“No time is better spent than the time I spend rewriting, and nothing is more fun.”

— Haruki Murakami, The Novelist as Vocation

Revising and editing may require different skills than the ones that generated your first draft, but the work is no less creative. Editing your own work takes strategic focus and more importantly, a willingness to listen to what your writing wants to be. 

Whether you write creative non-fiction, or fiction (long or short), this one-day workshop will help you tackle questions such as when do revisions start, how much work is there to do, and how do you know when you’re finished? Through exercises and collaborative feedback, instructor Krista Foss gets you sharpening your editing chops in order to save you revision time and heartache, push your work to its full potential, and make your words glow.

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WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

9:30 AM – 10:00 AM		Arrival
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM		Introductions and Definitions
		When is a draft a first draft? What are the different layers of revision and editing?
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM		The Big Picture Edit
		Structure Pacing Character Development Exercise
11:15 AM – 12:00 PM		Revising for Style
		Point of View/Voice Prose and the case for ruthlessness Exercises
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM		Lunch
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM		The Fine-Tooth Comb
		Verisimilitude and Fact Checking Copy-editing Exercises
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM		When is a draft finished?
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM		Finding Beta readers and setting boundaries
3:30 PM – 4:00 PM		Wrap up and departure
		Next steps, Q&A, resources

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ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Photo by Krista Ockenden

KRISTA FOSS is a novelist, essayist and short story writer. Her short fiction has appeared in several literary journals including Granta and she has twice been a finalist for the Journey Prize. Her essay writing has been featured in Best Canadian Essays and has been nominated for a National Magazine Award. She has two novels published by McClelland & Stewart: Smoke River (2014), which won the Hamilton Literary Award, and Half Life (2021). Krista is an experienced workshop teacher and a busy writing coach and editor. When she’s not lake swimming or in the woods, she’s working on a third novel and new short fiction from her home in Westport, Ontario.  

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COST & REGISTRATION

$125 + HST includes instruction and a gourmet lunch.

This workshop is limited to 18 participants.

Quantity:

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If registering for more than one person, please enter the number required as the “Quantity” and you will be charged accordingly.

HST is included in the checkout price.