For a more complete exploration of Mike’s Writing Instruction & Editorial Services, check out:

www.BluePencilMike.com 

Get hands-on coaching, manuscript consultation, and classes tailored for the needs of individual and multiple students, given by a multi-award-winning author and professional editor —  Mike Marano. 

Unsolicited novels that have gotten Mike’s “Get Off My Lawn!” Treatment have been picked up by major New York publishers, and have netted their authors representation at highly respected and established Literary Agencies. 

“Get Off My Lawn!” Instruction and Editing draws upon Mike’s 30 years of experience as a professional and respected book critic, reporter, editor, film and arts writer, and author of acclaimed and award-winning short stories and novels. Since 2008, Mike has been an instructor at GrubStreet, the renowned center for creative writing located in Boston, where he has honed his instructional skills and editorial services. 

“Get Off My Lawn!” Writing Lessons and Editorial Services Include:

Light as well as detailed editing, and consultation on the creation and refinement of short stories, magazine articles, full-length novels, and any number of other writing projects.

Private, less-formally structured tutorials, designed according to the students’ specific needs, based upon the “Directed Study” model used at colleges and universities.

Personalized Writing Instruction Classes for One or More Students, lasting 6-10 weeks, to be conducted in person or remotely, that will include workshopping of students’ work. 

These Multi-Week Classes include, among others:

  • Screen & Stage, to the Page!
    How to Use the Techniques of Playwrights, TV and Film Writers for Prose Narratives
  • SUSPENSE! Heart-Pounding Lessons from Classic Thrillers
    A deep dive into the formative Suspense novels, Daphne DuMarier’s Rebecca, Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, and Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon 
  • SUSPENSE! Part Two: MORE Heart-Pounding Lessons from Contemporary Thrillers!
    A deep dive into more recent Suspense novels… Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, Leila Slimani’s The Perfect Nanny, and Emma Cline’s The Girls
  • Writing the Smart Page-Turner 

Any one of a series of four classes that explore the means by which authors can effectively and entertainingly use the methods of literary, popular, and genre fiction writing to create engaging and challenging works that are also great and entertaining reads.

Other personalized lectures and lesson plans could include (but are not limited to):

  • Characterization
  • World-Building
  • Plot Construction
  • Dialogue
  • Starting and Ending a Story
  • Developing Themes
  • How to Best Use POV
  • How to Best Use Time and Location to Escalate a Plot
  • Using Alienation and Paranoia
  • Tapping Real Life for Your Fiction
  • Practical Approaches to the Rewrite
  • Integrating Sub-Plots into Your Main Plot Seamlessly
  • Action Scenes
  • Creating Conflict and Good Villains

Contact Mike at Mike@GetOffMyLawn.biz for a free consultation to discuss creating a writing program best suited to for your skill level, deadlines, and budgets.