Event recap
Standing out in today’s market is one of the more challenging things for authors today but one of the most important thing for creating dedicated readers is an author’s unique voice. Stefanie London presented an informative workshop on how to best present your unique voice, concept and execution to attract readers. “The concept makes a reader excited to read, the voice makes them enjoy reading.”
Concept is the backbone of a book, the essence of the story distilled into one or two sentences. A fresh and interesting concept can hook readers. Stefanie provided some great suggestions on how to develop an individualized concept, such as flipping traditional tropes and pairing unusual characters or plot devices.
Voice is an author’s unique style and can encompass word choice, phrasing, sentence length and pattern, cadence, and tone. In short, all of the little quirks and habits that allow a reader to identify one author from another. Voice can be hard to define but authors can learn to identify their own voices through free writing, looking at their own favourite aspects of entertainment, e.g. do they enjoy world-building or snappy dialogue or heart-wrenching drama. Stefanie taught us five ways to strengthen our own voices.
Execution covers just about every other decision that goes into a book: the word count, tropes, genre, values, and heat level (to name a few). Each decision affects different aspects of an author’s story. For example, word count determines the number and depth of sub-plots, the timeframe and pacing, etc.
Stefanie’s final advice was to be authentic and hold to the stories that we as authors want to write.
About Stefanie
Stefanie London is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance with humour, heat and heart. Also llamas. Originally from Melbourne, Australia Stefanie now lives in Toronto, Canada with her wonderful husband. She loves to read, collect lipsticks, watch zombie movies and drink coffee. Her bestselling book, Pretend It’s Love, is a 2016 Romantic Book of the Year finalist with the Romance Writers of Australia.
Event details
Sunday April 7, 2019 (2:30 to 4:30pm)
New temporary location:
- Algonquin College (1385 Woodroffe Ave)
- Room T119
- Building T is down College Ave off Woodroffe, across from the Ryan Farm Park.
- Parking is a flat $5 fee on the weekend, for lots 8, 9, 10 and 12
- Algonquin is a smoke-free campus
ORWA member tickets: Free (must have up-to-date paid ORWA and RWA memberships)
Non-member tickets: $25
Reserve your spot on our Eventbrite page or by emailing [email protected]
You can also join our Facebook Event Page to get Facebook reminders.
In consideration for those who have allergies and asthma, please refrain from wearing scented products at our workshops and meetings.