with Lauren Wolk
♦ Creating Three-Dimensional Characters
with Melody Groves
♦ Marketing Best Practices
with Geoff Habiger
♦ Publishing an eBook on Amazon
with Rose Marie Kern
♦ How to Speak in Public and Live to Tell the Tale
with Brenda Cole
♦ Wildness in Your Writing
with Lisa Taylor
♦ The Path from Writer to Author
with Rose Marie Kern and Cornelia Gamlem

2021

♦ Starting Your Novel in 2021: Taking it Day by Day
with Jonathan Miller
♦ Jump Start Your Writing with Short Forms
with Miriam Sagan
♦ Romance Genres and Subgenres: Understanding Reader Expectations
with Tamra Baumann and Jeffe Kennedy
♦ Writing Great Love Scenes for Romance and Other Genres
with Sarah Storme/Lydia Parks
♦ Plotting a Romance (and Other Genres)
with Robin Perini
♦ Finding Romance Publishers and Agents
with Sarah Storme/Lydia Parks
♦ Finding the Story in History
with Pamela Nowak
♦ The Art of Screenwriting
with Art Eisensen
♦ Mystery Genres & Subgenres
with Joseph Badal, Michael Avery, Keri Bovee, Charlene Bell Dietz, Marcia Rosen, Margaret Tessler, Robert D. Kidera
♦ Tips from Successful Mystery & Thriller Writers
with Keri Bovee, Charlene Bell Dietz, Patricia Smith Wood, and Robert D. Kidera
♦ The Mystery Market, Today and Tomorrow
with Pat Wood, Michael Orenduff, and Robert D. Kidera
♦ Queries and Cold Reads
with Shannon Snow and Haley Casey
♦ Taxes and Best Accounting Practices for Writers
with Brian Reinhardt
♦ Poetry Fireside Chat, August 11
with Jacqueline Murray Loring and Dan Wetmore
♦ Poetry Fireside Chat, August 18
with Preston H. Hood III
♦ Poetry Fireside Chat, August 25
with Lisa C. Taylor
♦ Insider Tips for Using the Internet
with Loretta Hall
♦ NaNoWriMo
with Kathy Kitts and Grant Faulkner
♦ Special Presentation: Speculative Fiction — An Overview
with Kirt Hickman, Bruce Kingsolver, David Lee Summers, Dollie Williams
♦ Special Presentation: Speculative Fiction — Fantasy Genres
with Joyce Hertzoff, Bruce Kingsolver, David Lee Summers, Vicky Murata, Kirt Hickman
♦ Special Presentation: Speculative Fiction — Purely Science Fiction
with Kirt Hickman, Geoff Habiger, Dollie Williams, Natalie Wright
♦ Finding the Story
with Loretta Hall and Patricia Walkow
♦ Understanding Rights & Copyrights
with Rose Marie Kern