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Take some time for your writing this fall with a series of virtual Write-Ins hosted by The Writers Grotto. Led by one the Grotto’s many talented and accomplished writers, each of the sessions below provides 60 minutes of space and guidance in which to get your creative energy flowing, generate new material, bring old material up to snuff, and just make contact with the community of writers that is the Grotto, our teachers, and our students.
Write-Ins are held on a variety of days and times to give our students the opportunity to choose a Write-In that works best for their schedule.
Cost: $25/session or $99 for a season pass!
Sessions:
SATURDAYS, Nov. 1st - 29th | Many would-be novelists fall short of their NaNoWriMo goals, but this course is designed to give each writer maximum chance of success and a more polished draft. Custom coaching, brainstorming and feedback, plus plenty of emotional support will keep you on track. Novel-writing is hard enough without the added pressure of a time constraint, but writing the wrong way is a great way to discover how to write right. Let's do it together!
Included in the course:
• Weekly one-on-one sessions with the instructor
• Individualized feedback specific to your project during weekly one-on-one
• Daily personalized email with strategies and prompts
• Ability to email instructor daily for help
• Weekly whole class meetings with the instructor
• Limited class size ensures more attention and support
Upon registration, writers will receive a planner to fill out for feedback on their story's premise, characters, plot, etc. Filling out the planner is optional, but knowing a little about your story before we begin will help me give you more targeted feedback. Writers will have the opportunity to request their preferred dates and times for their weekly private consult.
This group has a limit of 6 very dedicated writers. The group meeting time listed is a suggestion only and can be adjusted weekly according to the schedules of the whole group.
TUESDAYS, Nov. 4th-18th; final performance Friday, Nov. 21st | Do you have a story you’d like to tell on stage? Or perhaps you need help digging it out? Storytelling is one of the oldest traditions from all cultures that connects people to each other and themselves. This three session workshop will guide you to explore a moment in your life, identify the themes and stakes that matter, and exercise your authentic voice. The class will culminate in a performance of your 6-minute story (in the style of The Moth) at The Writers Grotto’s monthly Reading + Meeting event. There will be space to study the craft and work through the vulnerable. You have a unique perspective and the world needs to hear it! This class is suitable for anyone who wants to tell a story and writers who want to add excitement to their readings.
Outcomes:
Class times are 6-7:30pm; final performance is at 5pm.
FRIDAYS, Nov. 7th - 21st | Where do your poems live? In this three-week generative poetry workshop, we’ll explore how place functions as more than backdrop; how setting becomes character, metaphor, memory, and resistance. From childhood bedrooms to ancestral terrain, from city streets to imagined landscapes, we’ll examine how poets across cultures use setting to deepen emotional resonance, build narrative, and anchor the abstract in the tangible. Each session includes close readings of poems, guided craft discussions, and prompts that encourage exploration of your own emotional and geographic landscapes.
By the end of this course, participants will:
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 12th | Having a challenging conversation is never easy but at times its necessary. It doesn't matter if it's personal or professional learning how to have this kind of conversation will help you prepare yourself. This course will teach you how to prepare for the conversation you don't want to have but you have to.
Take some time for your writing this fall with a series of virtual Write-Ins hosted by The Writers Grotto. Led by one the Grotto’s many talented and accomplished writers, each of the sessions below provides 60 minutes of space and guidance in which to get your creative energy flowing, generate new material, bring old material up to snuff, and just make contact with the community of writers that is the Grotto, our teachers, and our students.
Write-Ins are held on a variety of days and times to give our students the opportunity to choose a Write-In that works best for their schedule.
Cost: $25/session or $99 for a season pass!
Sessions:
Take some time for your writing this fall with a series of virtual Write-Ins hosted by The Writers Grotto. Led by one the Grotto’s many talented and accomplished writers, each of the sessions below provides 60 minutes of space and guidance in which to get your creative energy flowing, generate new material, bring old material up to snuff, and just make contact with the community of writers that is the Grotto, our teachers, and our students.
Write-Ins are held on a variety of days and times to give our students the opportunity to choose a Write-In that works best for their schedule.
Cost: $25/session or $99 for a season pass!
Sessions:
Take some time for your writing this fall with a series of virtual Write-Ins hosted by The Writers Grotto. Led by one the Grotto’s many talented and accomplished writers, each of the sessions below provides 60 minutes of space and guidance in which to get your creative energy flowing, generate new material, bring old material up to snuff, and just make contact with the community of writers that is the Grotto, our teachers, and our students.
Write-Ins are held on a variety of days and times to give our students the opportunity to choose a Write-In that works best for their schedule.
Cost: $25/session or $99 for a season pass!
Sessions:
We welcome you to an evening of readings by members of The Writers Grotto. Refreshments will be provided.
FRIDAYS, Dec. 5th - 19th | What do the things we keep say about who we are?
From heirloom jewelry to a cracked bowl, from a watch ticking through generations to a phone filled with unsent messages, objects hold our deepest stories. In this three-week generative poetry workshop, we’ll explore how poets turn the physical world into vessels of emotion, history, and identity. Each session includes close readings of contemporary poets, craft discussion, and guided prompts designed to generate new poems.
By the end of this course, participants will:
• Examine how poets use objects as portals to memory, lineage, and transformation.
• Generate at least four new poems centered on material or symbolic objects.
• Practice metaphor, personification, and associative logic.
• Learn to let things speak—discovering what the object knows that the speaker does not.
For poets of all levels. Each week includes readings, generative writing, and space for sharing new work.
SUNDAY, January 4th | Rituals in writing can be as varied as the fonts we prefer to write in or the specific times and places we choose to write.
This workshop’s three-hour journey is designed to explore the powers of ritual in our writing practices. We will prospect our personal writing for known and unknown rituals, habits, and routines and move on to study their impacts on our creative outputs. Taking place in January, a threshold month where we stand between what has been and what’s yet to come, this class invites you to use the quiet clarity of midwinter to renew our relationship with intention. It's an ideal time to listen inward, create new patterns, and kindle fresh creative energy.
Participants will be offered complex generative writing exercises to create first drafts of writing with more depth and insight than most generative prompts. We will create a sacred space for writing and enhance our ability to channel creative energy and focus. Whether you want to understand your writing habits better or create new rituals to aid your writing process, this workshop welcomes you.
This workshop is appropriate for all creative writing genres and writers of all levels.
Editing on consultation on nonfiction book manuscripts.
A dramaturgical script consultant can function in several ways. Depending on the project we function as a literary, historical, or artistic advisor as you are developing your script for the stage or screen.
Consultations can look multiple ways. For example, perhaps you just need 1-2 script meetings to discuss story evolution, character development or consistency in theme. Or perhaps you need someone to comment on what is working, what feels like it is missing, and a list of questions to support development. Or perhaps you want 4 -6 session of coaching, homework, and suggestions for how to strengthen, tighten, clarify in the service of moving your script forward.
Consultation fees are developed in conversation about the project (bespoke), and begin around 150.00- 200.00 an hour.
Doug Henderson offers two levels of developmental editing:
Full Developmental Edit for $12/page. This level provides writers with a comprehensive road map that will help them hone their manuscripts for publication. This includes:
-An initial conversation about the project (via Zoom).
-Extensive page notes, including editing suggestions, margin comments and questions.
-A thorough editorial letter discussing craft and structure elements — such as theme, tension, narrative and character arcs — as well as thoughtful suggestions to strengthen your story.
-A second conversation to discuss next steps.
Read-Through Evaluation for $8/page. This level is good for writers who want broader feedback, including new writers who want early advice, or more experienced writers who seek general input, but don’t need or want detailed editing. This includes:
-An initial conversation about the project.
-Light page notes.
-A thorough editorial letter discussing craft and structure elements — such as theme, tension, narrative and character arcs — as well as thoughtful suggestions to strengthen your story.
-A second conversation to discuss next steps.
Let’s chat about how your ideas fit into a basic story structure that will lead to an engaging narrative. Send me up to 2000 words of idea or story summary prior to meeting consult. Session will take place via Zoom.
Polish your writing with Carly Stern, an award-winning independent journalist. Carly offers one-on-one consultations on all forms of narrative non-fiction, with an emphasis on writing about the self. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, the Guardian US and The Washington Post.
Initial bespoke services consultation to determine the fee. Polish your prose with New York Times best-selling author Julia Scheeres.
Initial bespoke services consultation to determine the fee.
Are you struggling to finalize a piece of science writing, whether it's an academic manuscript, article, or marketing blog? Need editorial help to make sure your message is clear and concise without losing accuracy? Jenny can help you improve your scientific content, using her unique combination of scientific and creative expertise.
Jenny Qi has a PhD in Cancer Biology from UC San Francisco and over a decade of experience in science communication spanning a range of industries, including biopharma, tech, and journalism.
This listing is for a 20-minute consultation to determine the scope of the project.
As an award-winning journalist, author, and consultant with decades of experience, I offer expert editorial consulting services at competitive rates. I write reports, policy briefs, articles, op-eds, blogs, and other materials for major national institutions and individual clients. As a veteran reporter, I also help writers develop and tell their stories for articles and book projects. First, we discuss your project and needs and how I can meet them, then I provide you with an estimate and we move forward with a simple straightforward contract. I look forward to talking with you, learning more about your project, and working together. Estimates are based on $100/hour fee. You can check out my work at www.christopherdcook.com.
Industry veteran writer-director-producer provides consulting for documentary and narrative film projects of any length and at any stage, from concept to pitch deck to rough cut to screenplay draft. Production services also available through Bay Area-based The Unscripted Company.
We will build your fictional work in a collaborative process for as long as it takes to create a whole and satisfying story. Thaisa Frank, a Pushcart Fellow, has published a novel and three collection of short stories. Her original approach, developed through teaching, addresses fiction from all cultures.
Initial bespoke services consultation to determine the fee. Laird Harrison, author of the novel Fallen Lake, provides editing and consultation services on all aspects of novel writing.
Initial bespoke services consultation to determine the fee. Laird Harrison will work with you one-on-one to improve your written communication. Laird has experience with both creative and business writing and can assist with all levels of writing.
Full-length poetry collections (45-80 pages in length).
Individual Poems up to 2 pages in length.
Folios consultation, up to 7 pages in length, with no more than 5 poems.
Chapbooks consultation (16-40 pages in length).
Got an idea for a children’s book? As the brilliant Madeleine L'Engle said, "You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grownups, then you write it for children.” In this 30-minute private Zoom consult, Lisa will give feedback on your idea to help you realize your vision and elevate your story to reach multiple audiences in today’s market. And if you don’t know what “multiple audiences” means in the kid-lit genre, that’s okay; she will tell you! Lisa’s YA crossover novel JUST LIKE BEAUTY was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and is in pre-production as a movie. She has decades of experience writing children’s books for major publishers and regularly teaches workshops to kids and adults who want to write for kids. In her free time, she enjoys petting rabbits and eating cake. Curious cats can find out more at www.lisalerner.com
In this three-session package of Creativity Hypnosis, experienced hypnotherapist and writing coach Jenny Bitner will help you delve into the depths of your subconscious mind to awaken your imagination and overcome creative blocks. This can be customized to deal with whatever issues around writing you are experiencing. Start this journey today!
Unleash your writing potential with Jenny Bitner. As a trained hypnotherapist, coach, and writing teacher, she'll help you overcome fear and tap into your creativity. Experience a transformative hypnotic session to release barriers and claim your full potential as a writer. Take the first step today.
Initial bespoke services consultation by email to determine the fee. Katia will draw on her expertise as an award-winning longform journalist to provide written feedback on magazine pitches. Katia has written for The New Yorker, Forbes, Mother Jones, Marie Claire, The Atavist Magazine and many other publications.
Initial bespoke services consultation to determine the fee. Maw is a writing coach and editor for poets. Maw has many years of experience as an educator, author, and editor. She teaches in the MFA Program at the University of San Francisco and is the inaugural poet laureate of El Cerrito, CA. You can learn more about her at mawsheinwin.com.