First, Dave is a great guy, and he isn't lying in the description when he says you'll actually have fun. Sharing stories and heavy laughter amongst the group was quite common. It was both extremely intense, and extremely fun. The combination puts you in a fantastic atmosphere for writing.

Over the course of the week Dave met with each of us one on one for an hour for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner. During this time he answers any questions you might have, and reads some of your work if you so choose to show him. In addition to this he sets aside a block of time each afternoon where students can meet with him one on one for a shorter half-hour session. The end result for me, by the end of the workshop, was two hours of solo time getting advice on my work.

Classes ran from 8:30-12:00 each day, with a 15 minute break typically taken around 10:30. During the classes Dave tackles a variety of different topics, and though it's clear he has a very good curriculum, I don't think he forces himself to follow it too strictly. This is a very good thing as it gives students a bit of the control over what they're learning. If the class seems particularly interested in characterization, Dave will spend more time speaking on it so as to help them. In short, though there is structure, Dave is willing to veer from his materials if he sees the class needs or wants it. He is not reading a manual; he's actually teaching.

What really blew me away about this course was how much unique information Dave had to offer. I've read somewhere around twenty books on writing. Most of these books are highly recommended, and extremely informative. Still, Dave manages to hit on so many areas that I just hadn't seen anywhere else. And we're not talking goofball ideas here, either. He doesn't simply take a well-known method and give it his own strange vernacular.

A few of the interesting things Dave touches on:

Resonance: Apparently well-known throughout Hollywood, I have never seen this taught in any writing manuals. Resonance helps to both broaden and deepen your audience. In extremely simple terms, it's the art of injecting your story with little familiarities throughout your genre and your projected audience. It's subtle, and very effective.

Audience Analysis: Who is your target audience? I think far too few writers take a look at this. Dave explains what various readers of different ages and sexes want, and how to give it to them.

Plotting: Dave has a great way of plotting, and his methods helped me to really understand the structuring of novels. Especially novels with multiple PoV characters, which I always struggled with.

Hooks: Dave explains the concept of hooks far better than anyone I've ever learned from. He has several techniques and all of them are incredibly useful.

Brainstorming, and coming up with the story: This was my favorite section of his course, and I don't feel I'm alone in that. Dave has several exercises that help inspire writing, and gives great advice on how one can avoid writers block, and things you can do to help break out of it. I've adopted every one of the exercises he had for us, because they're just that good. The best part about these exercises is that they aren't designed solely as an escape mechanism for writers block. I myself don't experience writers block too frequently, and initially thought some of this might be wasted upon me. Nope. Not one bit. The exercises are designed first to improve your writing, jolting your creative side is just a fantastic side effect.

Other things taught include description, traps to avoid, agents and editors, and Hollywood. Yes, Dave teaches about Hollywood, and it's a great thing. There are so many traps to avoid in Hollywood, and should you ever get an offer for a story you will want to know the things Dave teaches. Still, if you don't feel you want to learn about Hollywood, you have no reason to fret. Dave manages to explain it all in a fairly brief and vigorous manner.

Writing as a career: Dave teaches you how to write as a career, and gives you a great many pointers on how to avoid destroying your career before it even begins. It's scary how many authors sell themselves short and settle for a $5,000 book, or worse yet settle for independent publishing and end up not only losing money, but often making editors and agents weary of them (Because of course, such authors tend to point out BUT I AM PUBLISHED!). Dave explains why in such a situation it's almost always better to wait. To persist. He speaks at great length on how to avoid all of these career ending traps, and quite honestly it's invaluable. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this course should be required for any aspiring career novelist.

I'm sure I've missed several of the key things that he talks about, but I can't for the life of me remember them all. Thankfully they're all committed to my notes somewhere, and some to internalization.

What this workshop is NOT:
A pretentious style marathon, where all adverbs and adjectives are thrown into the fire and all those bestsellers be damned. While Dave would probably talk to you about style and line editing in your personal interviews, he does not spend time on it in class. He gives one short talk on how to edit your things in an efficient manner, but doesn't for instance say "No adverbs EVER. NO ADJECTIVES. Gotta write like the MASTERS!"

No. Dave instead lets you discover your OWN style. He is not a believer that everyone should be a Hemingway clone. And please note that I'm not saying Dave supports excessive adverbs and adjectives. In fact, if someone were to go truly overboard he'd likely point it out. Still, he recognizes that there are various forms of literature where adverbs and adjectives are completely acceptable, and he is not going to scream at an aspiring YA author who is wont to use them in his work.

In short: Dave is a fantastic teacher who truly knows his stuff. If you have any doubts about it, simply look at some of the people he's taught. If you're looking for a workshop that teaches you how to write as a career -- How to be a bestseller -- Then look no further.

Edit: I thought I should also point out, given the forums we're on, that I also found Orson Scott Cards two-day seminar to be highly informative, and highly valuable. I haven't attended his boot camp, so I can't comment on that, but I've heard only excellent things.

I went to Farland's workshops many moons ago. It was, in fact, one of his workshops that started me on the path to writing for publication. Dave's been an important part of me becoming published, from that first workshop to the book tour we did together last year. So I concur with Gan and recommend his workshops highly.

You don't need ANYTHING written on your current project to go to the workshop. That being said, if you do want some feedback on your story and whatnot, you'll obviously need to have something written by the time you get one-on-one time with Dave.

Here's a rundown on how things went for me in regards to my one-on-one meetings.
I had some world-building done by the start of the workshop, but no actual writing. The first day I wrote a four-hundred word passage meant to be a prologue. That same day I met with dave for a half an hour, and he mentioned what the passage was missing. I went back and rewrote it a couple of times by the time Dave and I had breakfast on Thursday, inserting fixes on the comments dave had mentioned, and things learned throughout the days I'd been there. Dave commented on it again, and said it was writing of publishable quality. Still, I felt it was lacking in characterization, and so I took a technique Dave had given us and put it to use in the writing. The result was another layer of depth, and indeed Dave liked the final version more (As did I).

John,

One of my favorite things Dave talks about in regards to hooks is what he called hook stacking. Using not just one hook, but so many hooks that the reader simply can't put down the book. While this idea might not be totally original to Dave (I can't remember if I've read it in other books at the moment), Dave teaches it in a fantastic manner that just makes sense.

He also taught me a better definition of the term 'hook'. Prior to his workshop I more thought of hooks along the lines of mystery. Dave explains that hooks can come across in many, many different forms. For example, style can be used as a hook, internalized thoughts, and a whole lot of other things. This might be obvious to some writers, but I'd always thought of 'hook' as something else. Dave's version is much, much better.

For audience analysis, I really can't even begin to abridge the things he says. He tells you how different audiences react to different 'beats', and gives various examples of this. An example: We watched the newer Star Trek one night. There are various scenes built to draw in a large audience. In one scene near the beginning, Kirk is in a bar and starts flirting with a woman (I can't remember her name).

The scene moves from romance (Flirting), to adventure (Bar fight), to humor (Kirk is knocked backwards and accidentally gropes the woman), and then at the end to horror (Wow, this guy is really getting his butt kicked!)

I should also mention. A couple of the nights Dave got us all together, and we watched a movie, with Dave commenting in the background on various techniques used throughout. While I didn't attend the first one, the second one was highly valuable.

If anyone wants to see a before-and-after of my writing, I'd be more than happy to show you.

Edit: Thought I'd add on the whole Utah writing phenomena. Honestly, I think its simply because of the resources one can find within the area. You have BYU, where Sanderson teaches (Or taught, I've no idea if he's still there), Mr. Card's writing workshop and seminar, Dave's stuff, and other various seminars that I really can't remember at the moment. Knowledge is power.

Resonance comes across in a variety of different forms. Word choice, character names, and plot among other things.

An example:

As a fantasy reader, what would you be more likely to read. I apologize in advance for the quality of the writing, but I'm too lazy to put any work into it.

1:
The castle ruins were dark. Bill gripped his weapon tightly. Where is that jerk? Walter, Bill's best friend of thirty years, had disappeared the night prior. The last time Bill had seen him Walter was at the Bar clashing mugs of cold beer with the other customers.

2:
The castle was dark as only ruins were wont to be. Edwin gripped the pommel of his sword. Where is that bastard? Lanic, Edwin's friend of thirty namedays, had disappeared just the fortnight prior. Last Edwin had seen, Lanic was sitting at the inn, drinking warm ale and flirting with the bar wench.

This is primarily a show of resonance through language, but you get the point. The second passage uses language that Fantasy audiences are wont to see as familiar, and thus likely feels to them to be more like a fantasy. Also, please don't judge the workshop based on the writing here. I'm far too tired to write a more suitable example.

I can't really get more in depth than this, as I'm no teacher, and I certainly don't want Dave to come here and think "This jerk is stealing all of my material!"

Though, quite honestly, I can't see Dave getting upset over something like that in a million years.

You can follow the weather forecasts using NOAA:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Lis