How to Create Characters Readers Want to Spend Time With: A Junction Master Class with Corey Mandell

Do your characters have enough character? 

Only 25 spots are available -- be sure to grab one before they're all taken!

This will be a hands-on workshop.

Scroll down for details and ticket info. 

From Corey: 

Many of the professional screenwriters I know say they know people with far more natural ability than themselves who do not have careers, and will never have careers, because of their writing process. Process is how we write, how we create our characters and stories. 

Psychologists note some people's natural process is to create conceptually while others use a more intuitive approach. Conceptualists tend to write outside in, starting with concept or situation. Intuitives tend to write inside out, starting with character or theme. The result is that conceptualists tend to craft well-structured scripts populated by less-than-compelling characters while intuitives tend to write strong characters and dialogue, but their scripts lack sufficient structure.

Successful writers are able to write both conceptually and intuitively. They get the best of both worlds.    

This four-hour master class offers guided writing exercises and tools to help participants strengthen and integrate these two creative approaches in order to be able to write their most compelling characters. The class will also share a variety of specific processes professional working writers use to write their first drafts. Please come prepared to do a lot of writing.

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Sunday, June 26th

12:00pm-4:00pm

At The Writers Junction

1001 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90401

Limited Seats Available 

General Admission: $40 

Attendees must buy tickets here:

http://createcharacters.eventbrite.com 

Junction members, check our previous email for your discount code

open to members & non-members

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About Corey:

 Corey Mandell is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter who has written projects for Ridley Scott, Wolfgang Petersen, Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Warner Brothers, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000, Fox Family, Working Title, Paramount, Live Planet, Beacon Films, Touchstone, Trilogy, Radiant and Walt Disney Pictures.

Corey is also a distinguished instructor at UCLA, where he earned his MFA.  His students have gone on to sell or option scripts to Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Disney, Fox, Fox 2000, MGM, Universal, Showtime, USA Network and Lifetime. Others have gained admission to the USC Graduate Screenwriting Program, the AFI Conservatory Screenwriting Program and Sundance Screenwriter's Lab.

The New Short Fiction Series Emerging Voices Group Show

The Writers Junction is proud to be partnered with The New Short Fiction Series, Los Angeles's longest running spoken word series, in introducing the most promising of new West Coast writers.  One of our very own members was featured in The New Short Fiction Series Emerging Voices Group Show in 2005 -- Deirdre Shaw, whose debut novel, Love or Something Like It, was published by Random House in 2009.   

Sponsored in part by Barnes & Noble, join us for "a night of vibrant, living art (Forth Magazine)" at...

   

The 8th Annual Emerging Voices Group Show  

Presented by The New Short Fiction Series 

Sunday, May 8th
7:00pm-9:00pm

Doors open at 6:30pm 

Hosted at The Writers Junction 

1001 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90401

Admission: $10 with advance purchase, $15 at the door

Limited Seating

open to Writers Junction members & non-members

For advance tickets and program information, visit www.newshortfictionseries.com or call 866-811-4111.

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The New Short Fiction Series continues its 15^th Season with its 8th Annual Emerging Voices Group Show, featuring new fiction by Tracy Olson Chait, Rae Cline, Luis Garcia Romero, Liska Jacobs, Eric Weintraub and Omar Zahzah.

  

The performance stars spoken word artist Sally Shore, with guest cast Alain Benatar (Passions), Dana DeRuyck (Perv:The Cat), Matt Ferrucci (Wilde Salome, Real Men, Real Issues), Judd Hollander (The Fix) and David St. James (Big Love, Transformers: Dark of the Moon).   

Seats are limited, so reservations are strongly recommended.  And don't be late!  Doors open at 6:30 pm, and performances begin at 7:00 pm. 

For more information, and to purchase your tickets, visit www.newshortfictionseries.com or call 866-811-4111.

  

The New Short Fiction Series is a member of the Pasadena Arts Council's EMERGE Fiscal Sponsorship Program.

About the Authors:  

Tracy Olson Chait grew up in Cape Cod, where her first job was making chowder in the back of a fish market.  She holds an MA from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College, where she was the Sypher Scholar.  Chait parted with her snow shovel in 2003, and currently leads writing workshops for high-risk teens with the nonprofit WriteGirl.  Recently published in the Santa Monica Review, she is at work on a collection of connected short fiction  and lives in L.A. with her husband, one-year-old daughter and two against-type Chihuahuas.

Rae Cline received her BA in English from Michigan State University, moved to Ann Arbor, and began a wildly exciting career in the music industry booking Nirvana club shows, opening for Jello Biafra, and managing meet and greets for the Rolling Stones, the Spice Girls, and a buck naked Mojo Nixon.  A Los Angeles resident since 2002, Cline won first prize in the American Literary Review Fall Fiction Contest (2006) and was a finalist for UCLA's Kirkwood Prize (2008).  She writes the popular science blog, Storm and Stress: Notes from My Amygdala.

Luis Garcia Romero is a former journalist who studied short fiction at UCLA.  His work has been published in Concisely Magazine, and will appear in a forthcoming issue of Villains Magazine.  Garcia Romero was the co-editor for Glib and Sincere, a zine featuring micro fiction and micro nonfiction.

Liska Jacobs graduated from UCLA's creative writing program in 2008.  She was nominated for the 2009 and 2010 Kirkwood Prize in literary short fiction.  Jacobs' writing aims looks at the variations of truth and authenticity in everyday life, which she explores on her blog, Boy Lovers.  She is currently pursuing a MFA through Vermont College School of Fine Arts' low residency program, and lives in West LA with her husband.   

Eric Weintraub has been creating stories ever since he first learned how to read and write.  As a high school senior, he wrote and directed the short film Send or Delete for the Santa Monica Police Department, which won major awards at three popular Los Angeles film festivals and was broadcast throughout the statewide.  Many of Weintraub's short stories are based on personal experiences from his time in high school and college, as well as while working as a script reader for actress, Jennifer Lopez.  Currently a USC student, Weintraub is an editor and photographer for Scribe magazine and is completing his first novel. 

Omar ZahZah is a student at California State University, Long Beach.  His work has been featured in Vulcan: A Literary Dis-Allusion, The Chiron Review and RipRap.