IEMA Approved CSR Practitioner Workshop, February 9-10, 2010

Classical Music Workshops at the White House |

PCI-Media Impact Hosts International Workshop on Entertainment Education and Social Marketing

Teil 1 Workshop Hobby Wir stellen vor

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Our workshop for "Escpèces d'Architecte" on étapes: magazine

Kein Kommentar oder klare Krisenkommunikation

Gießen - Viele Menschen stehen vor der Krise wie der Zwerg vor dem Berg. Drei Referenten aus drei unterschiedlichen Branchen bieten interessanten Workshop an. "Wir helfen den Teilnehmern, wie sie der Riese in der Krise werden können", erklärt Nadja Merl-Stephan, Geschäftsführerin der PR-Agentur redshoe dogs. "Denn Kommunikation in Krisenzeiten will geübt sein." Und deshalb steht in diesem Workshop neben der Erarbeitung grundsätzlicher Verhaltensregeln im Krisenfall die Praxis im Mittelpunkt. Die Teilnehmer werden in einem professionellen Produktionsstudio gecoacht. Verschiedene Krisensituationen werden simuliert und vor laufender Kamera und Mikro fühlen echte Journalisten den...

Kein Kommentar oder klare Krisenkommunikation bei Pressehof komplett lesen

Plot Workshop

What is plot?
A series of events that move the story forward.

Moving the Story Forward
A story is moved forward by conflict. Conflict in a piece of fiction is when a character (such as your protagonist) has a goal, but some kind of obstacle (possibly another character) gets in the way. The character then tries to overcome the obstacle.

• Example: In the Harry Potter series, Voldemort has a goal; he wants to take over the world. Originally, Dumbledore acts as an obstacle for Voldemort. Later on, Harry is the obstacle. Voldemort tries to get around these obstacles in several ways (such as attempted murder).
• Example: In The Odyssey, Odysseus really wants to get home after the end of the Trojan War. He has many obstacles (Circe, the Cyclops, etc.) but he keeps trying, and eventually succeeds.

Types of Conflict

1. Internal: In an internal conflict, a character has a goal, but becomes his or her own obstacle, often because of emotions like fear, guilt, love, etc.
2. Interpersonal: In an interpersonal conflict, two (or more) characters have different goals and act as obstacles to each other.
3. External: External conflicts are BIG. They exist on a greater scale than just a person or two; they involve many, many people. War, revolutions (social, political, religious, etc.), natural disaster, pandemic disease, and economic collapse are all external conflicts. In an external conflict, something BIG acts as an obstacle to the goals of many people, OR large groups of people have opposing goals.

Examples:

1. Bob wants to try out for the football team (goal) but he is afraid of publicly failing (obstacle).
2. Mary wants to be valedictorian, but so does Carla. They can't both be valedictorian, so they are in conflict with each other.
3. A plague sweeps through a city, killing hundreds of people (who probably have a goal of living). Two countries both want the same chunk of land, and they end up going to war over it.

Most long stories have several conflicts and conflict types in them. Think about your favorite book: what conflicts can you find in it?

Conflict does not mean "fighting." A story can have a truckload of conflict without a single fistfight or screaming match. Yes, those are conflict, but not the only kinds!

Events
The events in a story can be broken down into scenes. Scenes are the smallest discrete element in a story. One scene can be a complete story. A traditional novel is divided into chapters, which are composed of one or more scenes.

Scenes must have conflict. Without conflict, scenes will not move the story forward. If they don't move the story forward, they are useless and must be destroyed!

Scenes must also have change. Change is the natural product of conflict. Conflict is useless if no change occurs. Change can be the resolution of the conflict, a deepening of it, or a complete transformation of it.

Creating Scenes

1. Determine the conflict(s) in the scene and the starting situation.
2. Ask yourself how the conflict(s) will change the situation.
3. Ask yourself what effects the change will have. Conflicts and change create ripples that can (and often should) have long reaching consequences. These consequences can show up at the end of a scene, or lurk unnoticed for several scenes. A change in the first scene of a story could have unexpected consequences ten chapters down the road.

Example:

1. Starting situation: the pirate ships Arrrrgh and Shiver Me Timbers have just entered the same patch of ocean. Conflicts: they are both seeking the same treasure, and they both know it.
2. The conflict will change the situation from just two ships in the same waters to two ships trying to destroy each other. Instead of peace, there will be a battle at sea.
3. A consequence of the battle could be getting the attention of the Royal Navy, which could hinder the search for the treasure.

Creating a Scene Outline
This is not the same as one of those A, B, C, I, II, III outlines you do for school! In a scene outline, you write out one sentence per scene. That one sentence needs to describe both the conflict in the scene and the change that takes place.

Example:

1. Two enemy ships encounter each other on the high seas as they both search for a legendary treasure, then proceed to pound each other to pieces. (Conflict: two ships who both want the same treasure; Change: ships attack each other, both are damaged)
2. The Royal Navy, charged with eradicating piracy, hears about the battle and starts to hunt down both of the ships. (Conflict: the Navy wants to stop the pirates, who obviously want to keep being pirates; Change: Navy begins looking for these specific ships)
3. A storm forces one of the ships off course, losing it valuable time in the treasure hunt. (Conflict: external conflict with the weather, because the storm prevents the ship from continuing the direction it wished to go in; Change: the ship is off course, possibly damaged, and it lost time, giving the other ship an advantage when they had previously been equal)

Scene outlines allow you to plan your novel without getting too constricted. They are easier to change than other methods, and you don't include so much detail that you lose interest in the story.

Plot Twists
Plot twists are excellent tools for creating a complex, intriguing plot. To create a plot twist, you must first assess what consequences a reader will expect a change to have. Then, instead of using those expected consequences, you go with the unexpected. By using these unexpected (but still logical) consequences, you can create the kind of plot twists that surprise and delight the reader (instead of the kind that seem random and nonsensical).

Example:
In the previous example, a consequence of the ships' battle was the interest of the Royal Navy. This is a pretty predictable consequence: battles attract attention, and if the Navy hears about pirates, it's going to go after them. An unexpected twist would be if the Navy heard about the battle, and instead of going after the ships, went after the treasure instead.

Putting It All Together
Start off with thinking about conflict. You can base conflict on what seems appropriate to your characters or your setting, or you can start with conflict and use it to develop characters and setting. Pick several conflicts; the more conflict your story has, the more changes you can envision, and the more scenes you can create. Plenty of conflict is essential to writing a lengthy story.

After you have your conflicts, think about what changes will result from them. Use these changes to create scenes, and use the consequences of these changes to create even more scenes. If you don't want to create a full outline of your story, you can try creating just a few scenes, then just write on-the-fly for whatever happens in between those scenes.

There are several advantages to planning your story before you start writing. The greatest advantage, of course, that when you actually start writing, you have a guide. An outline is the secret weapon to defeat the terrible Blank Page.

Packing your plot with conflict and change will keep it interesting, and help you avoid writing pages and pages of "Bob got up, ate breakfast, mowed the lawn, went to the store, ate some ice cream, blah blah there is nothing interesting happening here..."

Interkulturelles Training - Einführung in Methoden: Jetzt 04. - 05. Dezember 2009 in Göttingen

Göttingen - Die Universitätsstadt Göttingen ist nicht zufällig der Firmensitz von IKUD® Seminare: Mit dem offiziellen Motto "Stadt, die Wissen schafft" passt das Weiterbildungsunternehmen ideal hierher. Das Seminar "Interkulturelles Training - Einführung in Methoden" findet nun vom 04. - 05. Dezember 2009 in Göttingen statt im österreichischen Linz statt.

Im Seminar mit Workshop-Charakter werden die Grundlagen zur Thematik interkultureller Trainings vermittelt. Dabei stellt IKUD Seminare bewährte und selbst entwickelte Materialien vor und zeigt eine Vielzahl didaktischer Varianten auf, mithilfe derer selbstständig Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen im interkulturellen Bereich...

Interkulturelles Training - Einführung in Methoden: Jetzt 04. - 05. Dezember 2009 in Göttingen bei Pressehof komplett lesen

Write with Passion

note: This is a bonus post for the workshop I held on MuseCon (also known as the Muse Online Writers Conference).

A personal story

At the start of this year I was very ill. Pneumonia in both lungs. To "entertain" myself while being ill, I decided to write a project that had been floating in my mind for a while. A paranormal romance, with a special kind of vampires. My own brand so to say.

I wrote, and eventually finished the book in june/july of this year. I have no desire whatsoever to go back and edit that book. Why? There is no passion for it in me. I don't care whether my main character gets staked, sauteed, or snarfed up by the werewolves. He isn't talking to me, I never connected with him, and I doubt I ever will, given my complete lack of love for purely alpha males.

Even though I did finish that first draft, and I am very proud of doing that, I know I broke my own first rule of writing.

Write what you love, and write it passionately.

Write what makes the joy you felt in typing every word sizzle off the page. Write with fire, and care deeply for your characters, fall in love with them, or, in case of an antagonist, hate them with every fiber of your being. Care what happens to them, and they will pay you back tenfold. Care about your readers, make them fall in love with your main character like you yourself are, make that love show in every page, in every sentence.

When you write with that passion, there is no room for fear. There is no room for nagging doubts, for what if questions, for the vice grip of fear on the in your stomach.

You just write whenever and wherever you can, because you can't wait to find out what happens next.

The non-fiction writers amongst you, can use this same passion to make your readers empassionate about your subject, you can use that same fire, to really get into the research. Love your subject, it is all the same as fiction writers love their characters.

Right now I am working on a plot for a science fiction novel. It is hard work, as I need to do a lot of research, and the plotting needs to be tighter than anything I have written until this moment. But it is SO much joy, fun, bliss. My inner two year old is engaged with everything she has in her. She is too happy to play to realize she really would be scared otherwise.

As for me, two events led me to finally realizing what my true writing passion is. The first was realizing you need to write something that touches on your interests, thanks to the "How to think Sideways" course from Holly Lisle. The second was reading the first Stardoc novel from S.L. Viehl, a book I won in a contest she ran during the Left Behind and Loving It workshop.

I went back to my folder of writing projects, and just dug in there. I put the stories that didn't say anything to me in a separate folder. What was left over? A couple fantasy tales and 10 science fiction stories.  My inner two year old just jumped up when I realized that. She loves the stars, she loves to discover, she loves to learn, to engage her mind. She loves to muddle over things, figure out how they work.

Science fiction.

I know isn't the easiest passion to have, lots of research involved for the new novel project I am plotting, but damn, I am so in love with the genre. It touches on so many of my interests, and that is why I love to work on giving these characters the book they deserve. I am also editing a novella that has been on my hard disk for almost a year now. Why did I never edit it? Because I didn't realize how important it was to me. Because my inner two year old still managed to toss fear in front of me, until I realized how important it was.

The funny thing is, I started writing the novel project I am planning, and abandoned it. There was no passion in it. I tried to apply a plot that came to me for a mystery novel, and turned it to a SciFi novel. That SO didn't work. But I love my main character. Only now I am sitting down, and let her come to life on my computer screen. I know I can give her a book that does her justice now.

And in writing that book, there is no room for fear.

What is your passion?

A Spicey Workshop

Vibrating to the sounds of Janet Jackson, Alexandra 'Spicey' Landé's love for street dance began in 1986. Spicey has studied and taught Hip-Hop dance for over 12 years at established Montreal dance studios. She is a well known choreographer and artistic director in the province of Quebec.

In 2005, Unkut Productions, an entertainment company that specializes in producing shows and events, made its way on the urban dance scene. The first fruit of this production is "Bust a Move" a street dance convention held once a year that unites Montreal's some of the worlds best street dancers in a friendly competitive atmosphere.

Spicey has a major influence on Montreal's street dance scene and is recognized as expert in her field. Her understanding of the Hip-Hop culture is admirably portrayed in all of her work and through the years she has developed a unique choreography style pushing hip hop dance to new limits.

Cost: $20.00
Date: Saturday, October 17, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Location: OIP Dance Centre, 190 Richmond Street West, Toronto

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