WINTER-SUMMER 2026
WRITING SUCCESS SERIES WEBINARS
All workshops held from 7:30-9:30 PM ET, Thursday nights on Zoom.
Confirmation details will be sent one week prior to class and repeated the day of class.
All sessions are recorded, and the link to access those will be sent to all participants within twenty-four hours of the webinar.
Webinar Deals
Purchase Entire Success Series for $699. (The equivalent of five free webinars.)
Donald Maass Four-Webinar Bundle for $139.
Use Code FXWEB26 for 15% off registrations until February 18.
DELUXE TWO-PART WEBINARS offer even deeper dives into their topics, with homework, more opportunities for sharing, and more hands-on work.
With this purchase, you will be added to the registration list for all of the webinars in the Winter-Summer 2026 Session, including the Deluxe Two-Part Webinars. Descriptions of each webinar can be found on the Success Series page. As each webinar approaches, you will receive an email with further details.
With this purchase, you will be added to the registration list for all four webinars taught by Donald Maass. As each webinar date approaches, you will receive an email with further details.
FEBRUARY 26: GREAT ENDINGS POINT BACKWARD
MARCH 26: PACE IS MORE THAN SPEED
MAY 28: WHAT MAKES DRAMA RISE
JUNE 25: PRO PITCHING FOR PRO NOVELISTS
Every writer wants a great ending, but a powerful effect lies not in the ending itself. It’s in how that ending is prepared earlier in a novel. Learn the methods of working backward to make a strong, multi-layered finale in this hands-on webinar.
A Deluxe Two-Part Webinar
A plotting class even pantsers love… Even when a happy ending is certain, a great plot keeps your writing fresh while anchoring your audience and amplifying your voice. Learn how to craft a sure-fire creative framework that will keep you on the path to success, whatever your genre, media, and writing style. We’ll go beyond the bullet points, soundbites, and blather to dig into the wisdom in all plot theory with ample examples, nuts-n-bolts craft wisdom, and exercises to help you navigate your process.
Rather than hammering on one “true” blueprint, we’ll break down the major story models from Aristotle to Netflix, identify their seven shared points, and help you develop your own narrative strategy. We’ll be looking at the Poetics (and Renaissance mutations), Freytag’s pyramid, Showbiz’s 3-Acts, Sequences, Hero’s Journey, Hague’s Inner Arc, Save the Cat, Moral Premise, Harmon’s Story Circle, ABT, Swain’s pulp chassis, Snowflake, W-plot, Kaizen, Regis’ romance beats, and more… so you can leverage the strengths of each system with panache. Join us for a two-part story-structure blowout that will help you find your own path to the story you need to tell.
Many manuscripts read “slow”, but the solution doesn’t always mean speeding up. Discover the hidden factors that accelerate the reader’s story experience in this hands-on webinar.
A Deluxe Two-Part Webinar
So many writers want their stories to feel vivid and immersive, but setting often gets brushed aside, reduced to “just enough” to get by. And most advice about setting is either very surface-level (“add more sensory detail!”) or so academic that it doesn’t connect to the actual work of writing compelling, character-driven fiction.
This class is for fiction writers who want to create a rich, immersive world without writing paragraphs of description; who care about tone, character, genre, and emotional resonance; who want tools that help them revise with clarity, not guesswork; and who are ready to understand setting as more than scenery
In this class, we’ll explore: what setting really does for a story, and how to use it with intention; how to evaluate your opening through the lens of time, place, genre, and character; how your character’s worldview and emotional filter shape what they notice; practical framing techniques (wide, medium, close-up) to control pacing and mood; and guided exercises to help you revise and enhance your opening scenes.
A Deluxe Two-Part Webinar
So many writers want their stories to feel vivid and immersive, but setting often gets brushed aside, reduced to “just enough” to get by. And most advice about setting is either very surface-level (“add more sensory detail!”) or so academic that it doesn’t connect to the actual work of writing compelling, character-driven fiction.
This class is for fiction writers who want to create a rich, immersive world without writing paragraphs of description; who care about tone, character, genre, and emotional resonance; who want tools that help them revise with clarity, not guesswork; and who are ready to understand setting as more than scenery
In this class, we’ll explore: what setting really does for a story, and how to use it with intention; how to evaluate your opening through the lens of time, place, genre, and character; how your character’s worldview and emotional filter shape what they notice; practical framing techniques (wide, medium, close-up) to control pacing and mood; and guided exercises to help you revise and enhance your opening scenes.
Most writers create characters.
Actors fight for roles.
In this live webinar, Roman White will show you how to stop writing characters that technically “work” and start writing the kind people obsess over—the roles actors crave, readers remember, and stories are built around.
You’ll break down why some characters feel alive and performable while others, even beautifully written ones, fall flat. You’ll learn how actors evaluate material, what makes a role irresistible, and how to rewrite scenes so your characters feel specific, playable, and impossible to ignore.
So if you’ve ever been told your characters are “interesting…”
If your scenes feel solid but don’t quite hit…
If you want your characters to feel like someone could step into them and breathe—
This one’s for you.
What exactly is “drama”? How does it increase to a level of high tension over the course of a story? Explore the inner and outer factors that contribute to story excitement in this hands-on webinar.
Do you have an abandoned story lingering on your computer or in a drawer somewhere? A half-dozen promising openings that never went where you wanted? Have you been captivated by certain ideas or fallen in love with a character but never quite found the right story for them? If so, this is the class for you.
In this hands-on, generative webinar, we’ll revisit old ideas and unfinished stories to find out if there’s a new project among the ruins. We’ll unearth the diamonds in the rough to see what can be repurposed and polished into something magnificent. You might find your way back to the true story of your heart.
Every writer sooner or later must pitch, but agents do so every day. What’s different when an agent does it? Learn what’s important in a pitch and pro tips and tricks in this try-it-yourself webinar.
Updated for 2026 and back by popular demand! A compelling plot is essential to commercial fiction. It propels the narrative, sets the pace, and provides opportunities for characters to grow as they strive to achieve something meaningful. No one wants to write, much less read, an incoherent mess or yawn-inducing bore. This workshop will help you avoid these fatal flaws by charting a story path that not only sparks a reader’s interest but builds it by utilizing worthy stakes, sound structure, lively pacing, shocking twists, and satisfying payoffs. No more messes, no more snores — just engaged readers asking that most gratifying question: “What happens next?”
***Registration is now closed.
What’s unsaid is often more compelling than what’s stated clearly, and the most gripping stories come from what the reader feels, not sees. Those moments of insight, quiet realizations, and understanding about what isn’t on the page. In this workshop, you’ll discover how to use dialogue and silence to expose hidden motives, how shifting power in a scene creates unspoken tension, and how theme quietly connects every choice your characters make. You’ll explore way to shape the story beneath your story and how to weave emotional tension, deepen meaning, and reveal character truths without ever spelling them out.
*If you missed Part One, we will email you a recording prior to Part Two on July 23
Okay, let’s get into it: the query package! In this informative, empowering class, we’ll demystify the query letter and synopsis in a fun and hands-on way; look at multiple approaches for framing your work in the best light; dig into story openings and what they need to captivate both industry gatekeepers and readers in general; analyze real world examples and what made them effective; and play with producing inviting queries, synopses, and openings of our own.
Even if you’re not yet at the stage where you’re preparing your submissions material, this class will still be useful in helping you solidify your story ideas, offering you a True North for not only crafting your work but being able to express its essence in a concrete and potent way. And if you are getting ready to submit your work, this will provide an effective roadmap for setting yourself—and your story—up for publishing success.
Sit in scene, stretch it out, elaborate, things are moving too quickly…we writers have heard it all. And then there’s the dreaded words: “I didn’t feel anything.” In many of these instances what’s needed is an exploded moment in time—a micro-moment—that takes the reader deeper into the character’s emotions. In this webinar Rob will show examples from his work and other novels and pictures book to illustrate how to create micro-moments to build emotion and we’ll dive into those texts to understand the writing crafts that helped build those moments. You’ll also have an opportunity to create micro-moments to build emotions in your WIP.
How do you build a character people love or hate, who sticks in the readers’ mind and heart? Let’s talk about entrances that grab the spotlight, prime motivating force (there can be only one), and how to push our characters to make choices hard for them on a personal level, so readers will cheer.
If you’ve ever stared at your own writing and thought, “This is good… but why does it sound like somebody else?”—congrats. You don’t have a voice problem. You have a directing problem.
In this webinar, Roman uses the same tools directors use to wrestle a creative vision into submission—tone, theme, focus, and intention—so you can stop spiraling, stop apologizing, and write like someone who knows exactly why they’re in the room.
We’ll uncover the themes you keep circling, the emotional temperature you default to, and why the moments that make you a little nervous are almost always the moments that land. You’ll walk out with clarity, confidence, and a creative compass that doesn’t need to phone a friend. Drafts tighten up. Rewrites stop dragging. And out of nowhere, your writing starts sounding like someone who knows what they’re doing—and isn’t apologizing for it.
If you’re done asking for permission and ready to write like you mean it, grab a seat. The director’s chair is open—and don’t worry, we already slapped your name on it.
In this challenging economy it’s tough to build a career by being a one-trick pony. Writers who want to build a thriving and lucrative career look for all kinds of creative outlets and forms that pay. Novels, short stories of all kinds, essays, magazine features, greeting cards, game writing, comic books, tie-in fiction, poetry, freelance editing, and more are doors just waiting for writers to open.
NY Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry (author of 55 novels, 200 short stories, 30 graphic novels, 28 nonfiction books, 1200 feature articles, as well as poetry, plays, and more) will take you through the steps to build a bigger and stronger writing business that can shift with economic changes.
Please note that this webinar will be from 7:30 - 10:00 PM ET.