get out of your head

Writing prompts - a monthly 1-hour workshop

(On hiatus until Fall 2021)

Sometimes we can get so entrenched in our idea of where the story ought to go that we lose sight of where the characters want to take us.

Your idea of your story is never the whole story. It’s not that it is incorrect, but that it is incomplete.

In this fast-paced one-hour workshop, we’re going on a creative thrill ride through the world of our characters. We’re letting go of all those preconceived notions we had of our characters, so that the truth of them can be revealed.

The goal of this workshop is to get out of your head so that your subconscious can surprise you with what you didn’t know you knew. Story creation is a non-linear process. When we try to figure it all out we get stuck. Sometimes we need to shake the etch-a-sketch. We need to get wild on the page, to let our characters speak, without all those limiting ideas of where think the story ought to go.

And after each five-minute exercise, I will work briefly, one-on-one, with a writer to illustrate the principles to the group.

When: 12 - 1 pm PT, first Thursday of every month. (Coming back Fall 2021)

Where: Zoom

Price: Donation-based, $10 minimum.

alan watt standing in front of an L.A. Hillside smiling, hand in pocket

your teacher Alan Watt

Alan is known as the Writer Whisperer.

He is the writer/director of the 2018 award-winning feature film, Interior Night, which won four Best Feature awards at U.S. film festivals in New York, Breckenridge, Cleveland and Catalina, as well as The Boston Film Festival’s Visionary Award.

He's an L.A. Times Bestselling novelist for Diamond Dogs, which won France’s Prix Printemps for best foreign novel of 2004.