Writing Workshops
The Writer’s Center offers hundreds of writing workshops and classes every year. Workshops cover all genres and all experience levels. Join us in person and online.
Events
In this one-night introduction, historian/biographer Ken Ackerman shares the tricks of the trade for investigating our family roots, going back generations, using archives, interviews, internet sources, family records, and memories – and ideas to organize and share our heritage with children and grandchildren.
“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.
Bethesda, MD 20815 United States
You’ve drafted your picture book, what’s the next step? Learn to revise and polish your picture book manuscript before submitting to an agent or publisher. A widely published author and an acclaimed illustrator will lead discussions in pacing, page turns, storyboarding, and visually dramatic storytelling. During this hands-on workshop, writers will be editing their own manuscripts and enhancing their skills as picture book creators. Bring your questions and two double-spaced copies of a picture-book manuscript that you’ve revised. Workshop may most benefit those who have taken Writing Picture Books or another picture book class.
Learn the methods professional writers use to come up with winning plots for their fiction.
Do you have a finished draft of a novel but don’t know what to do next? This workshop will take you through the revision and editing process step-by-step. From large-picture issues like plot and structure, characterization, etc… to line editing, we will look at what it takes to revise your own novel without the assistance of a professional editor.
This workshop is a two-hour seminar for those who want to better understand the genre of memoir and the craft elements required to write it well. In this course we […]
Writing a novel takes commitment, but it doesn’t need to be daunting. Learn how to generate a handful of plots to choose from, methods for effectively planning your story, and simple hacks for fine tuning your basic fiction skills. Students will initiate a flexible writing plan that will keep their writing flowing. This is a great half-day session for the beginning long-form fiction writer, or for the more experienced author in need of a quick strategy brush-up.
How poets handle syntax—the arrangement of words in a sentence—is crucial to everything from establishing the voice of a poem to evoking a particular response from the reader. In this workshop, we will take a close look at how sentences are put together and how changing their structure can send a poem off in a new direction. We will also examine the relationship between the sentence and the line and how to control the tension between them.
Meet Susan Coll, instructor for our Novel Year workshop, and have all your questions about the program answered! The Writer’s Center staff will be on hand, too, to address any logistical […]
Lead with the future — not background — for lead-ership, especially in a crisis. That’s the most important of eight journalism skills that will transform your writing. The others: write your readers’ language, be positive (to be both clear and upbeat), lay out logically, be consistent, be precise, be concise and choose strong verbs. (Plus a Speak Like the News skill: avoid “uptalk?”) Emulate the vivid news examples you’ll see in this workshop, and you’ll strengthen your writing voice with lively, engaging news style. At 7 sharp, we’ll critique TheWallStreetJournal.com, seeing how to communicate your main point in just a few words. To cover as much ground as possible, we’ll have just a few writing exercises and most of them will take less than a minute each.
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.)
Guided by an award-winning and internationally published author of sonnets, villanelles, and other metrical poems, you’ll first read time-honored sonnets to see how and why they work. Next the class will write a group sonnet, and then — with or without shortcuts — you’ll start one of your own. You’ll leave with at least one new (draft) or improved sonnet, as well as insights about how writing poems in form can unlock deeper meaning and enhance everything you write.
Meet Lindsey Van Wagner, instructor for The Artist’s Way: A Year of Creative Reawakening, and have all your questions about the program answered! The Writer’s Center staff will be on […]
Meet Nicole Chung, instructor for our Memoir Year workshop, and have all your questions about the program answered! The Writer’s Center staff will be on hand, too, to address any logistical […]
Everyone has stories worth telling, they just don’t always recognize them. This interactive workshop helps participants uncover meaningful moments from their everyday lives and transform them into engaging pieces of writing. Through guided reflection, creative prompts, and interactive writing exercises, participants will explore memory, emotion, and observation to discover the stories hiding in ordinary experiences. Rather than focusing on perfect prose, this workshop encourages curiosity, authenticity, and play. Writers will experiment with different ways of approaching personal storytelling while gaining practical tools they can use long after the workshop ends. Participants will leave with new writing, a collection of prompts to inspire future work, and greater confidence in their ability to find stories wherever they go.
Write your novel in a year with bestselling novelist Susan Coll! Whether you have been thinking about writing a novel for years but are not sure how to get started, […]
Bethesda, MD 20815 United States
Register today for CraftCon! CraftCon is an academic conference that brings together dozens of featured writers on 16 innovative panels that aim to advance the craft of writing and the […]
Bethesda, MD 20815 United States
Through reflection, community, and practice, you’ll awaken the artist within and build a creative life that feels aligned and alive. This year-long journey through The Artist’s Way offers a sustained […]
Work on your memoir or collection of essays with bestselling author Nicole Chung! This intensive workshop is open to writers working on a memoir, memoir-in-essays, or essay collection. You’ll have […]