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Take some time for your writing this spring with a series of virtual write-ins hosted by the 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. Choose one or more of the sessions below, or purchase a season pass, and show up for generative exercises designed to help instill confidence in your writing, shift your focus and get you out of a rut, document the emotions and experience of challenging times, and more. Writing prompts, craft tips, timed exercises, accountability—you’ll encounter any or all of these as you write in community with your fellow narrative artists and learn from our writers about what has worked for them. Finish a story you’ve started or free-write your way to something new. Find inspiration and energy writing in virtual community! 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. All class times listed are in Pacific Standard Time. To learn more about the particular write-in you’re interested in, please select that session’s ‘show details’ in the details section. For questions regarding the season pass, please contact Classes@WritersGrotto.org.
Take some time for your writing this spring with a series of virtual write-ins hosted by the 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. Choose one or more of the sessions below, or purchase a season pass, and show up for generative exercises designed to help instill confidence in your writing, shift your focus and get you out of a rut, document the emotions and experience of challenging times, and more. Writing prompts, craft tips, timed exercises, accountability—you’ll encounter any or all of these as you write in community with your fellow narrative artists and learn from our writers about what has worked for them. Finish a story you’ve started or free-write your way to something new. Find inspiration and energy writing in virtual community! 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. All class times listed are in Pacific Standard Time. To learn more about the particular write-in you’re interested in, please select that session’s ‘show details’ in the details section. For questions regarding the season pass, please contact Classes@WritersGrotto.org.
Take some time for your writing this spring with a series of virtual write-ins hosted by the 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. Choose one or more of the sessions below, or purchase a season pass, and show up for generative exercises designed to help instill confidence in your writing, shift your focus and get you out of a rut, document the emotions and experience of challenging times, and more. Writing prompts, craft tips, timed exercises, accountability—you’ll encounter any or all of these as you write in community with your fellow narrative artists and learn from our writers about what has worked for them. Finish a story you’ve started or free-write your way to something new. Find inspiration and energy writing in virtual community! 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. All class times listed are in Pacific Standard Time. To learn more about the particular write-in you’re interested in, please select that session’s ‘show details’ in the details section. For questions regarding the season pass, please contact Classes@WritersGrotto.org.
Check in on your 2023 writing goals and amp up your writing with this fun-filled rapid-fire writing prompt session. In this class we’ll: briefly discuss ways to combat your writer’s block, respond to 10-12 writing prompts, and check-in & reset your 2023 writing goals. This class is for writers of all levels and genres.
Take some time for your writing this spring with a series of virtual write-ins hosted by the 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. Choose one or more of the sessions below, or purchase a season pass, and show up for generative exercises designed to help instill confidence in your writing, shift your focus and get you out of a rut, document the emotions and experience of challenging times, and more. Writing prompts, craft tips, timed exercises, accountability—you’ll encounter any or all of these as you write in community with your fellow narrative artists and learn from our writers about what has worked for them. Finish a story you’ve started or free-write your way to something new. Find inspiration and energy writing in virtual community! 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. All class times listed are in Pacific Standard Time. To learn more about the particular write-in you’re interested in, please select that session’s ‘show details’ in the details section. For questions regarding the season pass, please contact Classes@WritersGrotto.org.
Join The Writers Grotto as we celebrate our Winter and Spring 2023 student writing! All students who attended classes and write-ins between January and June 2023 are welcome to read for three minutes. Students must register by 6/23 to read; if you are a Winter or Spring 2023 student, please register under 'Alumni Admission'. Please note that there is a limited number of reading slots available to students. Friends and family are encouraged to attend.
Light refreshments will be provided. There will be plenty of street parking available.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
Chapbooks consultation (16-40 pages in length).
Folios consultation, up to 7 pages in length, with no more than 5 poems.
Individual Poems up to 2 pages in length.
Full-length poetry collections (45-80 pages in length).
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.
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.
Reading and Meeting with fabulous authors Shanthi Sekaran, Jenny Bitner, Rachel Chalmers and Terry Tierney. Emceed by Sabina Khan-Ibarra. Please come out, hear their latest work, gain insight through an informal discussion and enjoy happy hour afterwards!
Event to take place on the Mezzanine level.
Join The Writers Grotto for an evening of reading and meeting! Readers to be announced shortly. All are welcome.
Event to take place on the Mezzanine level.
Join The Writers Grotto for an evening of reading and meeting! Readers to be announced shortly. All are welcome.
Event to take place on the Mezzanine level.
Join The Writers Grotto for an evening of reading and meeting! Readers to be announced shortly. All are welcome.
Event to take place on the Mezzanine level.
Join The Writers Grotto for an evening of reading and meeting! Readers to be announced shortly. All are welcome.
Event to take place on the Mezzanine level.
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.
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.
Tickled by the thought of writing a novel for kids? If so, this is the workshop for you! You'll learn practical tips and techniques from the world of theater to ensure you've got a compelling story, a protagonist readers care about, believable characters and dialogue that creates suspense and moves the plot forward. And, you’ll get personalized guidance to craft your story closer to these goals.
This 5-week course is designed to provide personalized guidance for participants to best find and express their stories for young people. In hands-on exercises, we will define what story is (as opposed to plot) and learn to recognize when we have a good story. We will focus on using theater techiques to develop strong, believable characters and suspenseful pacing. We'll explore how to find your authentic voice, determine when to use dialogue and when to use narrative as well as the elements of good dialogue. Lastly, we'll discuss the process of revision with the understanding that the word revision means just that—to see again for offten it is in revision we can find the true meaning of our story.
Participants are invited to come with either a novel for kids or a manuscript or a partial manuscript (even one chapter is fine) or a synopsis or simply an idea for a book. No matter the progress so far, the focus will be on understanding “where you need to go from here.” This is a session to help you move closer to having a publishable manuscript.
The workshop will consist of a mixture of lecture, discussion, readings, supportive critiques and hands-on exercises and individualized, personal counsel.
Goals of the Course
At the conclusion of this course, participants should be able to:
1. Define what constitutes a middle-grade vs. a YA story
2. Know the difference between outlining and “pantsing”
3. See the importance of book and chapter structure to reader emotion
4. Visualize scenes before writing them and discover techniques to do so
5. Bring forth their own authentic voice for the project
6. Understand and use the power of sensory description
7. Know the techniques to pace a story
8. Understand when to use narrative and when to create a scene with dialogue
9. Understand the importance of each character having an objective
10. Gain tips to heighten suspense in plot and tension in dialogue
11. Uncover the meaning that stretches beyond their story
12. Learn the goals revision must accomplish
13. Improve their story through draft revision
14. Learn about both the trade and the educational publishing market
You’ve seen the news about new AI programs that can write rap lyrics or college essays — even mourn lost socks in the style of the King James Bible. Some of these riffs are wildly entertaining. These programs can correct grammar, eliminate unnecessary words, and suggest examples. They can even inject a little humor into your prose. On the flip side, AI programs can't tell fact from fiction, and over reliance on these programs can take the creativity out of your writing. In this two-session class, you’ll learn how you can work with some of the most widely used programs on writing projects including articles, email, memos, advertising copy, essays and even short stories. You’ll come away equipped to avoid plagiarism, “AI hallucination” and misinformation.
In the first 90-minute session, we will discuss the history of AI as applied to writing, and touch on the science behind it, learning its strengths and weaknesses. We will compare programs and their capabilities. Then we will undertake a series of experiments in real time. You will leave with specific writing assignments tailored to your objectives.In the second 90-minute session, we will work with the texts produced by the AI programs, seeking to further improve them both with other software and with human skill. You will develop a practical plan for using this technology and guarding against its abuse.