Private Lessons
Ten Hour Program: During the course of this program, we'll cover all aspects of Emily's Foundation,℠ which will provide you with the necessary techniques to successfully complete a novel, a memoir, a children's book, or any book of fiction.
Price: $1,200
Five Hour Program: We work together in the same way as in the ten hour program, with two differences: You'll get to know me with a lesser financial commitment, and I'll focus on two aspects of your writing with which I feel we can make significant progress in our five sessions.
Price: $700
Introductory Program: This includes my reading up to fifty pages of your work and our working together for approximately two hours on the phone or in person. After this, you will have a good idea as to whether I'm the right teacher for you.
Price: $250
Price: $1,200
Five Hour Program: We work together in the same way as in the ten hour program, with two differences: You'll get to know me with a lesser financial commitment, and I'll focus on two aspects of your writing with which I feel we can make significant progress in our five sessions.
Price: $700
Introductory Program: This includes my reading up to fifty pages of your work and our working together for approximately two hours on the phone or in person. After this, you will have a good idea as to whether I'm the right teacher for you.
Price: $250
The Benefits of One-On-One Lessons
We Focus on Your Book
When you and I work together one-on-one, whether it be in person at my home in New York or on the phone from anywhere in the world, your book is the focus. Wherever you are in your book:
I’ll help you discover greater depth in your characters. I’ll inquire about them, I’ll suggest, I’ll listen and respond; but it will always be you who reveals each character with more and more nuance, more depth, makes them interesting, lovable, hateful, above all -- memorable.
When you and I work together one-on-one, whether it be in person at my home in New York or on the phone from anywhere in the world, your book is the focus. Wherever you are in your book:
- Haven’t Yet Begun
- Just Begun
- Somewhere Along the Way
- Completed, and Rewriting It
I’ll help you discover greater depth in your characters. I’ll inquire about them, I’ll suggest, I’ll listen and respond; but it will always be you who reveals each character with more and more nuance, more depth, makes them interesting, lovable, hateful, above all -- memorable.
Once your characters have become real, then they will lead you through your plot. All you have to do is come up with the basic path of the plot. (This is where you may learn to love my “What If?” technique!) Your characters will do the rest because it is they who are living the plot. If necessary, once I’m familiar with your characters, I too will pitch in with plot ideas; and if an idea resonates with you, then you and your characters will embrace it and run with it.
One Example Of How Your Characters Will Make The Plot Come Alive
Assume you’re writing a James Bond book (let’s say, Goldfinger). If you have decided that James should be a gentle, shy, cerebral sort of fellow, he could still succeed at ridding the world of Goldfinger, but the way in which your Bond character would accomplish this (your Plot) would be quite different from the way the original James Bond deals with Goldfinger! In fact, your plot might be more interesting than Ian Flemming’s plot!
One Example Of How Your Characters Will Make The Plot Come Alive
Assume you’re writing a James Bond book (let’s say, Goldfinger). If you have decided that James should be a gentle, shy, cerebral sort of fellow, he could still succeed at ridding the world of Goldfinger, but the way in which your Bond character would accomplish this (your Plot) would be quite different from the way the original James Bond deals with Goldfinger! In fact, your plot might be more interesting than Ian Flemming’s plot!
Once you’ve written a first scene that you really like, a scene with which you feel totally comfortable, then you’re on your way with both character and plot. Even if you’re in the middle of the book when we begin working together, after that first humdinger of a scene has you feeling “Wow”, it’ll be so easy to go back and revise the prior scenes in which this character appears.
Scenes That Become Tipping Points
Your entire book will have, for you as the writer, a handful of Tipping Point Scenes. These are the ones that get you on the track you feel is just right… just right for the particular character and just right for the line in the plot that he or she dominates. These are the scenes that will suddenly unleash a torrent of pages, scenes and chapters.
That’s when you and I will have the most fun!
Scenes That Become Tipping Points
Your entire book will have, for you as the writer, a handful of Tipping Point Scenes. These are the ones that get you on the track you feel is just right… just right for the particular character and just right for the line in the plot that he or she dominates. These are the scenes that will suddenly unleash a torrent of pages, scenes and chapters.
That’s when you and I will have the most fun!
In the course of reacting to a scene you’ve written, I may say “Perfect!!! Why don’t you write every scene to such perfection?” Or I may suggest how you could make the dialogue absolutely sparkle. Or why the interaction between two characters isn’t quite true to who one of them is. Or how the scene lacks dramatic tension, and how you could easily add a dose of it. Or how the reader is missing a whole bunch of necessary information about what happened in the past, which you might want to rectify by adding a flashback scene.
As we work together on the scenes you’ve written, I’ll be showing you techniques – Point of View, Mood, Dialogue, Dramatic Tension, Flashback -- that will help you better paint each scene with vibrancy. “Ho Hum” becomes “Wow!!!”
Taking The Fiction Writer's Journey
Every step of our journey together – Plot and Character riding along with the Scenes – will be embedded in your book. Nothing will be abstract. But in the process, because you’re doing the writing, not only is your book improving by leaps and bounds, but you as a fiction writer are also improving in ways that are truly solid and will be truly long-lasting. When we’re finished with the Ten Hour Program, you’ll be ready to proceed with your next scenes, chapters, books, as a much better writer. Your progression as a writer will be permanent because you did it all, not I!
As we work together on the scenes you’ve written, I’ll be showing you techniques – Point of View, Mood, Dialogue, Dramatic Tension, Flashback -- that will help you better paint each scene with vibrancy. “Ho Hum” becomes “Wow!!!”
Taking The Fiction Writer's Journey
Every step of our journey together – Plot and Character riding along with the Scenes – will be embedded in your book. Nothing will be abstract. But in the process, because you’re doing the writing, not only is your book improving by leaps and bounds, but you as a fiction writer are also improving in ways that are truly solid and will be truly long-lasting. When we’re finished with the Ten Hour Program, you’ll be ready to proceed with your next scenes, chapters, books, as a much better writer. Your progression as a writer will be permanent because you did it all, not I!