Into the Words 2025 : LVW's Premier Biennial Summer Event
Click Here to Subscribe to Our Emails (No cost, no obligation)
Who: Everyone is invited. Discount for LVW Members.
What: “Into the Words” – 3 Workshop Session times with choice of 3 workshops in each. Genre Breakouts, Bingo Networking, more.
When: Saturday, August 23, 2025. Program from 9:30 to 3:30. Schedule Below.
Where: Grange Hall, Milton, Vermont - 135 River St, Milton, VT 05468
Why: A writer's summer retreat and members showcase
Tickets: Members 30.00. Non-Members 40.00. Students with ID 20.00. Register at https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/into-the-words
Our Workshop Presenters:
Alyssa Berthiaume - "Keeping Up, Staying Relevant, and Making Your Book Evergreen–A Mastermind Session for Published Authors" In this session, published authors will gather to discuss and brainstorm ways to keep their books relevant in the marketplace regardless of the date of their publication. This will include discussing the possibilities and potential of developing your online presence and digital marketing. The facilitator will customize the session to those who attend and guide the conversation with prompted questions. She'll leverage her experience as an independent author and business owner in the ways of online presence and platform and digital marketing to support published authors questions about the current online marketing landscape. This is a masterminding session not a formal presentation. Please bring a notebook to capture the ideas relevant to you and your book. No handout will be provided.
Amy Braun - "Collage Your Focus" In this session, I will share my passion for collage and how it has helped sharpen my observation and writing skills. Creating a collage is similar to building a sentence, paragraph, or overall idea. In this workshop, we will take some time to observe the natural world and create a collage and a detailed sentence, poem, or paragraph.
At the end of the session, there will be time to share our work with one another.Beth Malow - "Do You Want To Self-Publish Your Book? Strategies for Success" Each year, about 300 million books are self-published. Self-publishing your book gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of timeline, content, and marketing. Spreading the word about your book can be challenging yet rewarding, especially for first timers.
In this session, we will discuss the nuts and bolts of self-publishing and share best practices. Those who have recently self-published a book, are in the process of self-publishing, or simply want to hear more about the process are welcome to attend!Carl Nyberg - "Creating New England Screenwriters Network" In this session people interested in screenwriting will be invited to discussed what League of Vermont Writers can do to support people interested in screenwriting, including movies, TV and playwriting. Carl Nyberg will use his experience as a member of Chicago Screenwriters Network as a starting point for discussing what support for screenwriters could be.
Celia Ryker- "A Publisher Ready Manuscript" How to decide when your manuscript is ready for prime time.
Gail Wind - "Using Excel to Maintain Research and Avoid Writing Blunders" To keep track of mileage of travelers, ages of your characters, when they get or quit a job, get married, are born or die, use Excel. It is easy to create and edit and you don't have to keep referring to your written novel.Make sure you know when your characters meet, disappear, return etc. You won't have readers calling you out for a character getting divorced when they are really on their second honeymoon!
Joy Cohen - "Yoga and Creativity: The Art and Practice of Breath, Flow, and Creative Expression" Have you ever carved out a time to create, and found yourself stuck? Ever taken a yoga class and experienced that feeling, that zone you enter–centered, calm, and less full of negative mind chatter? Please join me for a unique experience in which we combine a Gentle Yoga practice with a writing workshop.Class will include a series of breath-synchronized easy, gentle movement. We will set an intention for our writing, and our practice will become an exploration of how yoga can re-energize you physically and also help you achieve mental clarity and focus to enhance your creative process.After writing, we will return to our yoga practice, finding more flow, stretching our body, refocusing on breath, and stilling our mind of judgment and comparisons. A session of yoga and writing – don’t you already feel less stressed and more productive?
Louella (Ellie) Bryant - "Hook, Logline, and Stinker: The toughest challenge for book marketing." Once you have a complete manuscript, you must shift your mindset from telling your story to the hard part—selling your story. Attracting readers involves some of the most challenging writing you’ll do—developing key selling points in three formats: the hook that makes you look, the logline that distills the story, and the brief description that convinces the reader to make the purchase.
This workshop is appropriate for all levels, from the absolute novice to professional writers. No Yoga experience required, although also appropriate for experienced yogis and yoginis. We will approach both the Yoga and writing with a beginner's mind. Chairs available for those with limited mobility. Please bring a yoga mat or contact Joy if you need to borrow one.
We’ll also discuss the author bio, tags, keywords, and the all-important author website. N.B.: Even if you're still in the writing process, this workshop will help you define the heart of your story.
Susan Agatha Davis - "Info Dumps and Other Precarious Problems." This session will explore how to avoid info dumps/backstory swamps in the first chapter, when and how to avoid prologs, how to provide backstories that don't stifle the plot, and how to determine when "show, don't tell" doesn't matter.It will be a day of connection, creativity, and a celebration of the amazing talent within the league of Vermont writers!
"Into the Words" 2025 will feature member-led workshop sessions and genre group meetups. Members will have tables to show and sell their work.
This is a "brown bag lunch" event, with extras provided by the league for Greeting time in the morning and sides, desserts and drinks at lunch.
There will be a bingo card with prompts to meet, mingle and network. Everyone who has a "bingo' on their card will be entered for a chance to win a prize.
Schedule
8:15 Set up
9:30 Open doors
10:00 Opening remarks/announcements
10:15 WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Session A: Yoga and Creativity: The Art and Practice of Breath, Flow, and Creative Expression (Joy Cohen)
Session B: Collage your Focus (Amy Braun)
Session C: Publisher Ready Manuscript (Celia Ryker)
11:00 Break
11:15 WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Session D: Info Dumps and Other Precarious Problems (Susan Agatha Davis)
Session E: Use Excel to Maintain Research and Avoid Writing Blunders (Gail Wind)
Session F: Creating “New England Screenwriters Network” (Carl Nyberg)
Noon Lunch Hour with BINGO card Networking & Member Showcase
*This is a brown-bag situation where all attendees bring their own lunch. LVW will provide drinks and extras.
1:00 WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Session G: Do You Want to Self-Publish Your Book? Strategies for Success (Beth Malow)
Session H: Hook, Logline, and Stinker: The Toughest Challenge for Book Marketing (Louella [Ellie] Bryant)
Session I: Keeping Up, Staying Relevant, and Making Your Book Evergreen – A Mastermind Session for Published Authors (Alyssa Berthiaume)
1:45 Break
2:00 GENRE GROUPS
2:45 Closing remarks/announcements
3:00 Program ends, clean up
In the earliest days of the League,
programs focused on gatherings for members to share ideas and to spend time together. In 2015 a special summer program planning committee worked to orchestrate a day-long retreat that paid homage to LVW members while still being open to the public. Purposefully named ‘Into the Words,’ playing off the hit-musical and movie "Into the Woods," the planning committee wanted to create that feeling of getting lost in the thing that you love (words) with others who love the same thing (writers).
For the inaugural event, the day was comprised of members showcasing their skills and talents by leading a variety of half-hour and hour-long sessions (from craft to publishing to the writing life) and exhibiting their work in a designated Member Showcase area.
There was a lunch break that featured a 10-minute play, Fish and Game, written by member, Marge Sharp, and a reading from our host, member, poet, and children’s book author, Jerry Johnson.
Later in the afternoon, following more sessions, LVW offered an ice cream and watermelon social complete with music, written and performed by another member, Mark Pendergrast. Throughout the day there was a fundraising tag sale and a storytelling open-mic lead by member, Recille Hamrill. And this summary only scratches the surface of what kind of energy and enthusiasm the day brought and what level of inspiration was felt by all.
The retreat was a huge success and everyone raved about it at the end of the day, so we have made it a new biennial tradition to happen alternate to the years we are hosting the “Writers Meet Agents” event.