writers.com

Gloria Kempton

Fiction and Nonfiction

Discover Your Writing Niche
Create Story Characters Using the Enneagram
The Art of Storytelling Workshop
Make Money Writing the How-To Article
The Hero�s Journey for Storytellers
For Teens Only: Discover Your Writing Niche

About Gloria Kempton
Student Comments
Complete List of Writers.com Classes

Discover Your Writing Niche (8 weeks)

You want to write, but you don't know where to start. Fiction or nonfiction? Article, short story, or how-to book? Who do you want to write for -- children, teens, adults? There is a type of writing that is best suited for you, and the discovery process can be a rewarding adventure. Together, we will explore the various forms of writing and help you identify what you'd be best at.

The class is designed for the individual writer and is formatted using questions that will provoke thought and discussion among students. The questions are focused on a variety of areas that concern the writer, some of which are:

The writing life: Why do I want to write? Is there a theme emerging in my writing? Do I have to write?
Whether to write fiction or nonfiction: Would I rather research facts or tell stories? Do I need structure and organization or can I let my imagination go? Would I rather interview people for the truth or create my own truth in the characters that I develop myself?
The audience: I'm in a bookstore; on which shelf do I see my book? What age group am I most comfortable with? As a writer, am I more motivated to teach or to inspire?

We'll explore how to approach the publishing industry in the way that best fits you, whether you're contacting an agent or an editor, whether you're writing a query letter or a book proposal. In this workshop you'll have the opportunity to write in several different forms and learn everything you need to know to launch a successful writing career.

Class Outline

Week #1: In this first class, we discuss who we are as writers, where our writing passion comes from, what drives us, as well as more practical things such as what writers do to keep themselves motivated; join critique groups, start an idea file, create a writing mission statement, etc. Assignment: To write a personal experience story

Week #2: This class focuses on the creator's relationship to his or her creation, in this case the writer's relationship to the manuscript. We will talk about how to find one's true voice for each different piece, how to craft the very best query letter in order to sell the idea before writing it, and how to make sure each piece we write has that crucial element called "reader-take-away." Assignment: To write a how-to article

Week #3: Our audience is the focus of this class. Questions thrown out are designed to help us think through who we want to write for and why. Those who are on a spiritual journey of some kind may want to write for the inspirational market while the career-minded may want to write for those consumed by business dreams. At some point in one's writing life, one must pin down one's primary audience. This class will help us do that. Assignment: To write a humor piece

Week #4: Every writer has a tendency to write short or long (short story and article length versus novel and nonfiction book length) and in this class we'll discuss the attraction of both as well as the resources needed for both. Many writers, of course, work on short pieces and booklength manuscripts simultaneously. We'll identify the kind of writer who is able to do this and how to keep all of those plates spinning without a major breakdown. Assignment: To write a personal essay

Week #5: Whether we choose to write fiction or nonfiction, there are some important questions to ask to help us begin to understand which of these we're best at and why. We may be drawn to one or the other at different points in our lives and the more conscious we are of this, the better we'll be at finding our strengths and building on those. In this class we talk about the form that best fits us and what it takes to write for each. Assignment: To write the other person�s story: profile, Q & A or as-told-to

Week #6: This class looks at all of the various types of nonfiction writing available to us; feature articles, essays, personal experiences, how-to articles and books, opinion pieces, humor articles, inspirational pieces, as-told-to articles and books, personality profiles, business articles, greeting cards, and much more. We'll learn the questions to ask that will best help us discover whether or not each of these types of writing is something any or all of us would enjoy doing. Assignment: To write a summary for a research article

Week #7: There are as many types of fiction stories, whether short or novel length, as there are nonfiction articles from which to choose. In this class, we explore which type might fit each of us then take a brief look at the overview of the fictional form. We will familiarize ourselves with the elements necessary to create quality fiction. Assignment: To write a fiction piece

Week #8: Agents, editors, and the publishing industry are very much a part of every published writer's life. In this class we discuss how to make our most professional approach. There is a way to navigate the industry so that it doesn't overwhelm us. We must learn to control and manage our own writing careers before we turn our talents over to the industry. Assignment: To write a query letter and a mission statement

to top of page | about Gloria Kempton & student comments

Create Story Characters Using the Enneagram (10 weeks)

The development of fictional or real story characters can often be a daunting task because, unless we have psychology degrees, we can only guess and imagine what motivates real human beings in their lives to do what they do and become who they are. And we want our story characters to be real human beings. And so we use extensive dossiers we find in how-to-write books. Or we just start writing our stories, hoping the characters come to life for us and are consistent and real in their behaviors and interactions with each other.

Along comes the Enneagram, an ancient personality study originating with the Sufis hundreds of years ago and brought to America in the 1960's, a tool to help writers take the guesswork out of character development. Because the Enneagram is real and is used by some of the top psychologists in our country, we can count on its credibility to show us what motivates real people in their relationships and individual psychological, emotional and spiritual growth. The Enneagram is the answer to flat, dull, undeveloped characters that readers soon forget after reading the story. The Enneagram can even be used to bring real people to life in our memoirs.

According to the Enneagram, human beings are deeply driven by one of nine motivations:

1) the need to be right
2) the need to be loved and valued
3) the need to be productive and to succeed
4) the need to experience one's feelings and to be understood
5) the need to understand
6) the need for security
7) the need to be happy and avoid suffering
8) the need to be self-reliant and strong
9) the need for peace and to avoid conflict.

Character development and motivation is the key to reader identification. It is only as your reader identifies with your characters that he or she will keep turning the pages of your story. In this workshop, learn the secrets of the Enneagram to guarantee that your reader identifies, cares about, and sympathizes with your story characters.

Class Outline

Week #1: Origin of the Enneagram; a brief intro of each of the nine personality types. Assignment: To choose one of five scenarios and write a line of dialogue for each personality type.

Week #2: Study of the #1, the Reformer; Assignment: To write a scene showing the Reformer reflecting on a personal issue inside of him or herself or reflecting on some issue with another character who has an opposing viewpoint.

Week #3: Study of the #2, the Giver; Assignment: To write a love scene between the #2, the Giver, and the #1, the Reformer.

Week #4: Study of the #3, the Achiever; Assignment: to write a tense action scene involving the #3, the Achiever, and the #2, the Giver.

Week #5: Study of the #4, the Artist; Assignment: To write a dramatic and emotional scene showing the #4, the Artist, in conflict with the #1, the Reformer.

Week #6: Study of the #5, the Observer; Assignment: To write a scene showiing the #5, the Observer, communicating a story's theme/truth to the #3, the Achiever.

Week #7: Study of the #6, the Skeptic; Assignment: To write a scene of dialogue showing the #6, the Skeptic, trying to persuade the #5, the Observer, of his/her point of view.

Week #8: Study of the #7, the Adventurer; Assignment: To write a scene of external and internal suspense showing the #7, the Adventurer, in tense conflict with the #4, the Artist.

Week #9: Study of the #8, the Asserter; Assignment: To write a scene showing the #8, the Asserter, trying to get control of the #6, the Skeptic.

Week #10: Study of the #9, the Peacemaker; Assignment: To write a flashback scene that shows the #9, the Peacemaker, in unwanted conflict with the #8, the Asserter.

to top of page | about Gloria Kempton & student comments

Make Money Writing the How-To Article (6 weeks)

"I write how-to because freelancing pays my bills, and how-to's probably comprise the largest single slice of today's freelance market. Instructional nonfiction is where the assignments are, and where the money is."

David Petersen
Writer's Digest, March, 1992

Good advice. It was true in 1992, and it's true now. One how-to writer recently claimed that, while over the years she has written a variety of types of articles, selling some, while receiving rejections for others, she has sold every single how-to article she's ever written.

In this 6-week course, the student will learn how to discover and develop ideas for how-to articles. How-to ideas range from how to sell your stuff on Ebay to how to facilitate a successful book club to how to communicate with your teenager. The course assignment is to, step by step, write one how-to article, as well as an effective query letter that will sell the article. By the end of the course, the student should have a strong handle on the how-to structure, the kind of query letter that will grab the editor's attention, and know how to successfully market the article.

Week One: Defining the how-to article, exploring all areas of your life for ideas; the external and internal idea search. Assignment: To come up with five ideas.

Week Two: Organizing the article; creating the structure; deciding the tone; the how-to "voice." Assignment: To write an article outline.

Week Three: The grabber opening; choosing the best and most effective opening for the article; establishing a bond with the reader. Assignment: To write the opening of the article.

Week Four: The body of the article; the step-by-step how-to, the roundup; the expository how-to; using quotes; conducting your research; anecdotes; pacing the article. Assignment: To write the body of the article.

Week Five: Winding up the article; anecdotal endings; a call to action; a final summary; revising the article; writing the query letter. Assignment: To revise the article and write the query letter.

Week Six: Marketing the how-to article; spotting trends; sidebars; enclosures; simultaneous query/article submissions; perseverance.

to top of page | about Gloria Kempton & student comments

The Art of Storytelling Workshop (8 weeks)

Have you ever wondered about that almost magical ability that some writers seem to have to weave tales of romance, adventure, suspense, comedy, and/or horror? Whether writing fiction or memoir, these writers know how to connect with their readers so as to cause their spines to tingle, their hearts to stop, their minds to expand, their fantasies to soar, and their bellies to rock with laughter.

Is this ability a gift? Or can any writer learn to create these kinds of stories?

In this workshop, we approach storytelling as an art form that you can learn if you're willing to surrender your misconceptions about what makes a good story. Some of you may think it's all about voice. Others would swear that it's about a plot that moves. This is misconception #1. The truth is it's about both - voice and structure.

We will break the art of storytelling down into practical techniques and strategies that will work like magic when applied to the page, but which will be invisible to the reader. You'll learn how to put your creative ideas into a form, whether your stories fit more naturally into fiction or nonfiction, how to find the most effective voice and/or viewpoint, how to craft suspenseful scenes so that they move a story forward, how to create characters with real emotions so that readers will care about them, how to structure a story, and finally how to connect with your reader.

Class Outline

Week #1: Where to find ideas; sorting through ideas to find the best ones; story starters; how you start your stories; whether to write fiction or nonfiction; crafting your theme so as to focus your story. Assignment: To come up with five ideas and explore those ideas, using a list of criteria to be provided.

Week #2: Outlining your story; choosing and exploring your setting; crafting scenes that move the story's action; writing interesting scene sequels that connect your scenes. Assignment: To outline your story, using the scene/sequel structure.

Week #3: Exploring all of the potential viewpoints for your story: choosing the only viewpoint approach for the story you want to tell; discovering your voice. Assignment: To choose two viewpoints and write a brief scene in each one.

Week #4: Creating your cast of characters - real or fictional; creating realistic protagonists and antagonists; telling your truth about real people when they're still alive; crafting effective dialogue; developing your characters' motivation so that we believe them; where and when to use flashbacks so that they don't stop the story action. Assignment: To create your cast of characters and write a brief description of each; to write a more in-depth profile/scene of your protagonist and antagonist

Week #5: Exploring the depth of human emotions for your characters; using the Enneagram to show the differences in character motivations; developing humorous characters for the comedic story; creating the emotion to fit the various story types; horror, romance, sci-fi/fantasy, action adventure, suspense thriller, mystery, mainstream, literary, and young adult. Assignment: To write a scene of motivation from your protagonist's point of view, determined by the type of story you've chosen to write.

Week #6: Building the suspense in your story; tips for heightening the tension; pacing your story so that it ebbs and flows in a natural way, surprising your reader. Assignment: To write a brief scene of action that includes both tension and suspense

Week #7: Putting all of the elements of storytelling together so as to create a work of art; how to know when a story is working or not; what to look for when trying to fix a story that's not working. Assignment: To write the opening scene/chapter of your story, whether novel, short story, or memoir.

Week #8: The power of story to connect with readers; final charge for the confirmed storyteller; marketing your story to the right audience.

to top of page | about Gloria Kempton & student comments

The Hero�s Journey for Storytellers(10 weeks)

For me, the word, 'hero', is like the word 'home' --we all want to go home. We all want to be at home. We all want to be a hero. We all want the traits that a hero has. To be a hero is to be a believer in our own amazing potential, to be courageous in pursuing our life�s adventure, and to be sacrificial in our relationships with ourselves and others. It's to decrease our emphasis on the fighting and aggressive warrior archetype that we all seem to understand way too well and begin to live in the transformative and �miraculous power of the magician archetype. To be a hero is to be at home in our own lives.

Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey is about finding the hero in our lives and giving him expression. It's saying yes to the hero when he shows up. We face down our demons and transform our fears into places of magical and miraculous potential. When we are able to do that we are empowered from the deepest and most authentic place inside of ourselves.

As writers and storytellers, acknowledging the Hero's Journey for ourselves if we're the main character in our story or acknowledging it for our characters if we're writing fiction is to give ourselves permission to break through the conflicts and troubled places in our minds to a place of transcendence, freedom, and redemption.

Chris Vogler writes in his book, The Writer's Journey: "The Hero's Journey is not an invention, but an observation. It is a recognition of a beautiful design, a set of principles that govern the conduct of life and the world of storytelling the way physics and chemistry govern the physical world... The Hero's Journey is a pattern that seems to extend in many dimensions, describing more than one reality. It accurately describes, among other things, the process of making a journey, the necessary working parts of a story, the joys and despairs of being a writer, and the passage of a soul through life."

This course is about identifying the journey you want to write about, deciding whether you want to approach your hero's journey through fiction or nonfiction, and then having the courage to say yes to the "call to adventure" and move into the "special world" of The Hero's Journey.

Recommended text: The Writer's Journey, by Chris Vogler.

Week One: Introduction to Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey.
What is it? How does it inform our lives? How can we become the heroes of our own lives through writing our stories? Is it possible to move from our deep-seated perception of ourselves as victims and start thinking of ourselves as heroes?
Assignment: To submit three ideas for group exploration using The Hero's Journey criteria.

Week Two: Outlining your Hero's Journey
Feeling passionate about the story idea you've chosen; becoming clear about the archetypes in your idea; identifying the stages of the journey and organizing the story events into a form.
Assignment: To create a structure for your story, to recognize the character archetypes as they present themselves, to be able to state the purpose of each archetype in your journey.

Week Three: The Ordinary World and the Call to Adventure
Hooking the reader; introducing the hero and his psychic wound; establishing your hero's background; creating an initial mood, image or metaphor; asking the sacred question; placing the inciting incident; moving behind the Herald's mask.
Assignment: To begin your story, introducing the ordinary world and writing through to the call to adventure

Week Four: The Refusal of the Call and Meeting with the Mentor
The hero avoids the call; creative excuses for his resistance; the challenge of the threshold guardians; the appearance of the Mentor; the many masks of the Mentor
Assignment: To move your hero through the refusal of the call and the meeting with the Mentor

Week Five: Crossing the First Threshold and Tests, Allies, and Enemies
Approaching the threshold and encountering the threshold guardians; crossing the threshold; contrasting the ordinary world and the special world; testing the hero; discerning who are allies and who are enemies; new rules of the special world
Assignment: To get your hero across the first threshold where he is tested and encounters his allies and enemies

Week Six: Approach to the Inmost Cave and Ordeal
Deciding on the hero's approach to his adventure; encountering the obstacles; creative appeals to the threshold guardians; complications and higher stakes; stepping back to reorganize; breakthrough; no exit; death and rebirth; crisis; facing the shadow; taste of death and cheating death; crisis of the heart; facing the greatest fear; death of the ego
Assignment: To write your hero's approach to the inmost cave and take him through his ordeal

Week Seven: Reward (Seizing the Sword) and The Road Back
Celebrating the victory; campfire and/or love scenes; taking possession of the external or internal goal; facing death; rededication to the call; renewed motivation in the face of retaliation from the enemy; chase scenes; final setback
Assignment: To reward your hero and put him on the road back home

Week Eight: Resurrection and Return with the Elixir
Cleansing from the smell of death and a new self: showdown and the highest stake yet; climax and catharsis; understanding the character arc; the hero's sacrifice; denouement; the circular story form vs. the open-ended story form; surprise; reward and punishment; identifying the Elixir
Assignment: To resurrect your hero and show his return with the Elixir

Week Nine: Rewriting your Journey
A look at theme, structure, voice, style, and tone.
Assignment: To rewrite your Hero's journey story, getting as close as you can to the story's authentic truth.

Week Ten: What now?
Learn to use your Hero's Journey in an ongoing way as a metaphor for your life.
Assignment: To write a brief summary of what you plan to do with your Hero's Journey story.

to top of page | about Gloria Kempton & student comments

For Teens Only: Discover Your Writing Niche (8 weeks)

You want to write. Maybe one of your teachers praised a story or essay you wrote. Now what? What do you do with the writing talent you know you have? Do you write fiction or nonfiction? Article, short story, or novel? Who do you want to write for -- other teens like yourself? Children? Pet lovers?

The class is designed for the individual writer and is formatted using questions that will provoke thought and discussion among students. The questions are focused on a variety of areas that concern the writer, some of which are:

The writing life: Why do I want to write? Is there a theme emerging in my writing? Do I have to write?
Whether to write fiction or nonfiction: Would I rather research facts or tell stories? Do I need structure and organization or can I let my imagination go? Would I rather interview people for the truth or create my own truth in the characters that I develop myself?
The audience: I'm in a bookstore; on which shelf do I see my book? What age group am I most comfortable with? As a writer, am I more motivated to teach or to inspire?

We'll explore how to approach the publishing industry in the way that best fits you, whether you're contacting an agent or an editor, whether you're writing a query letter or a book proposal. In this workshop you'll have the opportunity to write in several different forms and learn everything you need to know to launch a successful writing career.

Class Outline

Week #1: In this first class, we discuss who we are as writers, where our writing passion comes from, what drives us, as well as more practical things such as what writers do to keep themselves motivated; join critique groups, start an idea file, create a writing mission statement, etc.

Week #2: This class focuses on the creator's relationship to his or her creation, in this case the writer's relationship to the manuscript. We will talk about how to find one's true voice for each different piece, how to craft the very best query letter in order to sell the idea before writing it, and how to make sure each piece we write has that crucial element called "reader-take-away."

Week #3: Our audience is the focus of this class. Questions thrown out are designed to help us think through who we want to write for and why. Those who are on a spiritual journey of some kind may want to write for the inspirational market while the career-minded may want to write for those consumed by business dreams. At some point in one's writing life, one must pin down one's primary audience. This class will help us do that.

Week #4: Every writer has a tendency to write short or long (short story and article length versus novel and nonfiction book length) and in this class we'll discuss the attraction of both as well as the resources needed for both. Many writers, of course, work on short pieces and booklength manuscripts simultaneously. We'll identify the kind of writer who is able to do this and how to keep all of those plates spinning without a major breakdown.

Week #5: Whether we choose to write fiction or nonfiction, there are some important questions to ask to help us begin to understand which of these we're best at and why. We may be drawn to one or the other at different points in our lives and the more conscious we are of this, the better we'll be at finding our strengths and building on those. In this class we talk about the form that best fits us and what it takes to write for each.

Week #6: This class looks at all of the various types of nonfiction writing available to us; feature articles, essays, personal experiences, how-to articles and books, opinion pieces, humor articles, inspirational pieces, as-told-to articles and books, personality profiles, business articles, greeting cards, and much more. We'll learn the questions to ask that will best help us discover whether or not each of these types of writing is something any or all of us would enjoy doing.

Week #7: There are as many types of fiction stories, whether short or novel length, as there are nonfiction articles from which to choose. In this class, we explore which type might fit each of us then take a brief look at the overview of the fictional form. We will familiarize ourselves with the elements necessary to create quality fiction.

Week #8: Agents, editors, and the publishing industry are very much a part of every published writer's life. In this class we discuss how to make our most professional approach. There is a way to navigate the industry so that it doesn't overwhelm us. We must learn to control and manage our own writing careers before we turn our talents over to the industry.

to top of page | about Gloria Kempton & student comments

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