Madcap Essentials
Introducing Madcap Retreats’ first virtual program: Madcap Essentials. This workshop is a series of three 1-week sessions that will take place in June, July, and August of 2021, and will tackle three essential components of writing craft: character, plot, and world. Through a combination of instructional videos, supplemental materials, and a live Q&A event, the programming will offer thoughtful, actionable insights and tips to aspiring writers looking to expand their toolkit.
The workshops are designed so that you can work at your own pace over the week, then join the live event at the end. Throughout the workshop, you’ll also be invited to join a Discord Channel with your fellow attendees so that you can connect, discuss, and share with each other.
The workshops can be taken individually or as a set.
Week One: Character
Characters are reflections of the real world and without them, there’s no story. Character creation is a crucial component of any manuscript because it is through your characters that your plot, your world will feel specific, exciting, and worth reading about. In this workshop, authors Adib Khorram and Julian Winters will examine several strategies for building dynamic main and secondary characters that will help bring your story to life.
The workshop will include:
four 20-minute instructional videos from our instructors;
supplemental workbook materials;
invitation to join the community Discord Channel;
one 90-minute Q&A panel with the instructors.
Dates:
Workshop material available: May 31 - June 5
Q&A Panel with Adib Khorram and Julian Winters, June 5th @ 1pm - 2:30pm CST
The live event will be recorded and the recording made available to those who are unable to attend for two weeks following the event.
About the Instructors
Adib Khorram
Adib Khorram is the author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay, which earned the William C. Morris Debut Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor, as well as a multitude of other honors and accolades. His followup, Darius the Great Deserves Better, received three starred reviews, was an Indie Bestseller, and received a Stonewall Honor. His debut picture book, Seven Special Somethings: A Nowruz Story was released in 2021. When he isn’t writing, you can find him learning to do a Lutz jump, practicing his handstands, or steeping a cup of oolong.
Julian Winters
Julian Winters is an award-winning author of contemporary young adult fiction. His novels Running With Lions, How to Be Remy Cameron, and The Summer of Everything (Duet Books), received accolades for their positive depictions of diverse, relatable characters. Running With Lions is the recipient of an IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Award. How to Be Remy Cameron and The Summer of Everything were named Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections and received starred reviews. A self-proclaimed comic book geek, Julian currently lives outside of Atlanta. His next novel, Right Where I Left You, will be published by Viking Children’s in 2022.
Week Two: Plot
At the most essential level, plot is just what happens. But anyone who’s tried to write a novel knows it is so much more than that. In this workshop, authors Zoraida Córdova and Gretchen McNeil will examine several strategies for designing a plot that twists and turns in all the right places.
The workshop will include:
four 20-minute instructional videos from our instructors;
supplemental workbook materials;
invitation to join the community Discord Channel;
one 90-minute Q&A panel with the instructors.
Dates:
Workshop material available: July 5 - July 10
Q&A Panel with Zoraida Córdova and Gretchen McNeil, July 10th @ 1pm - 2:30pm CST
The live event will be recorded and the recording made available to those who are unable to attend for two weeks following the event.
About the Instructors
Zoraida Córdova
Zoraida Córdova is the acclaimed author of more than a dozen novels and short stories, including the Brooklyn Brujas series, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: A Crash of Fate, and The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina. In addition to writing novels, she serves on the Board of We Need Diverse Books, and is the co-editor of the bestselling anthologyVampires Never Get Old, as well as the cohost of the writing podcast, Deadline City. She writes romance novels as Zoey Castile. Zoraida was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and calls New York City home. When she’s not working, she’s roaming the world in search of magical stories.
Gretchen McNeil
Gretchen McNeil is the author of the YA horror/suspense novels POSSESS, 3:59, RELIC, GET EVEN, GET DIRTY, and TEN (a YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, a Romantic Times Top Pick, and a Booklist Top Ten Horror Fiction for Youth) all with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins. Gretchen’s first YA contemporary I’M NOT YOUR MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL, also with Balzer + Bray, hit shelves in 2016, and then she returned to her horror-comedy roots with #MURDERTRENDING (Barnes & Noble Best Books of 2018, ILA 2019 Young Adults’ Choices Reading list, YALSA’s 2019 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers, and was voted the #1 choice on YALSA’s 2019 Teens’ Top Ten list) and the sequel #MURDERFUDNING for Disney/Freeform. The series will continue in 2020 with the companion novel NO ESCAPE.
Gretchen’s novels have been published internationally in Chinese, Spanish, Turkish, French, Thai, and Czech. Ten: Murder Island, the film adaptation of TEN starring China Anne McClain (Descendants 2, Black Lightning), Rome Flynn (The Bold and the Beautiful), and Callan McAuliffe (The Walking Dead, Flipped, I am Number Four), premiered on Lifetime in 2017. GET EVEN and GET DIRTY have been adapted as the series Get Even for BBC/Netflix, premiering in 2020.
Week Three: World
World is the word we use to describe everything from setting to political climate to culture. It is a huge topic and a crucial one for writers to consider whether you’re writing a contemporary novel set in your own hometown or a space drama set in a galaxy of your own creation. In this workshop, authors Dhonielle Clayton and Tessa Gratton will share some of the strategies they use for creating worlds that come alive on the page.
The workshop will include:
four 20-minute instructional videos from our instructors;
supplemental workbook materials;
invitation to join the community Discord Channel;
one 90-minute Q&A panel with the instructors.
Dates:
Workshop material available: August 9 - 14, 2021
Q&A Panel with Dhonielle Clayton and Tessa Gratton, August 14th @ 1pm - 2:30pm CST
The live event will be recorded and the recording made available to those who are unable to attend for two weeks following the event.
About the Instructors
Dhonielle Clayton
Dhonielle Clayton is a New York Times Bestselling author of The Belles series, the co-author of the Tiny Pretty Things duology, a Netflix original series, and the author of the forthcoming middle grade fantasy series The Marvellers. She hails from the Washington, D.C. suburbs on the Maryland side. She taught secondary school for several years, and is a former elementary and middle school librarian. She is COO of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books, and owner of CAKE Literary, a creative kitchen whipping up decadent—and decidedly diverse—literary confections for middle grade, young adult, and women’s fiction readers. She’s an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic and mischief. Up next: Shattered Midnight (Fall 2021), The Rumor Game, and a few surprises.
Tessa Gratton
Tessa Gratton is the author of adult SFF The Queens of Innis Lear and Lady Hotspur from Tor Books, as well as the YA series The Blood Journals and The United States of Asgard. Her most recent YA novels are the original fairy tales Strange Grace and Night Shine, both from McElderry Books. Tessa’s novels and short stories have been translated into twenty-two languages, nominated twice for the Tiptree Award, and several have been Junior Library Guild Selections. Though she has lived all over the world, she currently resides at the edge of the Kansas prairie with her wife. Queer, nonbinary, she/her.
Workshop Host
Natalie C. Parker
Natalie C. Parker is the author and editor of several books for young adults among them the acclaimed Seafire trilogy. Her work has been included on the NPR Best Books list, the Indie Next List, and the TAYSHAS Reading List, and in Junior Library Guild selections. Natalie grew up in a navy family finding home in coastal cities from Virginia to Japan. Now, she lives with her wife on the Kansas prairie.