Workshops are often added to this schedule. Please check back here for updates.

To register, click here.

Please note that there is a nonrefundable $25 registration fee per workshop
($15 for youth workshops and our shorter one and two-day workshops)
for students who are NOT members of the Writers' Center (HVWC).

Due to Metro North’s ongoing Hudson Line station rehabilitation project at our Philipse Manor station home, our Monday - Friday daytime workshops are occasionally moved to the Junior League of Westchester-on-Hudson, 35 South Broadway, Tarrytown. You will be notified as far in advance as possible if your class needs to be relocated on any given day.

HOW TO PLAN, WRITE, AND DEVELOP A BOOK
with Mary Carroll Moore

6 Mondays, 1:30 - 4:30 pm*
May 4 - June 22 (skips May 18 & 25)
Fee: $355; returning Moore students deduct $15

Whether you’re a nonfiction author, memoirist, or novelist, and whether you have a book almost finished or merely a concept for one, this 6 week class will help you get to know your book—what it is about, how to structure it, how to finish it! You’ll learn a step-by-step plan (including timetables, chapter grids, story-boarding, and other techniques) and ways to flow chapters, find holes in your material that need filling, organize research and concepts, and construct plots. You’ll also learn how to package your book for agents and publishers and gain essential tips on editing and evaluating your book at all stages.

Status: cancelled

*Note: Ms. Moore will also run several workshops for returning students only.
Please contact the office (914-332-5953) for dates/times/availablity.

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MEMOIR WRITING
with Joan Potter

8 Tuesdays, April 14 - June 9 (skips April 28) see date change below
10:15 am - 12:15 pm
Fee $305; returning Potter students deduct $15

Writing is a solitary endeavor, and feedback is crucial to developing your voice and honing your style. Whether you are in the process of writing a memoir or just getting started, this workshop provides a supportive and constructive environment in which you will read your work aloud each week and receive responses. Your subjects may range from early childhood memories to the transforming events of adulthood, and finished pieces may be short or book-length. Several workshop members have published their work in The New York Times and various literary journals. For writers of all levels.

WRITING CHILDREN'S BOOKS AND STORIES
with Elizabeth Sachs

6 Thursdays, May 14 - June 18
10:30 am - 12:30 pm
Fee $225; returning Sachs students deduct $10

Develop a strong narrative voice and distinctive style when writing for readers from middle grade to young adult. In this intensive course, unique writing exercises will help writers, both the inexperienced and the skilled, explore their writing strengths. Each session will focus on a different aspect of writing. Information about being published will also be addressed.

TRUE FICTION: BREATHING LIFE INTO OUR STORIES
with David Surface

8 Saturdays, April 18 - June 13 (skips May 23)
10:30 am - 12:30 pm
Fee: $305; returning Surface students deduct $15

Someone once said that fiction is a lie that tells the truth. If fiction-writing is basically “making things up”, how can we make things up that feel true? What is it that turns a character from a bunch of random ink-marks on a page into a flesh and blood human being? How can we change our stories from something other people will merely read about into something they will experience? In this workshop, we will explore practical techniques for breathing life into fiction and finding the truth in our stories.

6 Saturdays, April 18 - May 30 (skips May 23)
Time 12:45 - 2:45
Fee: $230; returning Surface students deduct $10

Our one-day "Seriously Scary Stories" workshop in March was such a success that we asked David Surface to expand it to this multi-session workshop for the spring!
People have a powerful and undying desire to hear—and tell—scary stories. Unfortunately, many so called "horror" or "supernatural" stories rely on outworn cliches that have lost their bite. No wonder many "serious" writers are reluctant to admit their desire to dip into the dark side. In this workshop, we will examine the art of the scary story from a craft-based perspective, looking at works by classic masters of the genre such as M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood as well as contemporary practitioners like Douglas Clegg and Mark Morris who are bringing new ideas and new life to the genre. We will also do writing exercises that will open up the darker side of your imagination and get you started on your own "seriously scary" story.

2 Saturdays, June 6 and 13
12:45 - 2:45 pm
Fee: $95; returning Fischer students deduct $10

Remember Templeton the Rat from Charlotte's Web? He went to the town dump in search of a word and came back with RADIANT. In this 2-day workshop, writers in any genre will explore new and unusual sources to inspire a summer writing project. Summer can be a productive season for writers, a limited but fruitful time to exercise a burst of creativity: a suite of poems, a short story, an essay, a chapbook, a one-act play, etc. The tinder that sparks this summer fire will be found among a wide variety of potential sources—news, popular culture, historical archives, the sciences, the visual arts, advertising, electronic media, music, folklore, and other materials. Beyond the mere gimmick, "scavenger writing" works on principles of observation, chance, and serendipity. It includes strategies of "found poetry," alternatives to autobiography in both poetry and prose, use of the lexicons of other disciplines, and non-literary influences. In the second session, we will workshop the beginnings of a draft and an outline of your summer project. The course fee includes instructor feedback by email on completed projects, after Labor Day.

Friday, April 24
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Fee: $65; returning Jocelyn students deduct $5
or take both Jocelyn workshops (see Middle Grade and Teen Novels below) for $120 (returning Jocelyn students deduct $10)

Always wanted to write a children's book? It is probably a picture book you have in mind—the introduction to both art and language—and a lot harder to create than you might think! This class will help shape your idea into a more publishable manuscript, as well as provide a survey of today's market and the vast array of literature for young children, including story, concept, ABC and information books. We'll look at the different writing skills needed to write books that are read aloud and those for a beginning reader. One week before class, participants should submit a manuscript of no more than 500 words, or a half-page description of your story idea. Please bring along a favorite picture book.

Friday, April 24
1:00 - 4:00 pm
Fee: $65; returning Jocelyn students deduct $5
or take both Jocelyn workshops (see Picture Books above) for $120 (returning Jocelyn students deduct $10)

This class is for writers who have planned, and possibly started, a book with chapters and no pictures; writers who need guidance and motivation to keep going. We'll cover the basics of what you need to know to compete in today's publishing world, and discuss the difference between writing for middle graders ( 9 to 12 year olds) and for teenagers. Ten pages of a manuscript in progress—or a one-page outline of your intentions—must be submitted a week before the class begins. We'll critique your work with the specific readership in mind—how to make choices about genre, language, point-of-view, plot, and other tricky ingredients in creating a novel for highly discriminating readers. You'll have in-class writing practice, suggested reading, and a better understanding of how the market works. Be prepared to have your work discussed in a realistic - and yet inspirational - forum.

Friday, May 15
10:15 am - 2:15 pm
Fee: $80; returning Sachs students deduct $5

In writing fiction which one is more important? Which should come first? It's the old chicken or egg question. Come to a one day workshop that will explore with participants ways to develop both character and plot to bring writing to life. Feel free to bring samples of work or just ideas. This workshop is intended for both the beginner and the more advanced writer.

Friday, May 1
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Fee: $120

We all have true stories to tell: about worlds we know well and new worlds we discover daily. This workshop shows how to capture both, using the power of voice, storytelling, memory, and grace of language to make nonfiction writing come alive. Using in-class exercises as springboards, participants explore strategies for turning fragments of memory and observation into personal essay, profile, or narrative journalism.

About Writing True: the Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction, co-authored by Mimi Schwartz and Sondra Perl (Houghton Mifflin, 2006):

Status: completed

2 Sundays, May 31 and June 7
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Fee: $195

Most of the problems (and solutions) in a work of fiction—or in any piece of writing for that matter—reveal themselves within the first few pages. As teacher and editor I can testify to this truth. Student works as well as those of experienced authors telegraph their weaknesses and strength not only within their first few pages, but with a paragraph—even a first sentence. In this unique workshop we’ll examine your first sentences, paragraphs, and pages, and discover what’s working, and what doesn’t—and why. We’ll examine the promises held forth (and often broken) by the opening of a story or book, fiction or memoir. Most importantly—we’ll learn the difference between words that speak to us in a genuine, human voice, and . . . well, everything else.

All in the spirit of serious play, of course! Be brave: take this rare chance to see what you’ve put on the page!

Tuesday, April 28
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Fee: $65 returning Tiberghien students deduct $5

Reading excerpts from contemporary writers, we will first look at the personal essay, shaping our experiences into short essays in the form of a narrative, a meander, or a collage. Then we will use this flexible form to craft both opinion and travel essays. Come ready to explore bits of memory—discovering their meaning—and to craft them with imagination into essays.

Saturday, June 20
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Fee: $120 returning Goetsch students deduct $10

The act of writing is far deeper than the act of thinking because it is a bodily exploration of the world. I'm not thinking about Hemingway going to the war, or whether to draft by hand or on computer. This is about the presence and primacy of sense experience in one's writing-in image, description, metaphor, sound, pacing, and the shaping of poems and narrative plots. The intellect certainly has its role in the writing process, though it is a far different one than people ordinarily assume.

Through the use of models and exercises, in both poetry and prose, this workshop aims to connect participants to new attitudes and deeper layers of their writing craft. The opposite of writing with the body would be writing with the ego, which is how most writing is done, and why it fails, and so quieting the ego will be a big theme. For all levels of writers.

Spring 2009 Workshops for Young Writers

Please note that, in addition to the youth workshop fees shown below, there is a $15 nonrefundable registration fee (per workshop) charged to registering students who are not members of the Writers’ Center (HVWC). Registration fees are waived for HVWC members.

To register, click here.