Mixed Genre

Even the most disciplined writers encounter creative stalls, moments when the page feels resistant and momentum fades. This workshop is designed to help writers restart their creative engines through structured exercises, collaborative prompts, and short creative challenges. Across a series of guided activities, participants will engage in quick writing sprints, storytelling games, and group sharing designed to lower resistance and spark new ideas. The goal isn’t simply to “have fun,” but to reconnect writers with the generative side of their practice, where curiosity, experimentation, and risk-taking often lead to unexpected breakthroughs. By combining playful exercises with thoughtful discussion, the workshop offers writers practical strategies for overcoming blocks, generating fresh material, and maintaining a sustainable creative rhythm.

This breathwork and generative writing workshop is a transformative experience for both writers who wrestle with creative blocks and resistance and those who simply wish to write with more ease and flow. We will begin by learning a short breathwork technique that you can use whenever you write. We will then do a short experimental writing exercise to get in a writing headspace. The heart of the workshop will be a deep breathwork session, followed by a guided visualization to stimulate creativity. You will then channel that creative energy into your writing, either using the provided prompt or working on an existing project. We will close by coming back together to celebrate. By the end of the workshop, you will be writing freely and easily, and you will have the tools and knowledge to regulate before your regular writing sessions. Please bring your own yoga mat and optional eye shade.

In this short workshop, we'll explore writing that doesn't care what you call it, work that resists easy attempts at categorization and chooses to wow us instead. We'll read samples from some contemporary writers who are doing this best, and consider why anyone would bother to categorize their work at all, then we'll get into prompts that lead us toward our own hard-to-classify texts. We'll work through a few prompts of our own and leave the workshop with some short pieces to polish or expand, along with a better understanding of resisting genre.

Prompts will spark memories, characters, and places, turning them into poems, scenes, dialogues, and stories. During ‘UnClogging’ you will likely come up with an ‘idea’ that you feel compelled to expand on, or perhaps be re-inspired to continue an unfinished work later. Find new perspective and confidence!

Agents say it all the time. What sells a manuscript? A standout voice! Acquire the tools you need for developing a compelling voice of your own through the study of entertaining published examples, a clear explanation, and writing exercises designed to ignite your unique way of expressing yourself. You will enjoy a sense of excitement in this inspiring and instructive workshop as you successfully translate the voice in your head to the page.

At the core of every good tale is a character with whom the reader wants to spend time. Discover how to move beyond the superficial and cliché, crafting characters who invite the reader to explore the human condition. Illustrations and exercises will help you uncover your character's inner values (in memoir, that character is you), understand how flaws shape what a character wants and does, and recognize why a character must act—not just react—for a story to move forward. We'll examine techniques for depicting yearning, internal conflict, and transformation, and consider what's at stake if your character fails. This workshop will benefit those writing a novel, short story, or memoir.

Draft and develop a series of micros (stories of 300 words or less) that are both standalone and/or link into a larger whole.

Jump-start your creativity with fun exercises in poetry, memoir and fiction. You’ll take home two original poems plus at least one short piece of fiction and a memoir scene or character. Opportunities to read your writing aloud and receive positive feedback can help you identify your specific writing talents. Please bring your favorite writing instruments to the workshop and check your email the night before to print out any handouts to bring with you the next day.

Each session of Boot Camp for Writers will begin with a prompt followed by writing time. Participants will have the opportunity to share and discuss their work as well as receive in-class feedback. The workshop is designed so that participants will have the start of six new pieces by the end of class. Former Boot Camp participants are always (and happily) welcome. Note: No meeting November 3 and 24.

Using quotes, poems and/or personal reflections, students will combine words with easy to follow art techniques to create an art journal reflecting their own personal style. *Students should bring to all classes a blank watercolor journal, 8x8 or larger. All other art materials used in class will be provided by instructor.

Dialogue is essential to characterization storytelling, yet can be incredibly tricky to master. In this course, we’ll look at transcripts of conversations from life and published work to develop strategies to make your dialogue shine in your writing. Then we’ll do some targeted exercises to explore different types of dialogue strategies that go beyond direct quotation to create a symphony of distinct speaking voices for your characters. All genres welcome.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for story structure. Let’s discuss a plan that works for you. We’ll examine your story’s strengths and weaknesses, focusing on both the destination and the journey. Does your narrative feature a compelling character arc, a strong point of entry, well-placed flashbacks, and a transformative, resonant ending? Will readers care? We will use maps, sketches, and diagrams, emphasizing the importance of revising your initial plan as your story evolves. Bring your specific idea for a short story, memoir, or novel.

“Show, Don’t Tell” is an interactive writing workshop designed to help participants bring their stories, ideas, and experiences to life on the page. Through guided prompts, sensory exercises, and creative writing activities, participants will practice moving beyond explanation and into vivid, specific, emotionally engaging writing. This workshop invites writers to explore how detail, dialogue, action, setting, and perspective can create stronger connections with readers. Participants will have opportunities to write, reflect, share, and revise in a supportive environment. Whether they are working on personal essays, fiction, professional storytelling, or simply looking to strengthen their creative voice, this workshop offers practical tools to make writing more immediate, memorable, and alive.

You may think you don't have the time, energy, or inspiration to write because of your hectic lifestyle. Wrong! We'll share methods many professional writers use to complete their books in months instead of years, their short stories in mere weeks. Become the dedicated author you've always dreamed of being. (Ideal for writers who don’t have 8 weeks to dedicate to the Extreme Novelist course.)