Practical Magic: 5 Tools to Break Writers’ Block

Workshops are conducted EST via Zoom, a virtual platform that allows you to participate in exercises and contribute to group conversation. To participate, please register by the deadline using the ticket portal below, or go to Scholarships. Zoom links are emailed to registered participants as follows:

• Morning and Noon Workshops: Link is sent on the day/evening before the class starts.
• Afternoon Workshops: Link is sent one hour before the workshop starts.
• Evening Workshops: Link is sent on the evening of the workshop between 5:15 pm and one hour before the workshop starts.

Member Price: $65
1 Session
Deadline to Register: October 23, 5 pm
Instructor: Kate Reed Petty

Writing blocks are a challenge for us all. Whether you’re a first-time memoirist struggling through Chapter Three, an aspiring novelist, or an experienced author wrestling with your sixth book, you likely have already hit a frustrating block or two (or three). The discipline of Design Thinking offers surprisingly effective, fun tools for cracking through blocks and strengthening our writing. In this hands-on workshop, we will learn and play with several design-inspired techniques and practices. We will generate new ideas, reframe old ideas, shed new light on the stuck places, and create the practical magic we need to fall in love with what we’re writing, again and again, until it’s finished. All participants will leave with new ways of seeing their work and a set of take-home worksheets for recreating the techniques whenever you need them. 

Kate Reed Petty‘s first novel, True Story, is a New York Times editors’ choice. With over a decade of experience writing in collaboration with designers and social entrepreneurs, Petty teaches writing in the Design for Social Innovation graduate program at the School of Visual Arts. Her fiction, essays, and short films have appeared in Electric Literature, American Short Fiction, and Narrative. She lives in Baltimore.

Scholarships Available