A one-day writing workshop with Alan Watt
Saturday, June 16 | 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
READ MORERegister now for our upcoming workshops.
“Our sole purpose is to build a body of work.”
– Alan Watt (founder of LA Writers Lab)
We are a Los Angeles-based creative writing workshop catering to writers at all levels. Home of the 90-Day writing workshops, our goal is to teach writers a process of getting the story from their imagination to the page by marrying the wildness of the imagination to the rigor of story structure. There are no rules, but there are principles, tools and techniques that help us to see beyond our initial ideas to the deeper truths in our work.
News
Jan 2012 – Dilemma: The Source of Our Story
DILEMMA: The Source of Our Story “Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but to get better.” – Sydney J. Harris At … Continue reading
Dec 2011: 10 Guideposts To A Good Writing Instructor
TEN GUIDEPOSTS TO A GOOD WRITING INSTRUCTOR “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – William Butler Yeats Choosing a writing instructor is a big decision. Here are some guidelines and suggestions that … Continue reading
November 2011: One Thing Readers Hate
“A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.” – Albert Camus ONE THING READERS HATE One thing readers hate are coincidences. Sure, coincidences occur in our lives every day, but in a story, they are … Continue reading
October 2011: Third Acts Are A Bitch – Reframing The Protagonist’s Goal
“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith; Nothing we do, however virtuous, … Continue reading
Aug. 2011
TWELVE MAXIMS OF THE 90-DAY NOVEL 1) When we stay out of the result, we move in the direction of our story. 2) Story involves a transformation. There can be no transformation without surrender. 3) Our idea of our story … Continue reading
July 2011: Banishing Redundancies
BANISHING REDUNDANCIES redundant: 1 a: exceeding what is necessary or normal : superfluous b : characterized by or containing an excess; specif : using more words than necessary. Redundancy is not only a sign of lazy writing; it can also … Continue reading
June 2011 Newsletter
“The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.” – Scott Turow NARRATIVE DRIVE If we’re rewriting, and a point in our story feels flat, here are some questions we can ask ourselves. 1) What does my … Continue reading
Newsletter – May 2011
“Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.” -James Baldwin The Dilemma At The Heart Of Your Story OK. We want to write something. We … Continue reading
Newsletter – April 2011
CHARACTER SUGGESTS PLOT “The beginning of a plot is the prompting of desire.” – Christopher Lehmann-Haupt Our idea of our screenplay is never the whole story. As we inquire into the world we often discover that we must shed our … Continue reading
Newsletter – March 2011
“A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.” – … Continue reading