The Writers Studio

Level 4 and 5 class students are in a combined workshop. The goal of this class is to help students use a full range of techniques to access greater emotional freedom and depth in their work. In this workshop, emphasis is placed on creating and sustaining an effective artistic distance to write in a compelling way about students' most important material. Students also have the opportunity to do journaling exercise to support them in identifying and developing their most important material.

The Craft Class is an integral part of The Writers Studio approach to creative writing, where we teach students how to read prose and poetry as writers. This is an essential skill for serious writers who are ready to expand their knowledge of craft and improve their writing. Craft Class must be taken in conjunction with Level 4 and 5.

Students who have created a successful persona narrator in an exercise are encouraged to use that technique to begin to draft a story. As students work on stories, they are free to post their stories, two pages at a time, over successive weeks of the term. Each student also has an opportunity in the second half of the term to submit up to 12 pages of a draft for feedback. It’s very instructive for the other students in the class to watch the Writers Studio method flower in this way.

Class Structure & Details

•Format: Weekly, unrecorded live classes via Google Meet

•What to Expect: During the weekly, one-hour Google Meet sessions, we discuss techniques from the readings pulled from the associated term's Craft Class reading list. Students put those techniques to use in two-page exercises, which are submitted to the online classroom. Students then receive written critiques from at least three classmates and the teacher. During the final four weeks of the term, each student has an opportunity to submit a draft of up to 12 pages for written feedback.

•Who Can Join: Open only to students who have completed at least three terms of Level 3 and upon the recommendation of their Level 3 teacher.

📌 Note: The Google Meet sessions are highly interactive and designed to be a safe space for sharing fresh work, so they are not recorded.