Debra Dixon Offers Workshop for Novelists

by Amy Herring

Debra Dixon will teach a one-hour workshop covering the elements of fiction writing on Monday at 2:30 p.m. in the WRIT/Writer’s Track (Greenbriar). The mini seminar is based on concepts from Dixon’s book GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict, The Building Blocks of Good Fiction (Gryphon Books for Writers 1996).

The concept of GMC helps writers in many ways, Dixon explains in her book. “I use the concept for character development, sharpening scenes, fixing sagging middles, creating memorable secondary characters, writing synopses, pitching ideas to my editor, and evaluating whether an idea is going to work . . .GMC appears to be a part of my thought process—an unconscious filter I apply to my work.”

Dixon’s workshop is for novelists. The one-hour seminar compresses a one-day course where Dixon discusses “tools to put together a book” and “the engine that fuels genre fiction.”

Writer’s Track Director, Nancy Knight, gave high marks to both the workshop and the panel Dixon moderated Saturday, “Women of the New Millennium,” which looked at women’s changing perspectives and how this was affecting female characters. Responding to a question, panelist Eric Griffin told writers to reach into the “mulchpit of the imagination” where there are “dark things, bright things. You have to get comfortable with both.” Ending the panel as moderator, Dixon warned writers not to chase trends.

Dixon is working on her eleventh book. She has served as Vice President of the Romance Writers of America and has received numerous awards for her fiction. She is one of five founders of BelleBooks, a small press. Dixon has also taught novel writing courses for the University of Memphis as well as workshops across the country.