Weekly · Baright Library, Ralston, NE
Nebraska Writers Workshop
Sally founded in 1985 the eclectic Nebraska Writers Workshop and has facilitated its weekly meetings ever since. The Workshop has grown from a few tentative members to over 200 confidently publishing and produced writers.
Available Online · via Savvy Authors & others
Online Writing Seminars
Multi-session courses over a few weeks online covering fiction, screenwriting, poetry, and the business of writing. Private online tutoring also available at $120 payable in advance.
2, 4, or 7-hour formats
On-Site Workshops
In-person workshops for writing groups, conferences, and organizations. Sally has taught for MCC, Johnson County Community College, Southeast Community College, RWA chapters, and the Moondance International Film Festival.
Adjunct Professor · Metropolitan Community College, Omaha · 2017–2020
Screenwriting — MCC
Sally served as Adjunct Professor of Screenwriting at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, NE from 2017 to 2020.
Write Now Workshops — 36 Courses
Contact Sally at [email protected] to contract any of the listed offerings either on-site or online.
Screenwriting
Intro to Screenwriting
The essentials of Hollywood-style storytelling, characterization, formatting, novel adaptation, scene and beat construction, dramatic dialogue, and bare-bones narrative.
Romantic Screenplays 101
An 8-session course on the fundamentals you need to understand before you tackle a romantic screenplay — from romance essentials through character casting to plot outline.
Advanced Concepts Through Genre Needs
An intense 12-week course examining 11 cinematic concept lessons as exemplified in 11 movie genres, from Mystery and Sci-Fi to Romance, Western, and Inspirational.
How to Watch a Movie
A professional screenwriter explains the basic story structure used by every filmmaker from the silent era through Casablanca to Star Wars — and you'll never watch another movie the same.
How Book-to-Film Adaptation Works
An 8-session workshop teaching the steps of adaptation necessary to transfer one medium into another, including analysis of successful adaptations.
Let's Write a Movie
A hands-on course moving from film structure to screenplay format, cinematic characterizations, and actually writing succinct snippets of dialogue that propel a story.
Blake Snyder vs. Chris Vogler
A 4-week course walking through the comparison-contrast of two major storytelling gurus and their approaches to Beginning-Middle-Ending.
Fiction
Novel Perspectives / Intro to Novels
Examine your storytelling process from start to finish. Whether a total newbie or an author of 30 novels, find tricks and processes that will challenge and freshen your productivity.
Let's Write a Novel
A fast-paced 8-session workshop moving through the fundamentals needed to plan and begin the novel writing process.
Screenwriting Concepts a Novelist Can Use
Discover how screenwriting can teach a fiction writer the value of tight narrative, carefully orchestrated plotting, and multi-layered dialogue.
Evolving Story & Character from Life
Your life is a rich resource for story and character. This course takes you on the adventure of identifying unique and emotionally charged ideas from many different areas of your life.
Writing Your Story Scene-by-Scene
Learn the building blocks of fictional storytelling through brief lecture then writing exercises — juggling main plot and subplot, Point of View, and crisp pacing.
Storytelling Through the Anxiety Curve
Learn how to identify stress and coping mechanisms in fictional characters that will create a marketable short story, novel, or screenplay.
Writing Fiction from the Genre Out
Examine genre criteria and learn how to mix and match characters and plots for cross-genre sales across Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and more.
Romance Perspectives
A 12-session course teaching how to meld pull-push attraction into the heightened dramatic context of romance — from sweet romance to deliberate erotica.
Characterization
Fictional Characterization
Learning how to birth and flesh out truly fascinating characters — from mythic archetypes to genre casting, character history, dialogue, and body language.
Giving Depth to Fictional Characterization
Examine all facets of characters: psyche, personality types, anxiety coping mechanisms, life stages, character history, speech patterns, and pacing of character revelation.
Exercises in Character Profiling
An intensive workshop covering backstory influence, distinctive dialogue, body language, interaction with friends & foes, internalization, problem-solving habits, and growth vs. deterioration.
All the Nuances of Dialogue
Covers diction & syntax, multi-layered meaning, male-female speech patterns, influence of age-education-culture, and how to control lecturing and argument orchestration.
Plotting
Plotting Fiction
Learn how to plan the events of a story or massage the kinks out of a work-in-progress — from idea and purpose through research, subplots, suspense, and pacing.
Exercises in Plotting Fiction
Walk through the plotting of a story: clarifying the stimulating idea, identifying essentials of beginning, middle, and ending, and making "What if" lists.
The Never-Ending Plot Resource
Walk through all 36 of Polti's dramatic situations and learn how to apply, twist, and spark every story into unpredictable freshness.
Analysis, Editing & Business
The Business of Writing
Simple record keeping and professional business strategies any writer can utilize to translate a writing hobby into a writing business.
Become a Productive Writer
Walk through the steps of self-examination to goal setting, then task identification to time management — weaving creative writing into an already busy lifestyle.
Sell One Concept to Four Mediums
Brainstorm a concept then learn how to evolve it into a nonfiction magazine article, a poem, a short story, and a short screenplay.
Controlling Fiction's Grammar
The most common grammar problems encountered by professional book editors — passive vs. active writing, commas, sentence variation, transitions, and shifting point-of-view.
Pain-Free Synopsis Writing
March through the seven steps of "Synopsis Thinking" and learn to master what everyone else hates — the vital marketing tool that gets agents and editors to read your work.
Sell Your Novel
Dissect and rewrite, rethink and create, analyze and critique according to what a working editor expects — with an opportunity to pitch your novel to Sally.
Poetry
The Sound and Soul of Poetry
From a passionate and multi-published poet — learn how to free your soul to the sound of your own language through the fundamentals of poetics.
Interested in a workshop or seminar?
Reach out directly to discuss availability, scheduling, and fee scale.