90-Minute Workshop. Session # 5: Saturday, February 18, 3:15 PM – 4:45PM
TECHNIQUES OF FICTION: A SUPERSONIC OVERVIEW
For both beginning and experienced fiction writers, this 90-minute workshop covers a broad array of techniques, from the basic to the rare, for creating and sustaining the “vivid dream” or “virtual reality” in the reader’s mind. We will look at specificity, point of view, synthesia, imagery, image patterning, plot, rhythm, and the use and misuse of dialogue. The goal is that the next time you sit down to write, your fiction will be of notably better quality.
INTENSIVE WORKSHOP. Monday and Tuesday, February 20 and 21, 2 to 6 PM each day
TECHNIQUES OF FICTION OR, HOW TO CREATE THE VIVID DREAM
Uniquely geared toward both beginning and advanced writers, C.M. Mayo’s two day “Techniques of Fiction” workshop emphasizes techniques for tapping into creativity and specific aspects of craft. In a series of in-workshop exercises interspersed with mini-lectures addressing specificity, point of view, synesthesia, imagery, image patterning, plot, and more, you will get a feel for using the techniques at the same time that you generate new material. The goals are that first, your creativity will be reenergized; second, that the next time you sit down to write, your fiction will be of notably better quality.
C.M. Mayo is a long-time resident of Mexico City and the author of several widely-lauded works on Mexico, including the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books), which was selected as a Library Journal Best Book of 2009 and has become a best-seller in Mexico as El último príncipe del Imperio Mexicano (Grijalbo Random House-Mondadori).
She is also the author of Sky Over El Nido (U Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and a travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions). An avid translator, she has also edited the bilingual literary journal Tameme, as well as a collection of 24 contemporary Mexican literary works, Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. (Whereabouts Press). Read more about C.M. Mayo’s works at www.cmmayo.com
Praise for The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books)
“Once upon a time, there was a little half-American boy who briefly became heir to the Mexican throne—until his distraught parents sued the doomed Emperor Maximilian for his return. As in the best historical fiction, Mayo’s sparkling first novel transforms a forgotten historical footnote into a spellbinding, heartbreaking tale filled with drama and fascinating characters.” — Library Journal
“… a swashbuckling, riotous good time, befitting the fairy-tale promise of the opening sentence.” —Austin American-Statesman
“En México se han escrito novelas históricas que recrean con erudición, maestría y poesía una época, un episodio, una atmósfera y unos personajes. Pienso, desde luego, en Noticias del imperio de Fernando del Paso; también en la obra de Enrique Serna sobre Santa Anna, la de Rosa Beltrán sobre Guerrero o la reciente novela de C.M. Mayo: El último príncipe del Imperio Mexicano, sobre el nieto de Iturbide en la corte de Maximiliano.” —Enrique Krauze
Praise for Sky Over El Nido
“C.M. Mayo writes some of the most exquisitely fashioned, perfectly measured prose alive in the world today. Her stories glitter with delicious odd details. They feel electrically charged, richly mysterious, and rhythmic. I love her layering of cultures, her offbeat humor, her potent instinct for voices. Bravo! Captivating! Yes, yes, yes!” Naomi Shihab Nye
Praise for the C.M. Mayo’s “Techniques of Fiction” workshop
“This workshop was jam-packed with practical techniques! I feel I suddenly have the inside secrets that distinguish extraordinary writing— and even I can do them! Imagine. Great writing can be learned. — Susan Page
“Wonderful nuts and bolts workshop. Writers of all levels should not miss it!” — Sterling Bennet
