WORKSHOP TICKETS ARE $27 EACH (tax and USPS shipping included).
All workshops start at 7PM and take place at 826 Seattle.
Click HERE for additional information.

Tuesday, May 13 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY WITHOUT THEM FINDING OUT
with Kathleen Alcalá

!!! SOLD OUT !!! - Thank you!

First of all, get a lemon and a big feather from a bird. Then get a cereal box and empty it out. We will write our essays inside the cereal boxes in lemon juice, and no one can see them until you heat up the boxes!

Not really, but we will take stories about your family and put them into the shape of stories. What’s a story? Something with a beginning, a middle, and an end! Even chapters of novels have beginnings, middles, and endings, and it is this story shape that makes people want to read and listen to them. If the first one is really good, they will want to read the next, and the next…

If you change the names and places, maybe your relatives will say “Hmm, that sounds familiar…” If you put it on FaceBook, they will probably be the last to know, anyway. If you start the story with a question, and don’t answer the question right away, you will have your readers wrapped around your little finger.

If you have already read Harriet the Spy, you know everything anyway, and you can help teach the class.

••• SUMMER SESSIONS with TheFilmSchool •••

TheFilmSchool inspires writers and directors to find the great story that lies within them. As a powerful and fast alternative to graduate school, TheFilmSchool students come from around the world to learn about filmmaking in America's most livable, literate and creative city.

TheFilmSchool's intensive courses cultivate individual voices and original stories while teaching excellence in dramatic writing. From framing a shot to building a plot, our multifaceted curriculum emphasizes self-exploration and the emotional substance needed to tell powerful stories. The experience is life-changing.

826 Seattle is very happy to have four of TheFilmSchool instructors participate in the Write Like I Do series! More information about TheFilmSchool can be found at http://thefilmschool.com/

Tuesday, June 10 & Wednesday June 11 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE LIKE I USED TO (AKA, THe PERSONAL CONNECTION)
with Stewart Stern

!!! SOLD OUT !!! - Thank you!

Tuesday, Part 1:View the film Going Through Splat: The Life and Work of Stewart Stern, a documentary screened only once before in Seattle at SIFF. The film is directed by Jon Ward and features Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sally Field, Dennis Hopper, and many other film luminaries. Q & A will follow, perhaps a warm-up exercise or two, and some words about the session the following night.

Wednesday, Part 2:Doing timed writing sessions, Stewart leads students through a personal hero's journey model of their own lives, to illustrate that who we are and what we write are intimately connected, and should be. Because many of these will be written from three points of view (the Writer, the Protagonist, the Antagonist), at least a rough idea of who these characters are and the main thrust and emotion of your story must have been arrived at prior to class. If there is time, the workshop will end with a guided meditation designed to deepen the visual and emotional connection between writer and her/his character. Bring pens and notebooks and comfortable clothes. Those with carpal tunnel condition or arthritis of the hands may bring laptops.

Tuesday, June 17 - 7PM
HOW TO COUGH UP YOUR OWN HAIRBALL
with Rick Stevenson

!!! SOLD OUT !!! - Thank you!

What is the thing that is caught in your throat?  That thing that influences the tone and clarity of your voice as an artist?  The thing that is unique to you and lends authenticity to your work?  Come find out how to find your voice and contribute that thing which is uniquely you to the universe

Tuesday, July 8 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE FOR—AND ABOUT—HUMANS
with Warren Etheredge

!!! SOLD OUT !!! - Thank you!

Robert McKee touts Story. Hundreds of others champion Structure. But no one has ever left a movie beaming "I just loved that second act turning point!" Nope. We go to the movies to watch people. To see how our cinematic equals triumph, fail, lament and/or laugh. In this abridged seminar, Warren Etheredge teaches Character or How to Write for — and about — Humans.

Tuesday, July 22 - 7PM
HOW TO BUILD IT RIGHT
with John Jacobsen

Aristotle said, “Plot is the most important of the six parts of tragedy. The characters serve to advance the action of the story, not vice versa. The ends we pursue in life, our happiness and our misery, all take the form of action.” Learning to structure a film is the greatest challenge facing most writers, so this course will develop your ability to conceive of a dynamic premise, structure a film and execute a screenplay with confidence. Instruction emphasizes traditional three-act structure and its mythic components, conscious and unconscious objects of desire, subplot development, scene execution principles, and the Journey of the Hero.

•••

Tuesday, August 12 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE WITH WORDS AND PICTURES
with David Lasky

When words meet up with pictures, a special kind of magic happens (sometimes even better than when chocolate and peanut butter mix it up). The word-and-picture blend creates a new kind of communication that has the potential to express much more than a prose story or a drawing alone. In this workshop, participants will be given lessons on how to communicate with pictures and words as they begin to create their own mini-comic. 

Tuesday, September 9 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE LIKE A QUADRUPED
with Garth Stein

Does your narrator have to be a human? Of course not! But in order to convince your reader to suspend his disbelief, you need to create a world and a sense of fictional truth that is completely honest and consistent. Furthermore, if you are going to use a non-human narrator, you must fully embrace the uniqueness of her voice and perspective. This workshop will delve into what makes fiction work, from cause-and-effect to narrative style, and provide tools that will help your writing, whether your narrator is a fly on the wall or a slightly more conventional bipedal human.

Tuesday, October 14 - 7PM
HOW TO PULL NOVELS FROM NATURE
with Jim Lynch

Jim  Lynch’s novels are driven by his fascination with both writing and the Western Washington landscape. His acclaimed novel The Highest Tide grew out of an obsession with Puget Sound. “What pleased me was that I learned enough about the marine world around here to plunk the reader into the mud and tide of our unique inland sea,” he says. In his second novel, his character is obsessed by birds, which required Jim to take up the same obsession. This workshop will cover how to do research and mesh it with narrative, and how to use the exotic power of scenery and nature to inspire and enrich original fiction.

Tuesday, November 11 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE FOR THE STRANGER
with Christopher Frizzelle

It's the question I get asked most at parties: How does someone go about writing for The Stranger? The question that takes two hours to answer. We'll talk about how your favorite writers at The Stranger got their feet in the door, what The Stranger's editors are looking for in new writers, how to turn your bad ideas into better ones, how to pitch the good ideas when you have them, what to do when a pitch of yours has been accepted by an editor, when to use the first-person and when not to, how much Stranger writers get paid, what Dan Savage's cell phone number is -- all our secrets will be revealed! Shield your eyes! Plus, we'll talk about your writing, too.