Body, Mind, and Soul: Depth in Your Storytelling
ONDEMAND WEBINAR DESCRIPTION:
When you write a story, it can work on several levels. Some stories are just for entertainment, there are no expectations of depth. Some have an emotional element that can go deeper, allowing you to connect and feel something, to be moved or horrified or filled with wonder. And then there are the stories that blow your mind, staying with you, an intellectual component that makes you think. In my writing, I like to do all three—to entertain and keep the pages turning, through setting, sensory detail, and action (body), eventually working in an emotional core (usually the internal conflict) to go deeper (soul), followed by a unique concept that keeps your audience guessing and thinking, leading to a denouement and epiphany that stimulates the brain (mind). Let's talk about how you can do that, so your work can appeal to all three kinds of audiences.
INSTRUCTOR BIO:
Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of eight books—Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), Transubstantiate, Staring Into the Abyss, Herniated Roots, Tribulations, Spontaneous Human Combustion (Turner Publishing), and The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). His over 170 stories in print include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice), Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker winner), PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Shallow Creek, The Seven Deadliest, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad (numbers 2-4), PRISMS, Pantheon, and Shivers VI. He was also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press), and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, Thriller, and Audie awards. In his spare time, he is a columnist at Lit Reactor. He was the Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press and Gamut Magazine.
