Two Free At-Home Writing Workshops

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Here are two free at-home writing workshops to get you through the pandemic.

I read (and write) a lot of science fiction, but I never thought I’d been writing a post in response to a pandemic. It’s a bit surreal, and I imagine a lot of people feel the same way.

With so many staying home, there are a lot of bored people out there. Some of them are writers who have an opportunity to start that novel or revise one they’ve been working on. Some of them are folks who’ve always wanted to write and finally have the time to try it.

It’s also a time when people are being cost-conscious. Many are out of work, or have had to close down their businesses to stay safe. It’s harder to find things to do when you don’t want to spend any money.

Over the years, I’ve created two at-home workshops—one on revising a novel and the other on developing an idea into a novel. They’re both a month long, but each day’s session is on the site, ready to go. I usually pull them down and re-post them daily for the “workshop feel,” but for this, I’m leaving them all up so folks can work as they wish.

If you’re looking for a workshop and/or guidance in revising or developing a novel, give one of these workshops a try. They’re helpful for brand-new writers as well as professional authors, because the focus is on bringing out the best of your story and your idea.

For fun, you can do this in two ways:

1. Just come to the blog and pick each session when you want it. Bookmark the home page for the workshop you want to do.

2. Embrace the original spirit of the workshop and sign up for the “Session of the Day” email. Each day you’ll receive an email with the tasks for that day. For extra fun, I’ll even throw in some extra tips and exercises to make it worth the daily wait.

At-Home Workshop: Revise Your Novel in 30 Days

This workshop is great for writers who have a first draft they want to revise. If you’re new to revision and aren’t sure how to revise yet, these sessions will guide you through the process. If you’ve revised novels before, but enjoy some advice, guidance, and brainstorming questions, then the sessions will be your “pocket editor” and help you refine the manuscript.

It also offers multiple suggestions on how to fix common revision issues, so you can choose the direction that best suits your style and story. Not everyone writers the same way, and that holds true for revising.

If you want the daily email with bonus exercises, sign up here.

At-Home Workshop: Idea to Novel in 31 Days

This workshop is great for writers who have an idea for a novel but aren’t sure where to start developing it. It's also good for those who enjoy some guided brainstorming and reminders of things to consider they might not have thought about before. Some writers just need a little help pulling all the story threads in their brain together and making sense of the idea. These exercises are designed to do just that.

If you want the daily email with bonus exercises, sign up here.

I hope these workshops make it a little easier to stay inside and still feel productive, or even be the right distraction for these crazy times.

Stay safe everyone,

Janice

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book. It was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize (2011), and The Truman Award (2011). She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.

She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series. 

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