Cathy Yardley is the author of over 33 novels in genres including romance, women’s fiction, and urban fantasy. She is a previous president of the Los Angeles and San Francisco chapters of RWAmerica, and she’s been quoted in the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and SF Guardian. 

She is also a popular writing coach, helping authors figure out how to get their stories “unstuck” and their writing careers back on track. You can find out more at rockyourwriting.com and cathyyardley.com.

FRIDAY 16 AUGUST 2024
Ballroom 5 | 8.30am - 2.15pm

Morning session: Rock Your Plot
Whether you’re a plotter, a pantser, or somewhere in between, this session will help you better pin down what drives fully fleshed characters to want what they want, and do what they do, and then show you how to take that knowledge and create organic turning points to create a page-turning, keep-your-readers-up-until-way-too-late keeper… in way less time than you think.

We will cover:

    1.       Testing your premise (so you don’t have just a handful of tropes or a “cool idea”)
    2.       Goal, Motivation, Conflict – what it needs to do, and how to make it work
    3.       The Rock Your Plot 8 plot point approach
    4.       The importance of scene structure, and why disasters are necessary
    5.       Scene outlines (if a roadmap makes you feel good)
    6.       Just the guardrails (if you need flexibility)

This is an interactive session, so you’ll be able to ask plenty of questions.

Afternoon session: Rock Your Writing (Life)
If you’re trying to be a serious, hopefully profitable writer, especially a full time one, the expectations placed on you seem immense. Not only do you have to write, you need to either research and query (if you’re pursuing traditional) or you need to take on all the duties of being a publisher (hiring editors, cover artists, formatters if need be, and then wrangle with distribution and pricing.) Not to mention you need to somehow build a platform and promote your work across a variety of social media, a newsletter, etc. You need to not only be a writer, but a photographer, a video personality, a graphic designer, and a business person. All that, on top of whatever other roles you have in your life: spouse, family member, parent, employee. (If applicable, add to it being neuroatypical. For example, if you have depression, anxiety, or ADHD. Everything gets that much harder, and in my experience, many writers are dealing with something along those lines!)

Just reading all that is exhausting, isn’t it? How are you supposed to write the much-emphasized three or four books a year with all those obstacles? Or what if you’re just stuck?

In this session, we’re going to address the four main overarching reasons why you’re not writing (or not writing as quickly as you’d hope) and offer some insights on how to address them. These boil down to:

    1.       Issues with focus
    2.       Issues with energy
    3.       Issues with fear
    4.       Issues with process

Once we identify which issue(s) you’re dealing with, you’ll be armed with some broad approaches and specific solutions, based on what would actually work for you and your personality and lifestyle. 

SUNDAY 18 AUGUST 2024
Ballroom 1-5 | 9.30am - 10.30am

Bestsellers Spill the Tea