MFW is happy to announce that Donald Maass, literary agent and author, will be coming to the Twin Cities to present his workshop WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL.About the workshop:

WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL is an intensive, hands-on writing workshop that introduces powerful techniques for taking your fictino to the next level. 

For advanced fiction writers.  Participants must bring the manuscript of a completed, or novel-in-progress.

Topics to be covered include:

• Adding heroic qualities right away
• Opening extra character dimensions
• Constructing inner conflict
• Creating larger-than-life qualities
• Raising personal stakes
• Deepening the antagonist
• Secondary character development
• Building plot layers
• Weaving layers together
• Heightening truning points
• Building high moments
• Measuring change (the secret behind telling-not showing
• Backstory placement
• Theme development
• First lines
• Pitch (synopsis) reduction