BRING YOUR WRITING TO LIFE:
USING PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUES
TO STRENGTHEN YOUR CRAFT
with Chris Tebbetts
Step inside your story and experience a scene instead of simply reading it on the page!
In this playful, hands-on workshop, writers will discover new ways to strengthen character, dialogue, conflict, pacing, and emotional impact by borrowing simple techniques from acting, directing, and improvisation. These approachable exercises are designed specifically for writers and offer a new way to see, hear, and experience your work.
Participants will generate new material or revisit existing scenes drafts with fresh eyes through guided exercises. You’ll experiment with techniques that can help you better understand what your characters want, uncover the tension beneath a conversation, make dialogue feel more natural, and identify places where a scene could use greater energy or emotional depth.
Participants will also have opportunities to explore scenes beyond the page through fun, low-pressure activities that illuminate character relationships, motivations, and choices. Experiencing a scene from a different perspective can reveal things that are easy to miss while sitting alone with a manuscript—and spark unexpected ideas for revision.
Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or other narrative forms, you’ll leave with practical tools you can use to create more vivid characters, dynamic interactions, and scenes that feel alive on the page.
No acting, directing, improv, or theater experience is necessary. Just bring your curiosity, your creativity, and a willingness to try something new.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
CHRIS TEBBETTS
Chris Tebbetts is the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling MIDDLE SCHOOL series, as well as the forthcoming middle grade adventure, DR.ZEUS, with James Patterson. He also co-authored the bestselling STRANDED series with Jeff Probst from TV’s “Survivor." Other projects include two YA novels: ME, MYSELF, AND HIM and M OR F? (with Lisa Papademetriou); the bestselling adult thriller 1ST CASE; and the audio drama 10 RULES FOR THE PERFECTMURDER, also with James Patterson. Chris came to publishing by way of theater, which was his primary creative outlet from age ten to thirty, including a decade as an NYC-based stage manager, director, choreographer, and producer—everything but acting. (Trust me, he is a terrible actor.)
Learn more about Chris here: https://linktr.ee/ChrisTebbetts
