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Add some creativity to your week from the comfort of your own home. This long-standing in-person generative (est. in 2003), creative writing workshop, which took place in West Hollywood, CA, for 15 years, has switched to an online format, so you can now join us from anywhere. Tap into your creative side, write work that will surprise you, and learn...

To excel at writing fiction, you must write regularly and also readstories from a writer’s perspective. Painters typically learn their craft by studying the work of masters, and most accomplished writers do the same. Who better to show you the ropes of great fiction than the best in the business?   Each week, students focus on an aspect...

Fiction is a wonderful conjuring act. With only words and the reader’s imagination, a work of fiction can sail across the world in pursuit of a whale, or time-travel to another dimension, or zero in on a few minutes in line at the local bank, enveloping the reader in a made-up story that feels real.   To pull off this feat requires a balance...

This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of the science fiction and fantasy genres, and gets you writing a short story (or two) or a novel. Course components: Lectures Writing exercises Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times) Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing I is for beginners or anyone who...

Our Online Level I workshop is an introduction to the philosophy on which The Writers Studio was founded in 1987 by Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Philip Schultz. Persona writing, a method of borrowing the voice and temperament of accomplished writers, offers writers the imaginative distance and perspective they need to overcome their negative inclinations,...

All students new to The Writers Studio start with Level I. Since we approach teaching with our own method and vocabulary, even experienced writers with publications and/or MFAs will find plenty that is new and challenging in Level I. Students will continue to attend Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and Memoir writing classes at their scheduled...

Writing a memoir after the age of 50 can be a great way to take stock, whether you’re writing to get published, leave a record for your friends and family, or simply clarify the past for your own edification. Unlike novels, short stories and poems, the memoir requires a writer to stick to the truth, the actual sequence of events as they happened,...

In the peaceful atmosphere of the Saturday workshop, and with the help of meditations that quiet the critical mind, writing becomes possible, cathartic, transformational. You can write memoir or fiction. Each workshop is focused around an inspirational theme or myth. You’ll write three times for about one hour each time, and receive constructive,...

In this class, you will learn first and foremost that you can write—and write well! In fact you will surprise yourself by the work you’ll be producing. The class is designed to enhance your creativity, imagination and personal voice while also teaching the skills of creative writing—memoir and fiction. This is an ongoing...

Have you dreamed about getting a short story published in a literary journal like McSweeney’s? Now’s your chance! In this 5-week online short story workshop, the instructor will help you craft a brilliant, heartfelt tale about the human condition! Through fun, in-class writing exercises and engaging craft talks, she’ll help you brainstorm new...

Our Online Level I workshop is an introduction to the philosophy on which The Writers Studio was founded in 1987 by Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Philip Schultz. Persona writing, a method of borrowing the voice and temperament of accomplished writers, offers writers the imaginative distance and perspective they need to overcome their negative inclinations,...

Characters are the beating heart of every story—fiction, nonfiction, any kind of scripted show. In fact, it’s their actions, dialogue, habits, quirks, appearance, gestures, hopes, dreams, fears, triumphs, failures, and flaws that make a story what it is. We follow people like Sherlock, Hamlet, Katniss, Batman, Lolita, and ________ (fill in your...

Every life holds many tales. Whether your life is wildly unconventional or relatively normal, there’s bound to be something fascinating about it. That’s why the contemporary memoir—everyday people telling their stories—has become such a popular phenomenon. A memoir covers an aspect of a life, whether it’s a short piece about, say, a bicycle...

Nothing quickens the pulse like a good mystery, which is why millions of readers surrender themselves to the page-turning exploits of their favorite sleuths. Mystery is an expansive genre, welcoming amateur detectives, intellectual puzzle-solvers, policemen, private eyes, lawyers, spies, even average folk caught in a web of suspense. If crime is a...

This online class features a weekly Google Meet discussion and written critiques. You will find a memoir voice that’s all you, after closely reading an assortment of wildly varied but equally powerful memoirs. How do you write a good memoir? You apply the narrative techniques of fiction and poetry: you take the fascinating, messy raw material...