Creativity Development Workshops and Seminars

Creative Goal-Setting for Real Achievement

Lose twenty-five pounds. Win the lottery. Exercise regularly. De-clutter. Get a better job.

These are your mama's New Year's resolutions, a method of goal-setting that the ancient Babylonians started and quickly broke just as we do today. No wonder only 8 percent of Americans successfully achieve such low-tech resolutions/goals. A hotshot writer such as yourself needs really hot and creative goal setting and achieving techniques to accomplish your heart's desire of finishing the book, selling it and winning the Pulitizer. MMMMelinda Rucker Haynes will show you how your (and others') words affect your goal-achieving apparatus, the subconscious, and how to effectively reprogram your self-talk to improve your creative output and make the lasting positive changes in your lifestyle that you've always wanted. Make this the year of your creative achieving!

REWRITE YOUR LIFE for Health, Happiness & Love

You are the author of your life. Rewrite your life's story for a happier, healthier, more loving now that can fulfill your creative potential and life's mission with techniques and exercises from author, hynotherapist and creative intuitive, Melinda Rucker Haynes, M.Ed., CH

Motivating Your Plot and Your Life

Award-winning author and creative development coach Melinda Rucker Haynes will help you discover the power of your creative mind to achieve your goals. As you learn to authentically motivate your story people and your book's plot, you'll also discover how to utilize creative motivation to cut right to the heart of whatever problems stand in your way and focus on the opportunities that present themselves to you.

Your Creative Flow: Writing from Inside Out

Gift yourself magical, fun-filled time discovering the creative heart of your writing with award-winning author, teacher and creativity coach, Melinda Rucker Haynes. Workshop participants will enjoy great creativity development and writing "experiences" and learn fun, relaxing techniques for generating on-demand flow. Melinda will show you how to generate and write from FLOW--the effortless expression of your true creative self. Come prepared with pen/paper and drop your cares and worries and enjoy a remarkable experience of self-discovery that will leave you relaxed, refreshed and ready to create the best writing of your life!

Paranormal Perspectives: Creating Magic in Your Writing and Life

Dubbed the queen of unique paranormal romance, Melinda Rucker Haynes is also a certified hypnotherapist specializing in past life regressions and future life progressions. As a creative development coach, Melinda helps writers and other creatives discover their own creative centres where latent psychic and other special skills may be waiting to be rediscovered. Spend magical time with Melinda and experience a sampler of paranormal skills and creative flow generators designed to encourage the development of your talents and gifts that can enrich your life and your creative expression. Come prepared to leave your cares and worries behind and discover the enchantment of your creative centre, the authentic heart of your creative self.

The Magic of Creative Focus

When the power of the creative mind is focused like a laser upon your creative goals, you can cut right to the heart of whatever problems stand in your way and focus on the opportunity that's presented itself to you. You will learn to assess your creative resistance, change blocking behaviors, disregard the unimportant, prioritize goals and bring appropriate skills online to create in flow.

Writing Workshops and Seminars

ELEMENTS OF FICTION WRITING SERIES
Discovering Writer's Voice & Style

Discover how to use your unique writer's voice to become an entertaining storyteller. Learn to use "description" to advance the plot, enliven settings and make your story people real. Find out how and where to use necessary background information and how to make specialized terminology more readable. Discover how to use your personal experience, research and imagination to portray the range of human emotions that connects with readers. Extensive handouts and style discovery writing.

Crafting Characters & Dialogue

Explore how to create interesting, active and risk-taking characters. Discover the push/pull character types who fight for their goals despite their flaws. Learn to create worthy adversaries to motivate your story people in the direction of action. Develop character background and motivation that contribute to story logic. Create real dialogue. Experiment with character building charts and dialoguing protocols. Extensive handouts and practice with character charts and dialoguing protocols.

Developing Plot and Story Action

Learn where and when to begin and end the story. Keep the story action logical and everything happening for a reason. Discover power plotting and exorcise "coincidence" from your story. Learn to avoid sloppy plot planning and to apply the stimulus and response equation for balanced story action. Find out how to plot enough story without a cast of thousands by making maximum use of everything you invent. Organize your story with a "wholistic" plot that keeps the action and character development on track, freeing you to tell the story of your heart. Extensive handouts and experimental work with Story Compass creative development and plotting tool.

From Sexy Shivers to Everlasting Love: The World of Paranormal Romance

Can't get enough of vampires, were-creatures, space cowboys, time travelers, magicians, fantasy warriors or other delicious paranormal goodies? Don't wait for your favorite authors to feed your paranormal habit, build your own worlds and people or creature them with memorable lovers that editors and readers want. Write the high-strangeness that you love and let the queen of unusual paranormal romance, Melinda Rucker Haynes, show you how to make it REAL for the market. Learn who's buying and what's selling or been done to death (and not in a good way either). Discover how to make your romance's paranormal elements feel unique yet plausible and believable. Extensive handouts and excessive fun with a group past life regression, if everyone is very, very bad, er, good.

Production Secrets of the Prolific Pros

Just want to finish the book and still have a life or produce several books a year like the Prolific Pros? You'll find out how and more in this fun, fast-paced, experiential workshop. Performance coach and award-winning author of eight novels Melinda Rucker Haynes has garnered the productivity techniques of some of the most prolific authors in romance into a workshop format designed to help you increase your productivity by assessing your current productivity blocks, then sampling several production methods and customizing the techniques that work for you into your own highly effective production process. Extensive handouts and personalized help.

Character Creation Dynamics

In order to create novels that keep readers engaged with the story, a writer must effectively use character creation dynamics. Learn to craft characters that seem real and operate from a core of background and emotion. Motivate the right character type for the right role in the story and keep them moving through a plot that contributes to character growth. Extensive handouts and character creation practice with the Dynamic Eleven Elements process.

Theme: Your Story's Heart and Soul
"What's your book about?" is the one question that can reduce the most experienced author to spouting jibberish. We may stammer that it's a romance or talk about the heroine's problems. We may sputter that hero is a typical alpha male and he's got issues, too, but there's a happy ending and some great love scenes, of course. The questioner frowns and asks again, "Yeah, but what's your story ABOUT?" The answer to that question is your story's theme. And MMMMelinda Rucker Haynes will show you how to find and enhance it. Theme is the living heart of your story. It breathes life into characters and reveals souls to readers. Learn to craft a theme for all your story elements for a multilayered, deeply textured story readers will love and perhaps discover something interesting about yourself in the process.

The Creative Sales Pitch

The Selling Pitch: Craft A Dynamic 90 Second Blurb That Best Sells Your Story

Successfully pitching your fiction or nonfiction anywhere, anytime requires proven sales and oral storytelling techniques. Learn to use the Flash Five process to craft a best-selling pitch. "90 Second Blurb" your story with dynamic language that grabs the editor/agent's attention and makes them ask for more. Hands-on 90 Second Blurbing practice, worksheets, handouts.

Pitching Without Panic: Make Your Editor/Agent Appointment Fear-Free and Successful!

In the Pitching Without Panic workshop, award-winning author and continually successful pitcher Melinda Rucker Haynes performance coaches pitchers in the latest communication techniques that are based in current, leading-edge behavioral change/improvement methods of neuro-linguistic programming. After the pitching basics, practice pitchers learn WHAT agents/editors really want to hear in a great pitch and HOW they'd like to hear it. There are specific proven techniques for group situations and one-on-ones to practice and gain confidence. Using current "selling/pitching" techniques that really work, practice pitchers learn to immediately determine the best pitch/approach and confidently present their pitch/message without panic to anyone, anytime. They'll practice in a no-pressure, nurturing environment and actually have fun Pitching Without Panic!

Hypnotherapy Informational Presentations

A Journey of Self-Discovery: Explore Modern Hypnosis

Cluck like a chicken? Dance and sing like Brittany? Give up control of your mind and your actions? This is what hypnosis is like, right? WRONG! Explore the powerful world of the mind using modern, safe hypnosis techniques. In this introductory class, explore what hypnosis really is and what it isn't. Learn how to use hypnotic language, power words and phrases to create rapid change. Improve performance, habits, relaxation and self confidence and experience a past life regression. Learn self-hypnosis and get control of your NOW.

Personal Time Travel© Past Life Regression Hypnosis

Have you ever wondered who you have been in the course of history? Are you curious about your affinity to places or times or to certain people or activities? Take a relaxing and inspiring "mind journey" or guided past life regression through time and discover your past lives and hidden talents. Perhaps you will reconnect with the timeless love of your soul mate. Learn to incorporate your Personal Time Travel© experiences in your work and life.

Personal Time Travel© Future Life Progression Hypnosis

Our futures are created with each decision we make today. Through guided imagery progression hypnosis explore possible futures that your present decisions and actions are creating. Discover what you may need to change today to experience a better tomorrow.

Jedi Mind Tricks: Hypnosis Secrets for Mind Control

Was Obi Wan a practitioner of the Force or a master hypnotist? Is there a difference? Learn how you are influenced without your awareness and how your newfound awareness can change your reality.

The Seductive Arts: Hypnotic Secrets for Success in Love and Business

Everyone wants to seduce you. They want you to willingly give them your attention, your love, your money or your vote. The best people persuaders know how to use the seductive words and actions that will motivate you, usually without your awareness, to give them what they want. Discover how and why hypnosis works and become aware of the hypnotic words, images and actions that are designed to affect your thinking and behavior.

Creativity Coaching: Unblocking Writers' Creative Flow
(Hypnosis practitioner level workshop)

Writers and other creatives may seek hypnosis for many reasons--to increase productivity, to overcome procrastination, or to gain self confidence. Most creatives do not consciously realize that when these and other creativity blocks are identified and released, they may experience on-demand creative flow. Award-winning author, hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner Melinda Rucker Haynes, M.Ed., CH, demonstrates her Creativity Coaching Process that uniquely incorporates hypnosis, NLP, traditional education and training protocols and motivational coaching techniques.

Contact Melinda for more information.