The mission of the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust is to help writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror improve their work. So we’re constantly looking for new ways to provide writers with information and instruction that can take their work to the next level. In 2015, in response to many requests, we offered our first webinar, and we’re adding a new one each year.

The webinar offers maximum flexibility to fit into your schedule. You can watch the video of the session at your convenience as many times as you want over 60 days. The webinar also allows Odyssey to help more writers. Unlike our in-person workshop and our online classes, which require a limited class size, the webinar is available to any writer who would like to attend.

This winter, we’re again giving writers the opportunity to sit in on a lecture at the Odyssey Writing Workshop. Our new webinar, Big Five, Small Press, and Self-Publishing: Discovering Which Is Best for You and How to Succeed, is a video recording of the guest lecture of Michael J. Sullivan and Robin Sullivan at Odyssey 2017. Michael J. Sullivan is a bestselling author who has made use of a wide range of publishing options, from self-publishing to small press to Kickstarter to foreign translations to audio to big five traditional publishing. His wife, Robin, is his business manager and top agent. This fascinating lecture reveals the insider realities of each method of publishing: how to self-publish, how to work with a large or small publisher, what to expect each step of the way, how to avoid the pitfalls, how to get the best results, and how to decide which method is best for you. If you’ve ever wished that a bestselling author (and his agent!) would share his publishing knowledge with you, now you have that opportunity.

Available in the webinar archive is Creating Characters and Character Arcs, a video recording of a guest lecture by Meagan Spooner at the 2016 Odyssey Writing Workshop. Meagan Spooner is a New York Times bestseller and a graduate of Odyssey 2009. She was one of our most popular guests last summer. In this webinar, she offers some fascinating approaches to characters, combining techniques used by writers with those used by actors. She also explains how the expectations a character has and the tactics that character uses drive the character’s arc ahead. Meg also discusses how to tie character arc to plot arc, so emotions build to a powerful and involving climax.

Also available in the archive is our first webinar, Productivity for Writers. You can’t succeed as a writer unless you regularly get words down on the page. Many writers are limited in their progress because they just can’t make that happen. Family, friends, responsibilities, warring priorities, distractions, a lack of good writing habits, a lack of confidence, depression–the challenges are many. And even if you do sit down every day, you may not be able to produce very much. This session, by novelist Alex Hughes, provides specific, practical advice based on her own experiences that can show you the way to overcome challenges, create good writing habits, and increase your output. She also shares numerous resources and readings that writers can explore after the webinar. Alex’s techniques and insights can make a major change in a writer’s life.

Since learning about your publishing options, creating characters, and being productive are issues for writers of all genres, writers of all types of fiction would be welcome to register.

To learn more about how to view the recorded video and the system requirements for your computer, keep reading. You can find out more specific information about each webinar on the specific webinar page.