Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The Synopsis: Four Steps to the Ultimate SALES Tool

It’s interesting how much time it takes to prepare to lead a workshop, even one you’ve done before.

You have to research to make sure you’re up-to-date on your information. You try to get new examples to share with the attendees. All of that, of course, causes changes in your handouts so those have to be re-worked then printed out.

For the workshop on writing the synopsis that I’ve been preparing to lead at the North Texas Professional Writers Association this weekend, the examples include different books, so I’ve been going through some of my novels. That takes a while, especially since my books have been in flux, what with a lot of them still boxed up in the storage room, and others scattered or hidden away while we’ve been building the bookcase in my office closet. Then there are current magazines and publishers’ catalogs to gather.

Plus, I did a new evaluation form to hand out. I like to have feedback so I know what to change or work on, and so I get an idea of what writers are looking for when they attend a workshop, such as topics and participation.

I’ve been doing something just about every day for the last month. Of course, it gets more intense as the workshop date gets closer. Today I ran to Kinko’s and made copies of the handouts. Wouldn’t you know it – I forgot to copy the evaluation form. Guess I’ll do that here.

And of course, when you’re going to be talking for two to three hours, you have to practice. Every time I do that, I change things around, which means changing my talking notes. I’ve printed out my notes for the last time today – maybe. I put it into a bigger font so I won’t have to squint at it. Hopefully, I won’t have to look at it too often, since I have no idea if I’ll have a table or lectern.

Even though it takes a lot of work to prepare for a workshop, I always look forward to leading one. It’s fun to meet writers, hear what they’re doing and what questions they have, and hopefully make new friends.

If you’re coming to the workshop this Saturday, I’ll see you there!

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