This class will teach you five unique brainstorming, self-reflection and ideation techniques for developing your very own unique writing prompts. You’ll learn to mine your own life, fascinations and imagination to develop fifty writing prompts that will get you started on a writing project, and/or keep you going on existing ones.

This class is for writers of all experience levels, from absolute beginners to well-published pros. No prior experience is required.

Idea generating skills are so important! Every working writer needs tons of ideas. Obviously you need an idea to start a writing project, but you also need ideas as a project progresses, whether that’s for a new plot twist in a novel, or for a new research thread to weave into a piece of narrative nonfiction. When you’re getting started as a writer, you must generate your own ideas to develop compelling material. And while established writers often work on assignment, or pursue an idea from an editor, or further develop ideas they’ve already published, it’s always more fun to work on fresh and exciting ideas of your own invention. This class will give you the techniques you need to ensure you’ll never run low on those rocket-fuel ideas. While these techniques are geared towards writers of all stripes -- poets, playwrights, journalists, bloggers, screenwriters, songwriters, essayists, memoirists, novelists, welcome! -- they can also be applied to any creative project.

Materials required: you’ll need a pen and a pad you can write on. Nothing too fancy! And you’ll also need a few old magazines or newspapers that you don’t mind cutting up, scissors and a glue stick. Other than that, you just need what’s between your two ears!

Barbara Simons

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