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SF Creative Writing Institute

Find Your Voice. Tell Your Story.

Autumn Character Arc Intensive

Don't Give Up! A Peptalk from SF Creative Writing Institute

Dear Writers, Here is a pep-talk if you ever feel like quitting. This feeling has washed over me as a writer and a creative person many times. I think it’s a common thread with all creatives. Whenever we are almost there or really making progress, is exactly when the overwhelming feeling of quitting creeps up. What if I go all the way, and I fail? What if I go out of business. What if I put full effort and self out there as a fiction writer and a poet, and arts curator, and a small business...

Intro to Fiction begins this Saturday at SFCWI in Duboce Park

Dear Bay Area Writers, Just as we wind up our summer workshops - our fall ones begin. This weekend is the unofficial start to our fall season at the SF Creative Writing Institute at Harvey Milk Center. Sept 14 - Intro to Fiction 2-4:30pm (This Saturday!) If you've ever been curious what it's like to work with a professional editor who acquires genre fiction or a novelist who has written and published 10 novels and 100+ short stories been in your shoes, consider taking this workshop with Nick...

Keep Writing! - Beast Crawl & SFCWI Present: San Francisco Writers. July 27. 5:30pm-6:30pm. Oakland

Dear Writers, This is your sign from the universe to keep writing! You never know who your words will reach and inspire. Here's an update about the SF Creative Writing Institute: We're having a cool but productive summer here in San Francisco. I started teaching Method Writing last week to an amazing new group of writers who all came together at the right place and right time to find and rediscover their voices. I'm working on polishing up and editing my own novel alongside the writers in my...

Saturday Method Writing Workshops in July & August - Open Enrollment July 20-27

Dear Writers, I'm teaching Method Writing again starting tomorrow. If you or somebody you know could benefit from finding or rediscovering your voice. If you need a safe and brave space to delve deep into the soul of who you are and pour it on the page, I will be here. This class is for poets, memoirists, fiction writers, dramatists, everyone. We start tomorrow bright and early at 9:30am and go until 12pm PST. Join us on the first day and check it out. Email me for the zoom link and I'll let...
Picture of Teacher, Alexandra Kostoulas in her kitchen.

Saturday Method Writing Workshops in July & August - Open Enrollment July 20-27

Dear Writers, I'm teaching Method Writing again starting tomorrow. If you or somebody you know could benefit from finding or rediscovering your voice. If you need a safe and brave space to delve deep into the soul of who you are and pour it on the page, I will be here. This class is for poets, memoirists, fiction writers, dramatists, everyone. We start tomorrow bright and early at 9:30am and go until 12pm PST. Join us on the first day and check it out. Email me for the zoom link and I'll let...

Spring Writing Prompt #3 + New Summer Workshops w/ Alexandra & Paul

May Newsletter - SF Creative Writing Institute Dear Writers, Songs are seeds for creativity, just like we are. One thing I love about writing to music is music is full of emotion and music has tonal dynamics in it--just like great writing. The process of reading your work aloud can bring about emotion in the reader or the audience. But so can the act of writing. I like to dance in my chair sometimes as I write, or emote to sad music, if the scene or poem I'm working on is sad. Writing to a...

Write from the Gut! Invitation May 25 6pm

SFCWI Invitation to read & attend Join us tomorrow Write From the Gut -10 year Anniversary Tour Dear Writers, If you're in the Bay Area this weekend, please join us for Write from the Gut! Reading Series at CounterPulse Theater (80 Turk Street) in San Francisco. The reading will start at 6:30. Doors will open at 6pm. It will be very informal and on the small side. So, it's a good way to get experience reading your work in front of an audience. Write from the Gut has been a reading series that...

Dispatches from Quarantine Screenwriting Workshop - tomorrow at 1pm

Dear Writers, We're offering this amazing class by Screenwriter/Producer/Professor Michelle Amor. The class is the last in our series sponsored by the California Arts Council. Details below. There are still a few spaces available. Read more below or sign up here. Instructor: Michelle Amor How has the Coronavirus Pandemic and its surrounding cultural turbulence affected a generation of creative writers, including the tv, streaming, and films of our culture? How will it continue to affect...