The pandemic has left us chronically distracted and distanced, and many folks might not have the energy or momentum to lead, or even engage, in a several-week synchronous creative writing workshop. This hesitance is understandable, but if you find yourself stuck creatively, there is something liberating about hosting or participating in a drop-in creative writing workshop, where you can create and potentially share freshly written work with strangers.
Before the pandemic, I led a weekly creative writing workshop for both in-patient and out-patient writers at a New York City psychiatric unit through the New York Writers Coalition. Once NYC went on lockdown, the New York Writers Coalition workshops became virtual, and I started to lead a weekly drop-in workshop open to the public. I still lead that weekly workshop and love having participants from across the globe. I’ve also been a participant in many virtual creative workshops; some were run by writers, and others were drop-in workshops hosted by editors of literary journals. After being both a leader and a participant in various virtual creative writing workshops, I have a few tips on how to lead a drop-in virtual workshop.
Introductions: Try to keep these short. If the group is small, you can ask the participants where they are from and what book they are currently reading. I also note that a lot of people have issues reading at the moment, so they could also just tell the group the last good book they’ve read. This creates a community of both readers and writers. In larger groups, you might ask everyone to type into the chat where they are from.
Giving a Prompt: I pick a prompt that works well for multiple genres. When you have a mix of poets, fiction writers, playwrights, etc., you need to choose a broad prompt, but not so broad that they can’t lasso an idea from the prompt. I speak the prompt aloud and also write it in the chat. I’ve also attended workshops where the host shares the prompt with a shared screen. I find it easier to do a short prompt in the chat, but either can work.
Prompt Suggestions: I often pair a prompt with a quote. For instance, these prompts worked well for recent groups.
Prompt 1: Write about a something new and/or respond to this quote.
“How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?”
― Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers
Prompt 2: Write about a tradition and/or respond to this quote.
“Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.”
― W. Somerset Maugham
Prompt 3: Write about a storm and/or respond to this quote.
When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Writing Time: I find twenty minutes to be the sweet spot. I always let the participants know that I will answer any questions they might have in the chat if they need me. I shut off my camera and sound. I do ask all participants to be muted, but they can keep their camera on if they’d like. I alert them when they have five minutes of writing time left.
Sharing Work: You can leave time for participants to share their work. In larger groups, you might just invite participants to write their first sentence in the chat.
The Appeal: These workshops appeal to commitment-phobic folks but are also a great way to create a brief-but-instant community of writers. This workshop model can also work as a stand-alone class in semester-long course or an opening exercise in a creative writing workshop. However, in those instances you might want to tweak the prompts to highlight a certain aspect of craft, rather than simply focusing on finding inspiration to generate new work.
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Alison Lowenstein is a freelance writer and author of children’s books, guidebooks, and plays. She’s written for The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Narratively, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and many other publications and websites. Her fiction has appeared in Fiction, Portland Review, Molecule Tiny Lit Mag, (mac)ro(mic), 101 Words, and other journals. She leads creative writing workshops for the New York Writers Coalition and is also an adjunct lecturer. You can find her on Twitter @cityweekendsnyc.