Pikes Peak Writers Conference 2025

Conquer the structural elements of character-driven fiction to write romance novels that readers love. This presentation teaches romance fiction from a structural standpoint. You’ll learn about goal, motivation, and conflict, which are the cornerstones of fiction writing. But then we dive deeper to cover character arcs, flaws and stakes, which are vital in character-driven stories like romance. You’ll understand how each element hinges on the others to build the infrastructure of your story, and you’ll gain the confidence to utilize these elements to improve your own books.

Mystery is one of the hardest genres to write because of the myriad of moving parts in play at any given time. Then you have to make the ending a dramatically satisfying event for the reader. One way to do this is with a twist ending. Learn how to determine if a twist ending is the right ending for your story, the different kinds of twist endings, and how to ensure it will be satisfying for your reader.