How to Write a Novel, Novella, or Short Story

Date:  Mondays, January 6th and 13th (more dates may be added with interest)
Time:  6pm-8pm
Location:  CUB, 114 N Third St, McCall
Instructor:  F.A. Loomis

Award-winning local author F.A. Loomis will walk participants through the steps of writing long fiction and creative nonfiction. Learn some of the concepts that will be important in writing your novel. Everyone has at least one novel in them, and most of us have wondered:

 Should I bother trying to write a novel?
 Is waiting to write my novel—gathering information—just
procrastinating?
 What would my theme, plot, or message be anyway?
 Do I have the courage and stamina to follow through?

Weigh the choices of subject matter:
 Is this novel about me, my family, a place, a character or set of
characters I want to bring to life?
 Is it about a historical situation or person?
 Is it about a concept that the world needs to know about?
 Do I want to write a thriller, romance, or murder mystery?

Learn to make decisions about:
 narration styles
 sense of place
 character hierarchy
 development methods to maintain interest
 legitimacy of plot
 outlines and timelines
 beginnings and endings
 surprises  humor

Learn how to use writer tools and springboards:
 journals
 letters
 news headlines
 legal briefs or affidavits
 dreams
 psychoanalysis
 internet sleuthing
 archive visits
 even Post-It Notes

Join F.A. (Floyd) Loomis and start THAT COMPELLING STORY you’ve often thought about writing.

Participants are asked to bring an outline or several sample pages of a work in progress, something they are willing to share with others.

F.A. (Floyd) Loomis Bio

Novelist, Poet, Journalist, Educator, Dean, Speaker, Businessman, Woodworker

Novels: Francois! A Novel Inspired by the Life of Francois Payette, Frankie Ravan, Ravan’s Winter, Confluence of Spirit, Blue Duwamish, No End in Sight, The Attic Thief
Novella: The Adventures of Beanie & Larry
Short Story Volumes: The Rose and Other Urban Stories, A Run of Garnets & Other Idaho Tales, 60 Minute Stories
Nonfiction: As Long As Life, The Memoirs of a Frontier Woman Doctor; Ladies with Sisu; Refined, My Path to the Catholic Diaconate
Poetry Chapbooks: Salmon River Lookout, East West West East, Gold Fork Dreams

EXPERIENCE
Publishers Random House/Ballantine and KDP/Storm Peak Press, CBS
News Network, ABC/Cap Cities, Int’l Thomson, LPC Inc., Pacific Business
Information Inc., Seattle Community Colleges and Shoreline Community
College, Business Computer Training Inst., U.S.F.S., Idaho Naturalist

EDUCATION
Master’s Degrees-Yale Univ.; Bachelor’s Degree-Univ. of Washington
Seattle; Database Management Columbia Univ.

FAMILY
Wife Kristin and a giant schnauzer Cozette