A Speaker Who Listens
As both a professor of creative writing and a creativity coach, I value ensuring my audience feels seen, heard, and understood.
I speak on a variety of topics, such as crafting dialogue and on concerns about #ChurchToo, Christian spirituality, and “shalom between the sexes.”
Speaking Topics
01.
Capturing the Intensity:
Dramatic Moments in Fiction and Nonfiction
Description. Sentence length. Poetic tools. How can you use these familiar craft elements to intensify a scene or epiphany in your fiction or nonfiction? I’ll show you how these simple tools can make a dramatic moment real—and memorable.
02.
Fully Realizing Fiction and Nonfiction Setting
How can we fully realize a scene—whether for fiction or nonfiction? By tapping into our senses and our ability to “be there” and by reaching into our character’s interpretations.
These tools add layers of reality that construct a real world around our readers—and with this, a deeper reading experience. I’ll guide you through examples and exercises.
03.
Crafting Dazzling Dialogue for Fiction & Nonfiction Writers
Dialogue is our double agent that appears to be doing one thing while really doing another. For dialogue must be hard at work furthering other tasks like characterization and plot. Learn simple approaches to craft effective dialogue like Sol Stein’s competing scripts.
04.
Point of View: Channeling the Electrical Power of Empathy (Fiction)
Point of view runs currents of powerful empathy and connection through our stories. How can you capture it? Explore and practice the story-enhancing tool of point of view. Consider the three choices that come with point of view: viewpoint character, person and means of perception. I’ll show you ways to strengthen how your audience connects to your story while also being alert to common areas of error.
05.
Stir Your Creative Juices: Deepening Spirituality in Fiction & Nonfiction
How can we have spiritual conversations in believable ways? Whether you write fiction and are concerned about your characters or you write nonfiction and want to capture well a moment of epiphany, you can use simple craft tools like Sol Stein’s competing scripts or poetic sound tools to realize a spiritual scene well. Strategies will be explored and practiced.
06.
How can you strengthen your writing muscle to the fitness of an athlete? Learn simple habits to create an approach to writing that lets you write. Even as we mature our process, new habits can give us a fresh challenge or strengthen our stamina. Techniques in process, process management and creativity will be explored and practiced.
Stir Your Creative Juices: Process Performance and Support
07.
Stir Your Creative Juices: Story Craft Foundation
How can we nonfiction and fiction writers better employ the use of “show, don’t tell,” specifics and the senses to infuse our writing with color? Practice simple tools that add vividness and power to your writing.
Want to book me for an event?
Let’s connect!
Cynthia Beach is an author and professor of creative writing. Her articles, short stories, and contributions appear in newspapers, literary journals, and books like Hope in the Mourning Bible and Media Ethics. She cofounded Breathe Christian Writers Conference, Breathe Deeper Writer’s Retreat, and Scriptoria Workshop. Her writing book, Creative Juices for Writers guides fiction and nonfiction writers. Her novel, The Surface of Water, is now available (IVP).