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Adventures in Micro-Fiction is an improvisational creative writing workshop that helps writers focus on their process — the experience of writing — more than the product or outcome. We focus on writing by “following” the spontaneous mind, rather than trying to be clever creators.

The design of writing prompts is informed by a certain kind of Keith Johnstone theatre game, with my style of giving guidance & feedback based on the work of Viola Spolin and my training as a life performance coach. Workshop sessions are structured like a Harold, a stage performance form invented by legendary Del Close at the Second City theatre group in Chicago. And of course, its all designed to work better as a group than if you were sitting home alone, sweating writer bullets at your desk, or procrastinating by shampooing the dog.

Adventures in Micro-Fiction started in 2001 as a weekly, 3-hour class given at home for friends. It has since been offered at several creative conferences, and even via telephone by popular demand. In 2005, Micro-Fiction was developed more deeply into a 10-week course in Narrative Writing & Story Structure for post-graduate college students.

Here’s what participants say about the experience:

“I appreciated your laid-back and open style. Very comfortable and accepting”

“Your prompts completely sabotaged my internal critic, and instead inspired true curiosity about what would show up!I The approach really worked to get me out of my head!—NO SMALL FEAT!”

“I would describe my experience (of the work) as one of watching a scene unfolding almost cinematically. I had no plan as to where the scene was going to go or whom it would involve, and in that sense I felt like a spectator. It was a freeing experience for me, since in my writing I often find myself hyper-focusing on small clumps of words, thus losing a sense of flow and ease”

“Your teleworkshop has opened my eyes to a whole “world” I never knew existed”

“I feel like I had a personal breakthrough in understanding how to develop stories—but more importantly developing places and characters. I was never really sure how to go about that before.The idea of “reincorporation” was an enormous one for me — the idea that you always look back to make it go forwards. I think I also came a bit closer to finding my natural writing voice—rather than trying to force it or create one”

“(This class) changed my understanding of story development, and letting the characters grow during the writing process—as opposed to thinking I needed to have that all figured out before-hand. It was a cool experience to realize it could work that way–that your own characters could actually “surprise” you if you let them”

Sound fun to you? Sound scary? Think about your current relationship to your writing — perhaps this class can help you find more joy in the process, and help you notice & manage the anxieties that slow you down & limit creativity.

Drop a line if you’re interested in Adventures in Micro-Fiction classes in San Francisco, over the phone, or for a conference somewhere. I’d also be happy to discuss if you have an existing creative writing group that might want to test-drive this method for free for a week or two. i’m really very flexible, if its interesting enough…