All Pennwriters Courses are conducted in a “live” presentation format utilizing the Zoom platform. If a conflict arises based on the required meeting times, please contact the instructor and Online Courses Coordinator to find a possible solution. ALL sessions will be recorded. This class will meet on Zoom, Tuesday evenings, November 7, 14, 21, and 28 from 7:30 PM to 9:30PM.
Format:
- 4 recorded 2-hour Zoom sessions, Tuesdays, 7:30pm - 9:30pm
- Field recons to give participants a toolkit of methods
- 4 getting-it-on-the-page assignments to do at your own pace; and the end of the month won't be the end of access to the Instructor.
Description:
This workshop is based on Timons's Warfare for Writers project. There will be four Zoom sessions, the first hour of each being the must-see information, the second hour being expansion and discussion.
The fundamental discussions will be on the topics of Catechism for the Semi-Clueless, since most writers haven't seen combat or been in the military, and Getting Combat on the Page (the craft of it all). There will also be slideshows, including Fortifications 101, Ancient Warfare Basics, Logistics in Warfare and Fiction, and Why You Won't Have Galleons without Gunpowder. Additional elements will very much depend on the needs of the participants.
The first week: Fortifications 101 (because forts, castles, palaces and walls seem to appear in the majority of military manuscripts) & Catechism on Units
We will be discussing the 9 things that tend to be missing from castles and forts when you visit them, being: the surface; the glacis; top structures; firing steps; moats; full gate structures; barbicans; original approach roads; and firing slit stoppers. You'll also learn the 4 Rules of Gates.
You will learn that military units are machines made of people.
The text lesson will explain how to get much of this on the page.
The second week: Ancient Warfare Basics & Catechism on Officers
Almost all the elements of modern warfare are just more complicated versions of ancient warfare, and most of the basic terms were around in Alexander's day. We'll talk about the origins of it all, and explain -- among other things -- why chariots were so effective.
The text lesson will, again, explain how to get much of this on the page.
The third week: Logistics & Getting It on the Page
Timons has grown tired of gunslingers, or knights in shining armor, or jeeps going off into the wilderness, one horse (or tank of gas) apiece, for days at a time, and yet they have food, cooking pots, tents, cots, maps, books, and tools. Who is carrying all that? We'll discuss logistics from Alexander the Great to World War II, and from Tolkien to the Little Big Horn.
The text lesson will -- wait for it -- explain how to get much of this on the page.
The fourth and final Atlantis-sinking-beneath-the-waves week: Naval Matters & Why You Won't Have Galleons without Gunpowder
Some basics of naval warfare will be introduced, using wooden ships as the avenue of discussion. Timons will complain about authors who try to cram pirate ships into worlds where they don't belong; and perhaps will explain why battleships never made a lick of sense, ever.
The text lesson will explain why it might help if your navy makes sense.
Customer Benefits/Takeaways:
- A keener sense of how deep you need to dig your foxhole
- A basic understanding of the problems a soldier has to think about, and of how limited their POV usually is
- A list of resources
- Instructor feedback on exercises
About the Instructor:
Timons Esaias is a satirist, writer and poet living in Pittsburgh. His works, ranging from literary to genre, have been published in twenty-two languages. He has also been a finalist for the British Science Fiction Award, and twice won the Asimov's Readers Award. His story Norbert and the System has appeared in a textbook, and in college curricula. His SF short story Sadness was selected for three Year's Best anthologies in 2015, and the story GO. NOW. FIX. was selected for two in 2021. His full-length Louis-Award-winning collection of poetry -- Why Elephants No Longer Communicate in Greek -- was brought out by Concrete Wolf. His poetry publications include Atlanta Review, Verse Daily, 5AM, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Willard & Maple, Asimov’s Science Fiction and Elysian Fields Quarterly: The Literary Journal of Baseball. He was Adjunct Faculty at Seton Hill University for two decades, in the Writing Popular Fiction MFA Program.
Email & Links:
Email: Wordcraeft@timonsesaias.com
Web page: www.timonsesaias.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timons.esaias/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/867037.Timons_Esaias