Quality fiction combines the fine art of storytelling with the craft of good writing. In this course, we’ll explore both of these essential elements and show how you can apply them to your own work. You’ll learn new ways to think about your novel–either the one in progress or the one you want to write–and…

Do you use Scrivener, the "go-to app for writers of all kinds?" Have you looked at it but not been brave enough to try it? Holly Erskine and Patsy Stierna will share what they've learned so far on their Scrivener writing journey. If you're already a Scrivener user, we'd love to hear tips that you want to share about how…

We don’t need to wait for “special” experiences in order to write poems. Beautiful, resonant poetry can—and so often does—spring from our everyday lives: the objects we live with and love, the more-than-human beings we encounter in our backyards or neighborhoods. In this class, we’ll explore poems, and poem-making, based in the ordinary and daily.…

Embark on a transformative journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth by joining this writing intensive dedicated to crafting one’s own spiritual memoir. Writing Your Spiritual Memoir is an unparalleled opportunity to delve deeply and unearth the profound experiences that shaped you and your spiritual beliefs, then weave them into a compelling written narrative. Our facilitators…

Join us for our annual celebration of writers and readers on beautiful Washington Island. This year’s theme is Come This Far. Presenters include Wisconsin Poet Laureate Nicholas Gulig, graphic memoirist Kelcey Ervick, and novelists Leif Enger, Maggie Ginsberg, and Julie Schumacher. Thursday, September 19: Free Community Creative Lab, noon – 3 pm Friday, September 20:…

What a perfect book format to illustrate the benefits and ramifications of one’s decisions than a Choose Your Own Adventure book or, as Laura Paisley Beck coined, an Interchangeable Action Novel© (IAN). Weave your own book of multiple endings with Beck’s tips, tricks, and super-secret codes in this fun, interactive workshop. Bring your wild imagination,…

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, discovering the full breadth of a character is an important process. Moreover, we can use plot to discover characters as writers and to characterize more deftly for readers. This workshop focuses on using cyclical plot events as a useful device which may create unique characterizations, create more inventive prose…

In this three-day intensive fiction course, intermediate to advanced fiction writers will be reintroduced to some of the fundamental elements of fiction, including point of view, character, setting, dialogue, voice and style, plot, structure, and a story’s architecture and form. These topics will be covered in craft talks, then applied via a series of exercises…

This generative workshop is not necessarily for playwrights.  It is for anyone who is a beginning writer as well as a seasoned writer. The Ten Minute Play is a serious form, yes, but it’s also a terrific exercise for making a narrative of any kind.  It forces us to distill the situation, the characters, the…

This generative workshop is not necessarily for playwrights.  It is for anyone who is a beginning writer as well as a seasoned writer. The Ten Minute Play is a serious form, yes, but it’s also a terrific exercise for making a narrative of any kind.  It forces us to distill the situation, the characters, the…