RBWG Spring 2025 Classes
In-Person and Online via Email
Weekly Calendar
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Register Here Please register first with Maribeth at [email protected] to make sure that the class is running (at times we do not have enough participants to make the class work) or is not already filled. Maribeth will respond to you within a day. Pay Here Because we are committed to keeping our classes small and because we can only continue to do this if participants commit to and pay for all classes, we ask that ONCE WE CONFIRM THE CLASS WILL RUN, you pay for the full class amount up front. If you are interested in a class and cannot pay for it up front, just send Maribeth an email and we’ll work out a payment plan. Please do not pay prior to hearing from Maribeth that the class is running and a seat is available. We are unable to make full refunds if payment is received without confirmation from Maribeth first.
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Our Instructors
Click here to read brief biographies for each of our instructors.
Nonfiction
Musical Notes: Writing About the Tunes We Love — Elise Seyfried (4 sessions)
When: Mondays, March 24, April 7, April 21, May 5
Where: Online Tutorial via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $250
“Music can name the un-nameable and communicate the unknowable.”
— Leonard Bernstein
There is magic when artistic forms meet and mingle (as RBWG’s Art in the AM so beautifully proves). As writers, we use our words to touch hearts, open minds and inspire souls — also to entertain and delight. Music reaches people profoundly, whether it be the memories recalled by a Beatles song, or the emotions summoned up by a Beethoven string quartet.
In this class, you will identify some of your favorite pieces of music, and write about them. Each lesson will be tailored to the individual student, based on a short bio you will submit. Your unique experiences and interests will be jumping off points for essays relating to your chosen music. We’ll have fun, deepen our appreciation for the tunes we share, and learn to better communicate the magic of music to readers.
Writing A Great Query Letter — Maribeth Fischer (3 sessions)
When: Fridays, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., April 25, May 2, May 9
Where: Lutheran Church of Our Savior Bay Vista Road, Rehoboth
Cost: RBWG Members $150; Non-Members $180
While most agents welcome unsolicited submissions, they typically reject 98.5% of what they receive. It’s not unusual for a single agent to receive 10,000 a year (a large percent of the 98.5 percent of rejections are absolute nonstarters even if screened by Scooby Doo).
— Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents
There is no single right way to write a great query letter. Every writer, every blog about writing, every how-to book offers different advice. But we can make sure that our letter is not one of those “non-starters” referred to in the quote above. While including certain key elements (Why are we writing to this particular agent? What are the comps?) might help, even these are not always must-haves. What we can do is write a compelling well-crafted letter that succinctly summarizes the book, captures our passion for this story/project, and answers the key question of why this book matters now. And yes, we must do this in less than a page. Preferably less.
But how?
In this three-part workshop, geared to those with finished or nearly finished novels we’ll begin (first class) by discussing what we collectively know about queries, weigh some of the advice, and look at a great query letter or two. In weeks two and three, we’ll bring in polished queries for workshop (which you can also submit to Maribeth for comments). At the end of the class, participants are invited to submit a revised query to Maribeth for a final critique.
When: Mondays, March 24, April 7, April 21, May 5
Where: Online Tutorial via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $250
“Music can name the un-nameable and communicate the unknowable.”
— Leonard Bernstein
There is magic when artistic forms meet and mingle (as RBWG’s Art in the AM so beautifully proves). As writers, we use our words to touch hearts, open minds and inspire souls — also to entertain and delight. Music reaches people profoundly, whether it be the memories recalled by a Beatles song, or the emotions summoned up by a Beethoven string quartet.
In this class, you will identify some of your favorite pieces of music, and write about them. Each lesson will be tailored to the individual student, based on a short bio you will submit. Your unique experiences and interests will be jumping off points for essays relating to your chosen music. We’ll have fun, deepen our appreciation for the tunes we share, and learn to better communicate the magic of music to readers.
Writing A Great Query Letter — Maribeth Fischer (3 sessions)
When: Fridays, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., April 25, May 2, May 9
Where: Lutheran Church of Our Savior Bay Vista Road, Rehoboth
Cost: RBWG Members $150; Non-Members $180
While most agents welcome unsolicited submissions, they typically reject 98.5% of what they receive. It’s not unusual for a single agent to receive 10,000 a year (a large percent of the 98.5 percent of rejections are absolute nonstarters even if screened by Scooby Doo).
— Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents
There is no single right way to write a great query letter. Every writer, every blog about writing, every how-to book offers different advice. But we can make sure that our letter is not one of those “non-starters” referred to in the quote above. While including certain key elements (Why are we writing to this particular agent? What are the comps?) might help, even these are not always must-haves. What we can do is write a compelling well-crafted letter that succinctly summarizes the book, captures our passion for this story/project, and answers the key question of why this book matters now. And yes, we must do this in less than a page. Preferably less.
But how?
In this three-part workshop, geared to those with finished or nearly finished novels we’ll begin (first class) by discussing what we collectively know about queries, weigh some of the advice, and look at a great query letter or two. In weeks two and three, we’ll bring in polished queries for workshop (which you can also submit to Maribeth for comments). At the end of the class, participants are invited to submit a revised query to Maribeth for a final critique.
Multigenre
Writing with Risk — Ethan Joella (4 sessions)
When: Mondays, March 31, April 7, April 14, and April 21
Where: Online Tutorial via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $250
There are no live meetings for this class; new work is given to you every Monday, and weekly assignments are due the following Sunday.
Faulkner said, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” This online tutorial seeks to do just that: to get us out of the tendency of writing safely or writing about the same things in order to develop other muscles. From David Sedaris to Sylvia Plath, some of the most highly-regarded authors wrote their best works when they started to take risks. We will study sample stories, essays, and poems where the writer left a comfort zone behind, and we will have fun with weekly risk exercises and one longer project of your own design. We will stop hiding or being safe, we will swear more, we will care less about grammar and sentence structure, and we will discover, through all this, a new fearless voice.
When: Mondays, March 31, April 7, April 14, and April 21
Where: Online Tutorial via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $250
There are no live meetings for this class; new work is given to you every Monday, and weekly assignments are due the following Sunday.
Faulkner said, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” This online tutorial seeks to do just that: to get us out of the tendency of writing safely or writing about the same things in order to develop other muscles. From David Sedaris to Sylvia Plath, some of the most highly-regarded authors wrote their best works when they started to take risks. We will study sample stories, essays, and poems where the writer left a comfort zone behind, and we will have fun with weekly risk exercises and one longer project of your own design. We will stop hiding or being safe, we will swear more, we will care less about grammar and sentence structure, and we will discover, through all this, a new fearless voice.
Fiction
Graduate School in a Box (or Essentials of Fiction Writing) — Maribeth Fischer (8 sessions)
When: Fridays March 14, 21, 28, April 4 11, 18, 25, and May 2
Where: Online Tutorial via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $400; Non-members $450
This is a class for writers coming to creative writing after years in the business, legal, or academic world. You know how to write; you’ve done it your whole life, but fiction is a different ballgame. Or maybe you’ve written creatively for years, are halfway through a novel, but never actually learned — or perhaps want to review — the fundamental techniques of fiction writing.
Each week we’ll explore a key aspect of fiction writing, doing brief exercises that allow participants to better understand how to apply these techniques to their own work. We’ll look at how to create three-dimensional characters who “seem to breathe on the page” (yes, there are specific techniques and rules to guide writers); we’ll discuss what constitutes plot (and no, you don’t have to have it figured out before you begin); we’ll discuss point of view and why it’s essential to all writing; look at how and when to write flashbacks; review the essential ingredients of good dialogue, and more. Each class will cover years of creative writing “lessons” distilled into what is essential for every writer to know.
Participants will be given a short assignment each week (and if the writer is currently working on a project — a novel or story — these assignments can be used to develop the writing of that specific project). A number of Guild writers who started with this class two short years ago are now well into novels begun with these exercises. Maribeth will offer feedback on each assignment. (Maribeth asks writers to take this class before jumping into an in-person novel workshop).
When: Fridays March 14, 21, 28, April 4 11, 18, 25, and May 2
Where: Online Tutorial via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $400; Non-members $450
This is a class for writers coming to creative writing after years in the business, legal, or academic world. You know how to write; you’ve done it your whole life, but fiction is a different ballgame. Or maybe you’ve written creatively for years, are halfway through a novel, but never actually learned — or perhaps want to review — the fundamental techniques of fiction writing.
Each week we’ll explore a key aspect of fiction writing, doing brief exercises that allow participants to better understand how to apply these techniques to their own work. We’ll look at how to create three-dimensional characters who “seem to breathe on the page” (yes, there are specific techniques and rules to guide writers); we’ll discuss what constitutes plot (and no, you don’t have to have it figured out before you begin); we’ll discuss point of view and why it’s essential to all writing; look at how and when to write flashbacks; review the essential ingredients of good dialogue, and more. Each class will cover years of creative writing “lessons” distilled into what is essential for every writer to know.
Participants will be given a short assignment each week (and if the writer is currently working on a project — a novel or story — these assignments can be used to develop the writing of that specific project). A number of Guild writers who started with this class two short years ago are now well into novels begun with these exercises. Maribeth will offer feedback on each assignment. (Maribeth asks writers to take this class before jumping into an in-person novel workshop).
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