Registration Tips
The Writer’s Center offers workshops at our building in Bethesda (just outside DC) and online via Zoom and the asynchronous discussion board platform, Wet Ink. Please be sure to double-check whether a workshop is in-person or virtual.
If you have accessibility needs, please review our accommodations and services and let us know how we can assist you prior to the workshop start date.
How to Choose Your Workshop
Everyone! From people who want to try out writing or would like help getting started, to those more experienced writers who want to learn more and get better. Learning to write is an on-going process that involves perfecting and using many skills at once, and even published writers profit from editors and readers who help them refine their work.
- Guidance and encouragement from a published, working author
- Instruction on technical aspects such as structure, diction, and form
- Kind, honest, and constructive feedback directed at the work but never critical of the author
- Peer readers/editors who act as ‘spotters’ for sections of your writing that need attention and who become your community of working colleagues, even after your workshop is completed
- Tips on how to keep writing and integrate this “habit of being” into your life
- Tactics for getting published when ready
- Attend every workshop session you possibly can
- Share your own work
- Comment on and share your ideas about your peers’ work
- Complete instructor prompts or reading assignments
- Complete the workshop response form at the end of the course
If you’ve never been in a writing workshop before, regardless of the skill level you think you have in writing, we strongly encourage you to start with a beginner level workshop. Here you’ll learn more about the environment of the workshop — how to give and receive helpful feedback, how to address problems with the work without criticizing the author, and how to incorporate multiple (and sometimes conflicting) ideas into your revision work.
Live virtual workshops are held via Zoom, and operate almost exactly like our in-person workshops. Virtual workshop participants will receive an email containing login information the day before or the morning of the workshop.
Asynchronous virtual workshops are held via Wet Ink, a discussion board platform, with no set meeting schedule. The instructor will post a lesson and assignment each week, and you’ll have the entire week to complete the material on your own time. When you post an assignment, you’ll receive feedback from the instructor and other participants. Asynchronous workshop registrants will receive an email shortly before the start date containing login instructions for Wet Ink.
If you’re new to creative writing, start here! Beginner-level workshops introduce you to the basic elements of the craft of writing. You’ll take your first steps to creating stories, poems, essays, novels, and more!
Now that you’ve developed a writing practice, it’s time to take it to the next level. Intermediate workshops help you learn new skills and improve your own original work.
Calling all confident writers! In our advanced workshops, you’ll master elements of craft, finish polished pieces, and learn how to get your work published.