This workshop is for writers who don't "get" grammar or for those who think they don't want to get it. Proper use of grammar makes a story flow smoothly, page after page. Poorly constructed sentences and paragraphs ruin the pace of your novel and make editors and agents pass up your manuscript. Most of us don't relish the idea of pouring through grammar guides looking for ways to fix our writing. Kat makes it easy to pick out what works and why so we don't go back to making the same mistakes. Get your grammar off to a good start with Kat's simple sentence patterns. Kat will show you how to blend different grammar constructions to make action, emotion, and tension come through. Students will complete exercises and write paragraphs that blend different patterns to discover what works best for each story. Kat will also explain a couple of the basic "no, no's" that we hear about all the time but may not truly understand, such as avoiding adverbs, the danger of certain word choices and verb clusters, and when and how to break the rules of grammar to make your writing effective.

Lesson 1:  Introduction to course, grammar that makes a "good read", 4 sentence pattern exercises

Lesson 2:  4 more sentence patterns, combining sentence patterns effectively

Lesson 3:  4 more sentence patterns, using sentence patterns to highlight details

Lesson 4:  Final 8 sentence patterns, using sentence patterns to emphasize emotions

Lesson 5:  Introduction to no, no's; exercise with adverbs

Lesson 6:  Another no,no, exercise with verb tenses; Breaking grammar rules: when and how to do it most effectively

March 29th to April 4th

This workshop will be conducted via a Yahoo! email loop.  Email invitations will be sent 48 hours prior to the beginning of the workshop.

Just register for the workshop and complete the payment process via PayPal.  The cost is $10.00 for FFnP members and $15.00 for non-FFnP members.  If you are a member of FFnP be sure you are logged into the website before you register to get the member price.  Payment is due at time of registration.  

Kat Duncan obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry and German from Regis College in Weston, MA and spent a Fulbright year in Germany. She recently obtained her Master's Degree in Special Education from Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She is a full-time tutor to students from elementary through college and beyond in reading, writing and math. An active member of the New England Chapter of RWA, and RWA-PRO, she has written a series of popular newsletter articles on grammar and style.  With seven completed manuscripts she uses a spreadsheet to keep track of multiple submissions to agents and editors.