“Show don’t tell” is almost a cliche in the writing world, but it’s a cliche because vivid, detailed writing that creates a picture for your readers is what great writing is all about.

Readers want to picture the characters, the setting, and the action. They love to feel the emotions and the mood in a piece. It's why we read.

As writers, the challenge is to forge that emotional link between our story and our readers. How do we do this?

We do it through vivid details and images that are seamlessly woven into the story.

As a long-time writing teacher, I’ve learned that developing these details in such a way that readers can picture our stories and feel what we want them to feel can be a struggle.

• Where do you add details?
• How do you know what to expand?
• How do you add descriptive detail so your piece isn’t just a long list of boring florid descriptions that don’t add to your story or message?
• And, how the heck do you know if you’ve accomplished these things in a piece of writing?

This workshop is perfect for you if you write fiction, memoir, personal essays, or reflective/life blog posts.

It is a writing workshop with a focus on improving your craft as a writer.

If you've got any questions at all about whether this would be a good workshop for you or the workshop content, email me at amy@amyisaman.com, and I'm happy to answer them.

In this Writer’s Workshop, we’ll:

• Explore the differences between showing vs. telling
• Learn how to identify areas in your own writing where you can deepen your description with details
• Practice seamlessly tying details into the action, setting, or character’s thoughts, so you’re not boring your reader to death by endlessly waxing poetic over irrelevant and mundane details and “committing art or literature”
• Explore how to add specific details to develop the mood in your setting
• Develop your characters by adding details and description to three different areas
• Fill your writer’s toolbox with a variety of specific sentence and word level strategies to add details
• Play with words and language to break through our self-imposed boundaries on what is “acceptable” in writing
• Practice descriptive writing, and most importantly
• Receive feedback on your own work so that you can improve

Throughout the workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with fellow students so that you can provide feedback and encouragement on your pieces.

The workshop is limited to TWELVE students. If this morning session fills, I will open up another late afternoon/evening section to run concurrently. If you cannot do the morning section and would like an evening section, please email me at amy@amyisaman.com and let me know your interest.

What You Will Receive:

• 4, 75-minute live course sessions with access to the video recordings
• Audio versions that you can download and listen to on the go
• A dedicated feedback session to workshop any submitted pieces
• Personalized, written feedback on up to one-page (250 words) of your writing
• A Resource Document with mentor texts, examples, and strategies shared in the course

You retain lifetime access to all of the above. The recordings and resources do not expire.

Our Schedule

Four 75-minute live sessions with writing teacher, author, and book coach Amy Isaman.

Session 1: Thursday, April 8, 10:30-11:45 am Pacific

• Focus: Showing Basics, Identifying where we can expand, Practice

Session 2: Thursday, April 15, 10:30-11:45 am Pacific

• Focus: Developing Characters
• Breaking out of the Box with word choice

Session 3: Thursday, April 22, 10:30-11:45 am Pacific —

• Focus: Creating Mood and Place
• Sentence Strategies to seamlessly tie details in

Feedback Session: Thursday, April 29, 10:30-11:45 am Pacific

• Submit and share pieces for group workshop session for feedback and discussion

You can use this tool to convert time zones.

All sessions are recorded in both video and audio formats and available for viewing within 24 hours.

Registration

Join this online Writer’s Workshop to improve your creative writing skills, so you can write your best book that readers will love.

$175