Shannon Vannatter offers a variety of workshops for both churches and/or writers’ groups to choose from. Please use the Contact Form if you’re interested in scheduling Shannon to speak to your group.
FOR CHURCHES & LADIES GROUPS
Keeping the Romance in Your Marriage: After the kids are born, couples tend to forget each other in the overwhelming task of raising Godly children. When the kids are gone, they discover they’ve grown apart. Learn tips to keep the romance in your marriage so that time, stress, and life can’t sever your connection with your spouse.
Time Management for the Busy Christian Woman: In today’s busy world, it’s hard for women to give their utmost without burning out. This workshop encourages women to manage the little spare time they have while keeping the focus on God.
Living Your Dream: Do you have a dream close to your heart? Trying to decide whether to pursue it or not? If you’re at a crossroads in your life, ask yourself three simple questions to determine your next course.
Getting Past Setbacks: Are you struggling with something you can’t seem to get past? Can’t see the silver lining? Learn about tools to get you looking toward the future and achieving the next goal.
The View From the Second Pew: Was your husband a pastor when you married him or did that come later? Is it his calling or yours? Church members, do you understand the role of your pastor’s wife? This program will debunk myths and draw the ladies in the church into a closer relationship with one another and their pastor’s wife.
FOR BOOK CLUBS: Shannon is available to discuss her books with local book clubs.
FOR WRITER’ GROUPS OR CONFERENCES:
Second only to writing, I love talking about writing. Please contact me to teach a workshop for your writers’ group or conference. I have references if needed.
Anatomy of a Short Story: Tips on the journey from first draft to published. How to get that short story into print, despite the supposedly waning market, and use it as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
Cut the Fluff: Learn the integral ingredients for a great read. What belongs? What doesn’t and how to determine the difference.
Blogging, Branding, Marketing, & Publicity: Tips on creating your brand and getting your name out there using traditional marketing plus tools to help you think outside the box.
To Be POD Published or Not To Be: Understand the pros and cons of Print on Demand Publishing. Firsthand experiences and naming some names. The good, the bad, and the ugly in POD companies.
Crafting Effective Dialogue: Dialogue isn’t just conversation. Learn what it is and how to make your character’s words advance your fictional world.
Crafting Gender Appropriate Dialogue: Does your guy sound like a guy and your girl sound like a girl? Learn techniques and tips to craft gender appropriate dialogue no matter the author’s gender.
Making a Scene: What is a scene and how do you make it effective? Learn the three things a scene must do.
Mom Writes: You can find time to write and be a great mom. Without neglecting your kids or burning out. Learn the key to finding a workable, flexible schedule no matter your children’s age.
Writing Romance: No matter the economy, romance sells. Learn the formula to craft a riveting read. What keeps the reader reading, even though they know there’ll be a happily-ever-after?
Writing Inspirational: Learn how to seamlessly weave the spiritual thread into your novel without coming across as preachy.
Plotting the Synopsis: In today’s competitive and fast-moving market, effective synopsis writing is essential. Writers are often asked for a synopsis before they’ve even written the book. Learn the key information editors are looking for and how to make your synopsis shine. With the right tools, writing the synopsis can be a painless, even fun process.
Working with Your Editor: Contrary to popular belief, your editor is not your enemy. An editor is your champion, a cheerleader working along side you to make your book the best it can be. Learn how to take the content review as constructive criticism and implement all those changes in two weeks.
What I Learned from My Editors: Tricks of the trade, tips, & techniques straight from the professionals.
Writing Basics: Learn the do’s and don’ts of good writing. What is manuscript format? This workshop covers headhopping, POV, clarity, passive voice, telling verses showing, and more.
GMC: Learn how to create goals, motivations, and conflict for your characters. These tools will make every character action or reaction believable and true to character.
Setting & Description: How to ground your reader in the setting, describe details and characters, without grinding the story to a halt. Your novel must have setting the reader can see, but not become static.
Emotion & Character: Learn how to create three-dimensional characters, who leap off the page. Evoke emotion from your character and your reader. Make your readers worry, hurt, or feel embarrassed right along with your character.
Query Letters: Before you submit, you have to summarize your novel and yourself in a one page query letter. Learn the key information editors are looking for and how to make your query shine.
Submitting: How do I get my book published? Learn who’s looking for just the book you’ve written and how to submit it in a professional manner that will impress an editor enough to make them request more.
Let’s Write a Novel: This workshop rolls ten workshops into one in ten separate hour-long sessions including: Basics, GMC, Setting & Description, Emotion & Character, Crafting Effective Dialogue, Crafting Gender Appropriate Dialogue, Making a Scene, Cut the Fluff, Query & Synopsis, and Submitting. Can be taught in 5 weeks, 10 weeks, monthly meetings, or condensed into 8 classes over a two day conference.
Writing a Series: How an idea for one book can morph into a nine book series. Includes techniques to keep all your characters straight and keep editors and readers wanting more.
Avoiding Rejections & Redlines: This class compiles a list of top ten mistakes revealed by authors and editors. For each mistake, there is an easy fix. The result – clean copy that will grab the editor and make it hard for them not to offer you a contract again and again.
26 Keys to Improved Craft: Learn how to improve your writing. What works, what doesn’t, and how to determine the difference.
5 Things Your Reader Needs to Know: Page one. The most important page of your book. If you don’t grab an agent or an editor with page one, readers will never see it. Each paragraph has a job to do on the first page.
Polishing to Publishable: Checkpoints to bring your writing from almost there to ready for primetime. Includes 16 ways to make sure your character measures up, 46 ways to make sure your setting and description is doing the job, 11 ways to make sure your reader connects with your character, and 53 ways to make sure your dialogue isn’t just conversation.
Writing Under Pressure: Are you writing your first book under contract with a deadline? Are you writing your first contracted book for a new editor or publisher? Or life threw you unexpected trauma and the words aren’t coming, but the deadline still hangs over your head. Maybe you’ve just got a bad case of writer’s block. Learn tips and techniques to keep you on track, grounded, and calm during the process.
Finding An Agent: It’s true, a bad agent is worse than no agent. But sometimes it takes three tries before finding the right agent for you. This workshop shares a checklist for finding the right agent the first time.
Keynote – The Journey: From having a publisher steal a book to an agent losing her first contract, along with her line ending–twice, Shannon’s been through it all. Her school of hard knocks journey encourages writers to keep learning, keep revising, and keep submitting.
FOR KIDS, TWEENS, & TEENS:
Anatomy of a Short Story – Just for Kids: For schools, libraries, and child-oriented organizations. This workshop is geared toward beginning writers, teaching children how to write a short story using all the creativity bottled inside them.
Just for Young Adults: For high schools, graduations, and colleges. Focus on writing as a career or a supplemental income, encouraging teens and young adults to find their dreams and seek higher education to attain them.
