As most science fiction writers at the beginning of my journey, I’ve heard of and submitted my stories to L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. The dream was not to win the first prize. It was just money in the end. The real prize was going to the Award Ceremony, and the Workshop were you could meet all the writers you grew up with reading.
While I got an Honorable Mention for one of my short stories and excellent advice about writing, the famous Workshop was out of my grasp until now. It’s online, and it’s free.
This is the Workshop’s description from the website:
« This free writing workshop provides valuable tools for a writer of any skill. Designed as an intermediate-level writing course, people of all levels have found this workshop helpful with the story structure, character development, the formulation of story ideas, and the business of writing.
The course includes 13 video presentations featuring Writers of the Future judges: David Farland, Tim Powers, and Orson Scott Card. There are 11 lessons with practical exercises as well as essays from Contest Founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and Founding Contest Coordinating Judge, Algis Budrys.
The workshop takes one through the entire process of writing a story. Upon completion, we recommend entering the Writers of the Future Contest.
This workshop will take you through the process of coming up with story ideas, research, outlining, plotting, steps to writing your story, writing description, writing dialogue, writing narration, adding suspense, writing the beginning, middle and end of your story, and productivity. »
