Spring 2023 Classes
The following classes are currently available for enrollment.
Please note that we also teach small private classes that are not listed here.
If the offerings below do not fit your schedule, feel free to email us, and perhaps we can find a class for your young writer.
To register, please send an email to [email protected].
Please provide:
- The title of the course
- Your child's name
- Your child's age as of March 1
- A daytime phone number for us to reach you.
Either Writing Coach Shu-Hsien Ho or Royd Hatta will respond as soon as possible.
For the safety of all, we require masks during our in-person sessions.
TUES 10AM - A World of Fantastic Beasts
A Zoom Story Workshop
- understanding the structure and the power of a compelling story
- generating and organizing ideas
- writing with momentum
- revising for clarity and logic
- editing toward a final draft
To register, please contact: [email protected]
Photo by Elizabeth Pisha at unsplash.com
WED 8:45AM - Into the Belly of the Whale
An Adventure Story Writing Workshop
We’ll tap into our imaginations with highly interactive storytelling games and exercises as we walk through our writing process.
- We'll inspire a love for creative writing
- Discuss the structure and the power of a compelling story
- Generate and organize ideas
- Practice writing with momentum
- Revise for clarity, logic, and flow
- Edit towards a final draft
To register, please contact: [email protected]
Photo by Andre Estevez: at pexels.com
WED 10AM - Mirrors of Humanity: War, Lords, and the Language of the “Other”
Taught by Writing Coach Royd Hatta
March 22 - May 24, 2023 (9 lessons)
In this course, we will dive deeper into the concept of the “Other” that pervades stories and our understanding of our personal and social relations. This “Otherness” is determined by how we frame who we are or who we are supposed to be. In the course of a novel, this belief or misbelief about ourselves, and our community, will change - hopefully, for the better.
We will read the following:
- William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
- A real account of a Lord of the Flies situation
- Denis Villaneuve’s film Arrival
- If time permits: Ted Chiang’s "The Time of Your Life," the inspiration for Arrival
To register, please contact Royd at: [email protected]
Photo by Jamaal Cooks at Unsplash
WED 1PM - When Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
An In-Person Workshop on Fact-Driven Articles
What if we could write articles that were so fascinating and compelling that they were indistinguishable from fiction?
In this workshop, we will explore how to use the techniques of fiction writing to create articles that are both fact-based and engaging.
We'll read various articles to inspire our writing:
- Maya Angelou
- Malcolm Gladwell
- David Foster Wallace
- James Baldwin
- The New Yorker
- The Atlantic
- Outside
- and other high adventure magazines and other articles with a sense of forward drive.
To register, please contact Royd at: [email protected]
David Clode from pexels.com
THURS 11AM - Octopus Escape Artists & Other Surprising True Stories:
An In-Person Workshop on Fact-Driven Articles
What if we could write articles that were so fascinating and compelling that they were indistinguishable from fiction?
In this workshop, we will explore how to use the techniques of fiction writing to create articles that are both fact-based and engaging.
We'll read various articles to inspire our writing:
- Maya Angelou
- Malcolm Gladwell
- David Foster Wallace
- James Baldwin
- The New Yorker
- The Atlantic
- Outside
- and other high adventure magazines and other articles with a sense of forward drive.
To register, please contact Royd at: [email protected]
Vlad Vasnetsov from pexels.com
THURS 4pm: Magic & Mayhem Story Workshop
An After-School Zoom Story Writing Course
What would happen if you lit a match in front of a “caveman” nearly 1.9 million years ago? The fire ignited from your fingers would seem like magic - to them.
Such power has significance, and the bearer of such "sorcery" would gain enormous respect. But like Spiderman’s uncle says, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
What does one do with this power? Will they use it for their own selfish means or to benefit the world? I think we know the answer to that, but the question is, how will our hero do this?
In this class, we’ll also discuss how the Story Map reveals the secret to Twists, Turns (pivots), and the obvious/not-so-obvious hero’s solution to the Hero's Big Question that makes truly exceptional stories memorable and great.
We'll practice the following:
- Explore the core beliefs of our story heroes.
- Discover how that stance or belief is tested and reinforced.
- Explore the physical, emotional, and philosophical twists and turns.
- Explore how the world, community, family, and friends create tension.
- Generate and organize ideas.
- Write with momentum.
- Practice revising for clarity & flow.
- Identify and revise boring words.
- Edit toward a final draft.
Each student will be invited to present a reading on the last day of class.
To register, please contact Royd at: [email protected]
Caolina Basi at pexels.com