CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS
Winter 2023
READ ME:
- Registration closes 24 hours before start time or when workshop fills. No walk-ins, please.
- Please read our workshop policies before registering.
- Can't attend without a scholarship? Apply here.
January Workshops
February Workshops
The Magic of Romance: Writing Love in Speculative Fiction
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INSTRUCTOR: Tanya Aydelott
TIME: Saturday, February 4, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, January 29. Sunday, January 29: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 Westley and Buttercup. Spock and Uhura. Aziraphale and Crowley. Science fiction and fantasy stories abound with romance, taking us deep into the hearts of characters as they battle orcs, aliens, dragons, demons, galactic explorers, and all manner of otherworldly creatures. But how do you make a romantic storyline work within the fantastic world you’re creating? Using mentor texts that range from short stories to novels, this workshop will consider various ways to use your setting, characters, and plots to advance a romance in your speculative fiction story. |
Photo by Denise Johnson on Unsplash
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Read Like a Writer
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INSTRUCTOR: Patrick Stockwell
TIME: Saturday, February 4, 2:00–4:00 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, January 29. Sunday, January 29: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan St, Houston, TX 77006 (map) LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 In order to write great short stories, it is important for a writer to understand why the best examples of the form are so successful. What is it that keeps the reader connected to the characters? What makes the world of the story feel so richly inhabited? Out of what materials is this beautiful piece of writing made? How do we learn to “see” the architecture of a story so that we can learn to emulate it in our own work? In this one day class, prize-winning author Patrick Stockwell will lead a focused examination of Benjamin Percy’s “Refresh, Refresh,” a newly minted classic of twenty-first century American short fiction. The conversation will focus on structure, identifying “props,” and the ways the author uses characterization to generate harmony and narrative cohesion. Students will receive a PDF copy of the story upon registration and will need to read closely before class meets so that we can get right to our analysis. |
Photo by Ishaq Robin on Unsplash
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Up and Coming Writers of the World - for the young writer in your life!
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INSTRUCTORS: Angélique Jamail and Dr. Kathryn Peterson
PRICE: $300. Scholarships are available. Apply here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 12 “The only way to find your voice is to use it.” Jen Mueller, American author and sports broadcaster In this youth writing program, middle school students will have the opportunity to explore poetry, fiction, and playwriting with award-winning, local Houston authors. At the start of each month, participants will enjoy an in-depth genre workshop followed by weekly one-on-one mentorship from high school creative writers at the Kinder High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Houston’s only high school arts magnet. A reading will be held for participants to showcase the writing generated during the program. Prior to the reading, students will receive expert coaching on the art of reading and performing the written word. What you’ll get in the Up and Coming Writers of the World Workshop:
Fiction Workshop with Angélique Jamail TIME: Sunday, February 5, 2-4 p.m. CST In this introduction to fiction writing, students will learn about the most important elements of a story. We will discuss character development, setting, dialogue, and the various short forms fiction writers often use. Students will write at least two generative exercises to get their stories started and have the opportunity to share an excerpt of this work for comments from the class. Playwriting Workshop with Dr. Kathryn Peterson TIME: Sunday, March 5, 2-4 p.m. CST In this introduction to playwriting, students will explore what it means to write a play and discuss how writing for the stage is very different from writing for the page or screen. We’ll start with a discussion of conflict and dramatic tension, which is the heart of every play. We’ll talk about what makes a scene a scene and how you can externalize internal feelings and desires. Students will write monologues and scenes in generative exercises and have the opportunity to share their work and receive comments from the class. If time permits, we will practice performing some of this work for a larger audience. Poetry Workshop with Angélique Jamail TIME: Sunday, April 2, 2-4 p.m. CST In this introduction to poetry writing, students will explore what poetry is, including a survey of some of its forms and styles. We’ll touch on basic meter, which is the basic rhythmic structure of a line of poetry, discuss six different ways to create rhyme, and look at free verse poetry. We’ll also talk about where poets can find inspiration. Students will write at least two poems in generative exercises and have the opportunity to share this work for comments from the class. |
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Finding a Way through Imposter Syndrome
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INSTRUCTOR: Victoria Strange
TIME: Saturday, February 11, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CST/CDTPRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, February 5. After Sunday, February 5: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan St, Houston, TX 77006 (map) LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 Cheryl Strayed talks about her feelings of “doubt and self-loathing” when she wrote Wild. Neil Gaiman only felt better about his imposter syndrome after he found out about Neil Armstrong’s. John Steinbeck said he was “fooling himself and everyone else.” No matter how much success or experience we have, imposter syndrome doesn’t necessarily go away. We live in disbelief of our accomplishments and compare ourselves to a romanticized version of what others have achieved. Too many times, writers allow imposter syndrome to prevent them from pursuing their dreams and goals. In this workshop, Licensed Professional Counselor, Victoria Strange, M.A., will teach writers how to create a system for connecting with themselves so they can move through imposter syndrome and act on their needs, wants, and goals. Through a series of prompts and exercises, Victoria will equip writers to act in spite of their imposter syndrome. |
Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash
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Novel Kickstart: Get Your Novel Off the Ground
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INSTRUCTOR: Theodora Ziolkowski
TIME: Saturday, February 11, 1:00–4:00 p.m. CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, February 5. After Sunday, February 5: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 Have you always wanted to write a novel, but don’t know how to start? Whether you are new to writing fiction or have been penning stories for some time, this generative virtual workshop is designed to get you started on a novel—all writing levels welcome. Participants will leave with a rough vision for their novels, as well as story maps and exercises to take beyond the first page of their books to their last. Come prepared to write! |
Photo by RetroSupply on Unsplash
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Creative Nonfiction: Narrative Arc in the Personal Essay
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INSTRUCTOR: Rebecca Spears
TIME: Saturday, February 18, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, February 13. After Monday, February 13: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 When we as writers have a story to tell or an idea we want to write about, an important question is, how do we get readers to follow our lead? How do we guide them through the story and arrive at the end, satisfied? Considering these questions, it is essential to shape your narrative with a fitting structure that creates forward movement. A story or essay with a satisfying narrative arc will indeed get you and your readers to the “somewhere” you have imagined. The elements of telling a good story apply not just to fiction, but to nonfiction as well. In Crafting the Personal Essay, essayist Dinty Moore discusses the challenge of writing nonfiction: that while it allows a “wonderful freedom” to follow your curiosity, the writer must figure out how “to ensure coherent movement and interest to the reader.” In this 3-hour workshop, we will look at the shape of successful essays and examine the narrative arc as distinct from chronology and plot. You will also have opportunities to practice ways to stay true to the trajectory you wish to establish. This includes mapping your narrative to create a beginning, middle, and end that “fit.” |
Photo by Marjan Blan | @marjanblan on Unsplash
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Writing Poetry: The Body and Disability
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INSTRUCTOR: Sarah Gajkowski-Hill
TIME: Sunday, February 19, 3:00–6:00 p.m. CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, February 13. After Monday, February 13: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 “Just as the Harlem Renaissance led to the development of African American literature and the 1960s to feminist literature, we are in a seminal period for the genre of disability literature.” – Michel Northern, Editor of Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability “To look these things squarely in the face would need the courage of a lion tamer …this monster, the body, this miracle, its pain, will soon make us taper into mysticism…” – Virginia Woolf, from On Being Ill There is a new generation of disability poetry; a new school/genre is emerging. This course will explore the works of disability-themed and/or confessional poetry of authors with disabilities. After reading the works of Jennifer Bartlett, Robert Fagan and Vassar Miller, the instructor will facilitate silent writing and sharing before discussing places to send this particular kind of poem for publication. |
Photo by Javier Miranda on Unsplash
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Writers of Color
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INSTRUCTOR: Julia Brown
TIME: Six Thursdays, February 23, March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 6:00–9:00 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $210 for members, $240 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Friday, February 17. After Friday, February 17: $240 for members, $270 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan St, Houston, TX 77006 (map) LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 Where does our inspiration come from? How do we dive into our own uniqueness to write the stories and poems that are uniquely our own? In this multi-genre, six-week course, we will consider these questions and others to help us better understand ourselves as narrative engines. We will focus on writing, close reading, and workshopping, immersing ourselves in our craft, whether literary fiction or slam or sci-fi. We will familiarize ourselves with the fundamentals of prose and poetry in order to apply those elements to our work, reading work by published writers in order to expand our sense of narrative possibility. We will support each other in taking risks and being vulnerable, and use workshop to offer and receive feedback, gather ideas for revision, and refine our responses to works in progress. Over the last few decades, organizations designed to support and promote the work of writers of color have emerged across the country. Cave Canem, Kundiman, Canto Mundo, VONA, Kimbilio, and others recognize the need to provide writers of color with the kind of community and workshop space that encourages taking risks, resisting stereotypes (in ourselves, others, and in our writing), and creating poems, stories, novels, and essays that speak to the range of our experience as human beings. This workshop shares these intentions and seeks to provide Houston writers of color with the freedom and support offered by these organizations. This workshop is open to writers of all backgrounds typically underrepresented in American literature, including, but not limited to, writers who identify themselves as African American or Caribbean, Asian American, Middle Eastern, Chicanx, Hispanic, and Latinx. Expect to come away with fierce new work, as well as a renewed sense of the power found through community. This workshop is funded in part by a grant from Poets & Writers. |
Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash
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Let’s Start with Sentences
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INSTRUCTOR: Matthew Hefti
TIME: Saturday, March 25, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, February 19. After Sunday, February 19: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan St, Houston, TX 77006 (map) LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 Let’s Start With Sentences This is a sentence. This workshop will be about sentences. Only sentences. And fragments. That’s all. Come learn. Come read. Come write. One sentence at a time. This is a craft workshop focusing on the basic building blocks of writing prose. Attendees will read great sentences and practice writing their own. |
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
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Patterns and Promises: Structure in Speculative Fiction
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INSTRUCTOR: Tanya Aydelott
TIME: Saturday, February 25, 1:00–4:00 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, February 19. After Sunday, February 19: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 What’s driving the structure of your speculative fiction story? Do you have multiple POVs? How about flashbacks? Is your story told in a roundabout way, or are you writing a linear narrative? With all the options available to you as a writer, it can be difficult to find the form that best fits your story. In this workshop, we’ll look at a range of story structures, drawing from mentor texts within speculative fiction. We’ll consider what avenues these structures open to the writer as well as what they promise to the reader. Come ready to play around in different plot styles! |
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How to Outline Your Novel
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INSTRUCTOR: DL Young
TIME: Sunday, February 26, 2:00–5:00 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, February 20. After Monday, February 20: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 A well-prepared outline is a powerful tool that helps you create memorable characters, an engaging plot, and unforgettable settings. It takes your ideas and shapes them into a manuscript. An outline lays out the path for your narrative, ensuring coherence and saving you tons of time in edits and rewrites. But how do you create an outline? Where do you start? What are the different methods that authors can use? Join award-winning author D.L. Young and get the answers to all your questions about novel outlining. He’ll guide you through the process step-by-step, from start-to-finish. He will also demonstrate a variety of outlining techniques so that you can choose the strategy that works best for you. By the end of this workshop, you will be ready to start your novel, armed with the outlining tools and techniques you need to transform your ideas into a strong manuscript. |
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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READ ME:
- Writespace has in person and online workshops available. See individual workshop listings for details.
- Tickets must be purchased online.
- Please read our workshop policies before registering.
- Can't attend without a scholarship? Apply here.
- Need tech support for your class? Check out our Tech Support page. If your question isn't answered, contact us.
