Master Classes

Master Class Schedule 2025

Master Classes take advantage of the fact that we're bringing in some amazing speakers for the conference and make their expertise available to anyone in the community. You do not have to be registered for the conference to register for a Master Class. The classes take place immediately before and after the conference at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco on Embarcadero.

Check-in for all classes will begin half an hour before the classes themselves in the Seacliff Lobby on the Bay Level. You can still register at that time, but your first choice of class may be full so we recommend advance registration.

You may request a refund for cancellation before Jan. 31st, 2025, with a $25 cancellation fee. You may make a request to change classes at least 24 hours in advance by emailing registrations@sfwriters.org. Additional fees may apply. No refunds will be given after Jan. 31st.

ALL MASTER CLASSES ARE LIVE AND IN PERSON AT THE HYATT REGENCY SAN FRANCISCO.

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m.-noon

Advanced Fiction Critique Workshop

$50-$149

with Mary Rakow, Ph.D.

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m.-noon

Class description

Open to 6 participants and 4 auditors writing book length projects in fiction, memoir, historical fiction, creative non-fiction and genre fiction. Live critique of 7 pages taken from any location in your draft. Looking at the larger issues (character, plot, dialogue) and the minute (word choice, rhythm, sound, the white of the page). Undergirding these concerns are the bigger questions:

Why is art a necessity?
How can I produce art and not just stuff?
How do I write the book only I can write?
Why is this a reality and not just sentimentality?
Where do I go from here?

Please: Select 7 pages from any part of your project. (It does not have to be the first pages, which are always what we get right at the end 🙂 ). Use standard formatting (double space, pages numbered, print one side only, 12 point font, standard margins, name and contact info.at the top). Make 12 copies. Bring them to class. Be prepared to work hard and to have fun!

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Finding and Working with a Literary Agent - Query Letter Workshop

$149

with Andy Ross & Laurie Fox

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m.-noon

Class description

If you are seeking to get your book published, the first step is usually finding an agent to represent you. This class will lead you through the process of finding the right agent for you. We will discuss how to decide when your book is ready for submission, how to do research on agents, writing effective query letters, preparing book proposals that are convincing to agents and publishers, and describing the work of the agent in negotiating a contract. In the process, we will have a lot to say about the culture and business of publishing.

The first hour, we will have a query letter workshop. In this workshop, we will discuss the elements of a good query letter, and how to write one that will grab the attention of the agent. In advance of this class, prepare a draft query for the book project you are working on. Don’t worry about whether it’s good or not. That’s what this class is for. We will workshop selected queries.

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Think Like an Editor: A Freelance Editor’s Secrets to Bringing Your Manuscript to the Next Level

$149

with Tanya Egan Gibson

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m.-noon

Class description

You’ve written and rewritten your novel or narrative nonfiction manuscript, yet it still doesn’t seem as good as the published books you’ve read and loved. Where do you start? How do you start? How many drafts is enough (or too many)?

As a freelance editor, Tanya Egan Gibson has identified habits that commonly hold back writers from producing publishable work. Perhaps surprisingly (and often confusingly), some of these writing habits are ones that clients were praised for in school or styles that currently work well in those clients’ professions. (Reports, legal briefs, research papers, business letters, and white papers share little stylistically with strong fiction or narrative nonfiction.) Often, people who know how to write well but aren’t employing strong storytelling techniques end up with frustrating rejection feedback like, “Good idea, but the writing isn’t there yet.”

So how to get “there”—and quickly?

In this three-hour crash-course in editing, we’ll address:

What kinds of writing habits trip up many people (including, perhaps, you).
How to “write tight,” decreasing wordiness and repetition and increasing clarity.
How to keep writing from calling attention to itself. (Hey, I'm writing! Aren't my words cool?) and how to spot when you are writing “on the nose.”
How to balance scene and summary.
How to integrate backstory, background, and research in ways that seem organic and transparent.
How to make your sentences and paragraphs flow.
How self-editing at the “line” level may alert you to “bigger picture” (developmental) problems in your manuscript.

This hands-on session will include:

Opportunities to compare published excerpts to similar unpublished ones so that participants can really see the difference that tight editing makes.
Writing prompts for participants from which participants will produce short responses as examples of tight, transparent, specific writing.
Instructor-created examples of unedited passages with exercises that allow participants to turn them into products that are tight, clear, and specific.

Through this class, you will not only learn to look at your own manuscript with an editor’s eyes, but you’ll also discover how editing can be a joyful experience, a treasure hunt through your own prose, a quest for your own gems. Tanya Egan Gibson loves editing, loves second (and third and tenth) drafts, and loves chipping away at a manuscript until its essence is revealed. By the end of this session, you, too, will understand how to chip away at your own work to find the diamond at its center.

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Social Media and the Modern Author Brand

$149

with Rusty Shelton & Paige Velasquez Budde

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m.-noon

Class description

Building a brand as an author in today's environment is as overwhelming as it is difficult. As a result, many authors waste valuable time and money doing the wrong things and end up throwing their hands up in frustration. If you want to avoid that confusion and build a personalized, results-driven marketing strategy to grow your brand as an author and thought leader - from positioning to social media to content marketing and beyond - this advanced workshop is the place to be. This hands-on presentation will peel back the curtain and share the most current marketing and social media strategies used to build platforms for some of the world's leading authors and thought leaders. Long-time SFWC marketing speakers Rusty Shelton & Paige Velasquez Budde will share a 10-step roadmap that will empower attendees to own their first impression, leverage the latest social media strategies to grow their audience, build their list, successfully launch their book and build a long-term brand as a thought leader. Attendees will leave the presentation with an online brand audit and a roadmap they can follow to grow their platform in the years to come. This session will include stand-alone labs focused on online brand audit, quiz/email marketing, LinkedIn and beyond

Attendees will learn how to:

Build a content strategy for social media that uses less time to make a bigger impact
Conduct an online brand audit for yourself and make immediate shifts to impact discoverability (i.e. do you need to change your name?!)
Leverage the new media landscape for success through the earned, rented & owned framework
Understand the latest trends to use LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and other social media channels more effectively to drive results
Create the right content strategy to own the connection with your audience

This is a workshop that values the practical/actionable over the big picture and attendees will be challenged and encouraged to hit the ground running with social media and content marketing. Our discussion will be applicable to both fiction and nonfiction authors. This session is for any writer who wants to go to the next level with their social media and content marketing strategy.

About Rusty

Rusty Shelton first spoke at Harvard on the changing world of PR and marketing at the age of 23. He is a bestselling author, dynamic keynote speaker and successful entrepreneur who has helped lead campaigns for the launch of 35 Wall Street Journals and NY Times bestsellers. He is the co-author (alongside Adam Witty) of The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, Not Ego (ForbesBooks, 2023) and Authority Marketing: How to Leverage 7 Pillars of Thought Leadership to Make Competition Irrelevant (ForbesBooks, 2018), which features a foreword from Steve Forbes, and co-author (alongside Barbara Cave Henricks) of Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), which debuted at #2 on the Austin American-Statesman bestseller list.

Rusty speaks to tens of thousands of people every year about how to build thought leadership, navigate the changing media landscape and make a bigger impact. He has been on faculty at more than 20 Harvard Medical School CME courses over the past 15 years and has spoken for YPO, EO, SXSW Interactive, Oregon State University and numerous Fortune 1000 companies.

Learn more at www.RustyShelton.com, www.ZilkerMedia.com or Books.Forbes.com

About Paige

Paige Velasquez Budde is a veteran marketer, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker. She is a co-founding partner and the CEO of Zilker Media, an Austin-based agency that builds people-driven brands. During her tenure as CEO, the Austin Business Journal has named Zilker one of the city’s fastest growing companies as well as one of its best places to work, two years in a row. It has also been listed on Austin Inno’s list of “Coolest Companies.”

Paige has shared the stage with leaders such as Jamie Dimon, Donald Miller and Daymond John, and speaks to leaders about strategic business influence and people-driven marketing at many conferences and corporate events, including organizations such as Ernst & Young, JPMorgan Chase, Harvard Medical School, The University of Texas, Camp Gladiator, Entrepreneurs Organization, and the Women Presidents Organization. She delivered a TEDx Talk at the University of Texas Business School in March 2023. Her approach to people-driven marketing has been featured in media outlets such as Inc., Thrive Global, KevinMD, Texas CEO Magazine, Authority Magazine, Business News Daily, and Business.com. She is also a member of Entrepreneurs Organization, Women Presidents Organization, C12, Renegade Global and Austin Business Journal BizWomen Leadership Council. She resides in Austin with her husband, Jordan and son, Landry. To learn more, visit https://www.paigevelasquezbudde.com/.

Learn more at www.PaigeVelasquezBudde.com or www,ZilkerMedia.com.

Register now

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

How to Write with Page Turning Tension

$149

with Jordan Rosenfeld

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Class description

Happy, nice people living easy lives make for boring stories. To keep a story taut, and to hold readers’ attention, you must learn to write with tension. Tension in novels, stories, and even memoirs is like the connective tissue that allows muscles to attach to bones, and thus flex their might. It’s the heart of conflict, the backbone of uncertainty, the hallmark of danger. It requires opposing forces—characters and circumstances moving in opposition to each other in a variety of ways, at the scene level, and at the plot level. Learn to understand essential kinds of opposing forces to write page turning stories.

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Finding the Voice You Need to Write Your Own Memoir

$149

with Monica Wesolowska

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Class description

What does it mean to find a “voice” for your memoir? Wouldn’t that just be your own voice? While sounding like yourself is certainly important to memoir writing, there are many ways to sound like oneself, and not all of them are right for a memoir. The “right” voice for your memoir is the one that will help you (and your eventual readers) keep going, all the way to the end of your story. Whether you’ve tried to write memoir before or not, this masterclass will give you fresh ideas on how to write and get your own story into the world.

Learn how memory and creativity work together
Discover strategies used by published memoirists
Generate some of your own key memories
Explore new patterns and structures
Gain insight on getting your story into the world

This course is open to anyone interested in the genre of memoir. You’ll gain inspiration from a wide range of published memoirists. You’ll explore memory in new, creative ways and have a chance to share your work with others. By the end, you should have a stronger sense of your own voice and how to put a publishable memoir into the world.

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Unraveling the Mystery of GMCs (Goals, Motivations, Conflicts), and How to Prepare Pitches That Pack a Punch

$149

with Lynnette Novak

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Class description

Do you struggle to determine your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts? Do you know the difference between internal and external GMCs? Are your stakes high enough? What about pitches? Are they tough to write? While GMCs may seem intimidating and overwhelming, I can help you have a better understanding of what ultimately is the skeleton to your story. Once that’s in place, you’ll see creating a pitch—be it high-concept, elevator, short, or a query pitch—isn’t as hard as you might think.

This is a hands-on workshop, so bring pitches to work on.

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Friends, Rivals, and Enemies – How to develop strong secondary characters

$149

with Michael Carr

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Class description

Humans may read primarily for story, but it’s the characters who stick with us long after the book is closed. In this workshop, we’ll dive into the art of crafting vivid and memorable secondary characters to support and enhance our narrative, exploring techniques for creating memorable personalities with depth and dimension. Through interactive exercises and examples from literature, we’ll study how to give secondary characters distinct voices, motivations, and character arcs, without overwhelming the main narrative.

By the end of the course, you’ll have the tools to bring sidekicks and antagonists to life, making your fiction engaging and dynamic, and helping your primary characters shine.

Register now

Sunday, February 9, 2025, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

The Psychology of Memoir: Building a Story Blueprint Rooted in Brain Science

$149

with Lisa Cooper Ellison

Sunday, February 9, 2025, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Class description

Most memoirists know they’ll have to study the craft of writing, but not everyone realizes memoir is equal parts storytelling and self-exploration. To write one well, it helps to know some neuroscience, psychology, and tools that foster self-acceptance and introspection.

During this transformative three-hour master class, you’ll learn how to mine your memory for the right content, discover brain-based tools that will help you shape what you’ve uncovered into a propulsive story, and then explore the inner and outer work of revision so that both you and your story are ready for publication.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

The three types of memory and how to mine them for meaningful content
Why we’re drawn to certain memories—and how to turn them into a compelling story
Techniques for crafting a cohesive narrative throughline
Strategies to optimize your creativity and enter states of flow
Practical tips to care for your nervous system while diving into personal material
Tools to foster self-acceptance and transform past experiences into meaningful insights
A framework for understanding the inner and outer work needed to revise your memoir

You’ll leave with:

A wealth of story ideas that will ensure you never run out of things to write about
Three powerful tools to shape your project, revise strategically, and connect your story to universal themes
A propulsive outline that maps your narrator’s transformation
Activities designed to foster compassion for both yourself and your characters
Self-care strategies designed to help you write resiliently
A comprehensive workbook to deepen your understanding and apply these concepts to your memoir

This session is great for:

Aspiring memoirists ready to start their first project
Writers stuck in the messy middle of their memoir
Experienced memoirists seeking to deepen their craft
Anyone eager to explore the emotional and technical facets of memoir writing

Register now

Developing Your High Concept Essay to Promote Your Book & Build Your Career

$149

with Joey Garcia

Sunday, February 9, 2025, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Class description

Stand out in the crowded literary marketplace with a high concept essay that showcases your expertise or spotlights a theme from your book or work-in-progress. In this fun, interactive, hands-on session, you will develop an idea for a high concept essay that aligns with your writing projects and career goals. You will also draft an outline and craft a pitch so that you’re ready to write your essay when class ends. High concept essays are in demand, now more than ever, and can be jet-fuel for a writer’s career. Why not gain what you need to write one of your own?

In this session, you will learn how to:

Understand the key differences between a high concept essay and other essay forms.
Brainstorm the right premise for your essay.
Craft a succinctly stated essay pitch.
Develop and outline a high concept essay designed to build buzz for your career as a writer.
Quickly determine when to write the entire essay and when to focus on just developing a pitch.

You will also discover why publications love high concept essays, where to publish your essay, and how to get paid.

This session will benefit all writers, whether new or pro, author or author-to-be, and is equally useful for those writing nonfiction or fiction.

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Framing a Nonfiction Book Proposal to Catch an Agent's Eye: A Deep Dive Into Essential Components

$149

with Amy L. Bernstein

Sunday, February 9, 2025, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Class description

In this intensive workshop, authors with a nonfiction manuscript well underway (or with a reasonably mature conceptual overview) will delve into the challenges and requirements of each component that belongs in a traditional nonfiction book proposal.

To attract an agent’s or publisher’s attention, your proposal must offer a compelling hook, airtight logic, a realistic marketing position, and a convincing case for why this book is needed now—and why you’re the one to write it. Without a clear focus and sense of timely urgency, your proposal will likely be passed over.

We’ll review the most common elements of the proposal package and related strategies and considerations for each, including:

Query Letter (Cover Letter)
Overview
Audience Analysis
Author Credentials & Platform
Competitive Titles
Marketing Plan
Annotated Table of Contents
Sample Chapters

Participants will be given time to work on specific elements of the proposal and to consult with the instructor on progress and next steps. Takeaways include:

An understanding of requirements to develop a polished nonfiction proposal.
A clear sense of how to build each component of the proposal.
An opportunity to map out a strategy for completing the proposal.
Expert guidance and advice on proposal contents and next steps.

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Weapons, Warfare, and High Caliber Writing

$149

with Karl Henwood and Lewis Perdue

Sunday, February 9, 2025, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Class description

High Caliber Writing: Writing firearms and people doing violence to create fascinating characters and visceral action that drives your plot, enriches your setting, and keeps tension wire-tight from page one to The End.

Gripping action is the beating heart of some genres, and can be an invaluable addition to others, but writing it can be difficult because the typical writer has not spent a great deal of time fighting for their life.

Fortunately, the way humans react to stress and danger is largely constant across time and culture. Once a writer understands the basics, writing immersive action becomes a matter of applying consistent reactions to their specific work.

In High Caliber Writing these reactions are shown through the lens of the most common modern tool of violence, firearms. Significantly for authors, the methods used to acquire firearms, the type of firearm, their use, and the emotional and psychological reactions can further develop your character as well as drive your plot forward.

Starting with biology and working outward to entire armies and cultures, using examples taken from the work of bestselling author Lewis Perdue, students will learn how to write top quality murder, havoc, slaughter, and destruction, all while ensuring the participants are suitably terrified (or thrilled).

BIOs

Karl Henwood was briefly a cop in Oakland, CA, is an Iraq veteran, and has been an Armor officer on the M1 Abrams line of main battle tanks for 18 years. He’s finished two Science Fiction manuscripts and is currently working on a third, He does professional editing on the side. He is currently about to plunge back into the query trenches. He lives with his wife, two children, and a rather strange dog in Boise, Idaho.

Lew is a bestselling author of 22 published books including 15 thrillers and 7 non-fiction. He’s an environmental chemical researcher affiliated with the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and develops AI apps. He has decades of firearms experience and training, and as served in an intelligence capacity with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He’s also served on the faculties at UCLA and Cornell University, served as a top aide to a U.S. Senator and a state governor, run Congressional races, worked as an investigative reporter (Jack Anderson, Watergate etc.), and as a columnist for The Wall Street Journal Online and TheStreet.Com. He recently sold his freemium wine industry business publication, Wine Industry Insight. More at: Lewisperdue.com. Until her retirement he was represented by the Natasha Kern Literary Agency.

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Start YOUR Podcast TODAY Workshop

$149

with Bruce Wawrzyniak

Sunday, February 9, 2025, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Class description

The host of more than 925 podcast episodes will be teaching you mouse clicks, On/Off buttons, software recommendations, hosting platforms, and more in a hands-on workshop so you can leave the room having started your own podcast! This is a participation session, not a sit-and-listen-to-a-speaker (and just take notes). Bring your phone. Bring your laptop. Bring your podcast questions and ideas. This workshop is intended to for all intents and purposes get your first podcast episode out the door – or at least as close as you can get to it. Challenge yourself to take action instead of “someday I will.”

The workshop is taught by publicist Bruce Wawrzyniak, who has delivered a new episode of his podcast on-time, every week since February 2014 without missing once. He has spoken about podcasting at events around the country and even in the UK. Plus, he runs the Florida Podcasters Association and is a member of The Podcast Academy. He will have just been a speaker at Podfest Multimedia Expo in Orlando two weeks before the San Francisco Writers Conference.

Your book, your topic, your passion – you have something that you have the knowledge and experience to launch a podcast about. It doesn’t have to be “because you’re an author” or “all about your book,” although this workshop will help you identify how you can leverage your podcast to complement your writing career.

Master Classes

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m.-noon

Mary Rakow, Ph.D.

Author, Indie Editor (fiction, non-fiction, flash fiction, memoir)

THE MEMORY ROOM

THIS IS WHY I CAME

MARTINEZ CELAYA, WORKING METHODS

Advanced Fiction Critique Workshop

with Mary Rakow, Ph.D.

Mary Rakow, Ph.D.

Author, Indie Editor (fiction, non-fiction, flash fiction, memoir)

THE MEMORY ROOM

THIS IS WHY I CAME

MARTINEZ CELAYA, WORKING METHODS

Register now

Andy Ross

Agent at The Andy Ross Agency

THE LITERARY AGENT'S GUIDE TO WRITING A NON-FICTION BOOK PROPOSAL

Laurie Fox

Agent

Finding and Working with a Literary Agent - Query Letter Workshop

with Andy Ross & Laurie Fox

Andy Ross

Agent at The Andy Ross Agency

THE LITERARY AGENT'S GUIDE TO WRITING A NON-FICTION BOOK PROPOSAL

Laurie Fox

Agent

Register now

Tanya Egan Gibson

Author, Independent Editor (Fiction - Cozies, Mainstream, YA, MG, Literary), SFWC Consultant Coordinator

Think Like an Editor: A Freelance Editor’s Secrets to Bringing Your Manuscript to the Next Level

with Tanya Egan Gibson

Tanya Egan Gibson

Author, Independent Editor (Fiction - Cozies, Mainstream, YA, MG, Literary), SFWC Consultant Coordinator

Register now

Rusty Shelton

Author, Publicist

The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, Not Ego

Paige Velasquez Budde

Author, Publicist

The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact Not Ego

Social Media and the Modern Author Brand

with Rusty Shelton & Paige Velasquez Budde

Rusty Shelton

Author, Publicist

The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, Not Ego

Paige Velasquez Budde

Author, Publicist

The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact Not Ego

Register now

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Jordan Rosenfeld

Author, Independent Editor (fiction, memoir, essay collections),

SFWC Fiction Track Coordinator

How to Write a Page Turner

Make a Scene

Writing the Intimate Character

How to Write with Page Turning Tension

with Jordan Rosenfeld

Jordan Rosenfeld

Author, Independent Editor (fiction, memoir, essay collections),

SFWC Fiction Track Coordinator

How to Write a Page Turner

Make a Scene

Writing the Intimate Character

Register now

Monica Wesolowska

Author & Indie Editor

LEO + LEA

ELBERT IN THE AIR

HOLDING SILVAN

Finding the Voice You Need to Write Your Own Memoir

with Monica Wesolowska

Monica Wesolowska

Author & Indie Editor

LEO + LEA

ELBERT IN THE AIR

HOLDING SILVAN

Register now

Lynnette Novak