Writing for Young Adults

How are books by Rowling and Meyer different from those of other authors? What are editors and movie producers looking for? Can you give your story a greater chance of being discovered—of getting large advances and a large push from both publishers and movie studios?

In looking at the answers to these questions, Dave has come to the conclusion that most authors err when they enter the field because they think too much about how to write their story line by line, without taking adequate time to analyze their audience and create a story that can attract wide audiences.

Given this, in this workshop you will the secrets of how to target young adult audiences, to take a story from its basic premise and enhance it—developing your characters, your world, your conflicts and themes, and your style and treatment, so that you can maximize your novel.

The cost of the workshop is $800 for the week. You will need to be willing to do the following:

1) Read course materials before coming to the workshop.

2) Brainstorm with others and critique others' work during the course of the workshop.

3) Be prepared to write your own outline and first chapter during the course of the workshop (which means that you will need a computer or typewriter, and access to a printer).

Class size will be limited to 20 students.

When and Where Are the Workshops Held?

TBD

Who Is Teaching and What Credentials Does He Have?

Dave is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling writer in two fields—science fiction and fantasy. He has written or edited nearly fifty novels and anthologies for adults, young adults, and middle-grade readers, including young adult and middle-grade books for Star Wars, the Mummy, ad other franchises.

Beyond that, he has worked as college creative writing instructor, a fiction editor, a videogame designer and scripter, as a movie producer, as the lead judge for one of the world’s largest writing contests.

Some of the students that he has taught who have gone onto fame include Brandon Sanderson, #1 New York Times Bestselling of adult and young adult fantasy; Brandon Mull, #1 New York Times Middle-Grade Author; James Dashner, New York Times Bestselling YA author; Dan Wells, Whitney Award Winning Young Adult Horror author; and Stephenie Meyer, #1 international bestselling author.

As Dave Wolverton, he began his writing career in 1987 when he won the Writers of the Future Gold Award for his short story, “On My Way to Paradise,” and shortly afterward was given a three-novel contract by Bantam Books. His first novel spent several months on the Locus Science Fiction Best-seller List, and won a Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award as “Best Novel in the English Language.” Dave continued writing science fiction for the following ten years, writing several bestsellers among his own novels along with tie-in novels for major franchises like Star Wars and The Mummy until at the end the decade he decided to follow his childhood dream of writing fantasy, and began writing also in that genre.

With the move to fantasy, he changed his writing name to David Farland, so as not to confuse his audience. His first fantasy novel, The Runelords, became a runaway hit around the world and has millions of readers. The third book in the Runelords series, Wizardborn, hit the New York Times best-seller list. Dave is now completing the ninth—and last—book of the series.

Over the years, Dave has won numerous awards for his short fiction in particular, and set a Guinness Record for the world's largest book signing–a record that he still holds. In 2010 he won the Whitney Award for Best Novel of the Year.

In 1991, Dave became a judge for one of the world's largest writing contests, the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, and for the next decade he read thousands of stories each year, edited an annual anthology, and taught writing classes to new writers.

As an instructor, Dave has taught workshops in conjunction with the Writers of the Future, has taught upper-division classes in science fiction and fantasy writing at Brigham Young University, has appeared as a guest lecturer and instructor at dozens of conventions, and has taught many other workshops at various universities.

Dave has also worked as a game designer on such international hits as StarCraft's Brood War, and as a video game scripter.

In 2002 Dave went to work as a movie producer in Hollywood, raising millions of dollars for independent films. There he worked with screenwriters, directors and various studio heads. He recently completed the screenplay for the Runelords, which will be going into production soon.

Refund Policy for Writing Workshops

At times, people need to cancel from workshops due to circumstances beyond their control. However, when this happens, it incurs certain administrative costs. Furthermore, if a student withdraws too close to the workshop, we may have seats that cannot be sold—seats that have been held for months—and this does real damage to our ability to continue these services.

Therefore, if a student needs to back out from any workshop, the student may opt to apply all of the funds to a future workshop,

The student may sell membership to another writer

If the student needs to withdraw in a timely fashion (60 days before the workshop) funds will be returned minus $25 for administrative costs.

If the student needs to withdraw within 30-60 days of the workshop, we will try to sell that student’s seat and still refund all monies, less $25 for administrative costs.

If the student needs to withdraw within 30 days of a workshop, it becomes too late to open a slot for another student, due to the time that is required for students to prepare. In these cases, none of the funds will be returned.

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What Are People Saying?

Brandon Mull
Author of the New York Times bestselling Fablehaven series

"Aside from being a talented writer, David Farland is an excellent writing teacher. Hearing him teach live and reading his written advice has helped me focus many of my own thoughts about the writing process.

Those who would like to learn more about the craft of writing would be wise to pay attention."

Carolyn Greene
Carolyn Greene is a multi-published, award-winning author of romance and mystery novels. When she's not writing, she teaches plotting workshops and is known as The Plot Doctor.

"After publishing a number of stand-alone novels, I decided to create my first mystery series. Fortunately, before getting too bogged down in the details, I heard about David Farland's intensive week-long writing workshop. Hey, why not learn directly from the world-building genius himself? Dave turned out to be a delightful mix of analytical teacher and creative explorer. The information he imparted was challenging enough for the published authors in the class, but presented in a way that newbies could learn from it as well. I'll definitely be refreshing my writing with more classes from David Farland."

John Brown
Prize-winning author of Servant of a Dark God

"I first met Dave when I was in college. I was lost, wandering around in the literary bushes, and saw he was giving a writing workshop with Shayne Bell.

I'd read Dave's ON MY WAY TO PARADISE and loved it, so I signed up. I learned more about story telling in that three-session workshop than I had in years of creative writing classes. Dave's instruction led directly to me writing a story that made the quarter finalist cut in the Writers of the Future contest--and then another that won a quarterly first prize (which also meant $2,000 in prize money plus a paid trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida where I got to see the space shuttle launch and participate in a week-long workshop with various writing professionals. Two years later I took Dave's novel-writing workshop which led to more critical insights.

Dave's instruction has been invaluable. It not only started me on the path to writing stories I cared about and believed in (and which editors were eager to buy), but it also helped me along the way to write the novel that landed me an agent and then a three-book contract with Tor."

Jessica Day George
Bestselling young adult author of the Dragon Slippers trilogy and Princess of the Midnight Ball.

"Invaluable! This workshop kicked my writing into high gear"

Brandon Sanderson
Author of the Mistborn trilogy and the upcoming A Memory of Light, book twelve in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series

"I took David Wolverton's workshop when he was offering it as part of coursework at Brigham Young University. It was a low level creative writing class at the time, and I took it out of curiosity. That single semester's worth of teaching opened my eyes to publishing and taught me what it's really like to think like an author. I still use the writing techniques he discussed, and constantly reference him and his instruction when I teach creative writing myself. In addition, Dave taught me how to actually approach breaking into the business of writing. He proved through example that it IS possible to make a living as a writer, and showed me how to approach networking as a writer. His explanations led me directly to getting an agent and, subsequently, my first book deal."

Day Leclaire
Day has published more than fifty novels, and has been nominated for Romance Writers of America's most prestigious award, the RITA, an impressive 10 times!

"Dave Wolverton's workshop is a hands on Master's Course in developing all aspects of your novel. Whether you're interested in making the transition to professional author or are already published and wish to facilitate your move to the next level, Dave will give you the skill set necessary to make it happen. It is rare to find such an in-depth analysis of both craft, as well as a thorough examination of the publishing business, offered with such frank generosity. This class will motivate you to reach higher and dig deeper. I highly recommend it."

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