Central to story is the main character, the protagonist. This is the person our readers will invest in, emotionally resonate with, and go on a journey with.

The focus of this workshop is how to create a compelling character, to render them as embodied, with a physical and spiritual self, dwelling in a specific cultural and social location, with their unique personalities, agency, desire and goals.

• Class runs: Sunday Oct 25, 3-5 PM
• Open to: All Genders, Ages 18+

Elements of Story is a series of three new classes focusing on key elements of story telling: Scene, Characterization, and Energy. Take one, two, or all three! Each class can stand alone and all are suitable for writers of fiction, memoir, or creative non-fiction. 

PRICING POLICY: We use a three-tier pricing structure based on your financial circumstance. During registration, please select the tier that feels most true to your current financial ability. Learn more here.

Over three sessions, we’ll dive into the key parts of storytelling for children. We’ll discuss your vision, understanding your audience, and mapping out your story arc.

Each session kicks off with grounding exercises, examples from beloved children’s books, followed by relaxed discussions and writing prompts. You’ll get to share your ideas, work on your drafts, and explore things like perspective and character consistency.

By the end of our time together, you’ll have a clearer sense of your story and some tools to make it come to life. Whether you’re writing for fun or aiming for publication, come ready to write, connect, and enjoy the process!

• Class runs: Virtually, biweekly. Sunday Nov 1, 15 and 29.
• Open to: Women & Nonbinary, Ages 18+

PRICING POLICY: We use a three tier pricing structure based on your financial circumstance. During registration, please select the tier that feels most true to your current financial ability. Learn more here.

Mind-body awareness is a key component of self care, and has never been more important than in these stressful times. In this 3 hour class we will first very briefly cover the basics of how the nervous system affects mental health, and then move into prompted reflective writing and optional sharing, using our traditional Women Writing practices and mind-body practices to explore when and how different states of our nervous system are "talking" to us through our writing. 

Open to: All Genders, 18+

About the Facilitator: Amy Stenger-Sullivan is devoted to helping people understand and befriend their nervous systems — through therapy, training, and writing circles. She believes writing and words are a powerful pathway to emotional safety and connection.

PRICING POLICY: We use a three-tier pricing structure based on your financial circumstance. During registration, please select the tier that feels most true to your current financial ability. Learn more here.

What if leadership looked like honoring intuition, deep listening and collective care? 

At Women Writing for (a) Change, we grow leaders through our biannual Conscious Feminine Leadership Academy (CFLA). During CFLA, using writing as our primary tool of self-discovery, we study what Conscious Feminine leadership means and how to apply it personally, professionally, and as leaders in our community. 

Applications for CFLA 2027 will open in January, and in preparation, we are holding three gatherings we call Discernment Circles, where we will provide information and answer questions about CFLA. We invite you to join us for one or more of these circles. The gatherings are free but registration is required.

• Circle #2 will meet in person on Sunday, Nov 8 from 1-3PM
• Meeting is on the second floor, accessible via stairs only
• Open to all genders, ages 18+

Additional information about CFLA 2027 will be available soon on our Leadership page.

What gives energy to a story, drives the main character, motivates their opponent, and engages readers? Having desire, taking steps to fulfill it, being thwarted, facing the decision to fold or to persist.

Typically craft talk names this element “conflict.” Ursula K. LeGuin says, “Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing. Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing.”

This workshop will invite writers to explore the diversity of behaviors, including conflict, identify the specific challenge their story relates, so that the best shape of the story will emerge.

• This class runs: Sunday Nov 8, 3-5 PM
• Open to: All Genders, Ages 18+

Elements of Story is a series of three new classes focusing on key elements of story telling: Scene, Characterization, and Energy.  Take. one, two, or all three! Each class can stand alone and all are suitable for writers of fiction, memoir, or creative non-fiction. 

PRICING POLICY: We use a three-tier pricing structure based on your financial circumstance. During registration, please select the tier that feels most true to your current financial ability. Learn more here.

Lean into lunar cycles. Create and practice supportive patterns. Explore the energy of the New Moon—the energy of letting go and beginning again. Invite the darkness of the New Moon to aid and protect you as you go within to listen for what your system wants/needs. The circle is created and held under the new moon, with the support of astrology and tarot as soft structures (... think spider webs, mycelium, fascia.) You can expect time for grounding, listening, creating, writing, and exploring within ourselves, and sharing with one another.

• Class runs: Virtually each month on the evening of the New Moon
• Open to: All Genders, 18+

About the Facilitator: Mary Ruth Kamp is a multifaceted organism.  They are an artist, a poet, a marathon runner and one who delivers literary magic around the county in their role as the bookmobile (book dragon) driver for the public library. They facilitate writing circles, open mics, retreats, and wilderness exploration. They are committed to creative expression, playful living and deep connections with all beings, human and more-than-human. 

 PRICING POLICY: We use a three-tier pricing structure based on your financial circumstance. During registration, please select the tier that feels most true to your current financial ability. Learn more here.

Writing a novel has challenges, contours and craft issues specific to that form. Women Writing for (a) Change would like to support novel writers by offering a class designed with your needs in mind.

With that as our goal, we are holding two one-hour "interest sessions" - one in person and one virtual - to assess interest and to learn from novel writers what issues, topics, and types of support a course in novel writing can offer you.

Wherever you are on your novel-writing journey, please join us for one of these interest sessions.

• This session runs: Virtually
• Open to: All Genders, Ages 18+

About the Facilitator: Vicki Phillips holds an MFA in Fiction from West Virginia Wesleyan College. She has been a regular participant in National Novel Writing Month. Vicki has drafted three novels and is currently nearing the final draft of a murder mystery. 

Are you SoulCollage®-curious? Join us for a free two hour SoulCollage® class and check it out! This free circle will allow time for writing, collaging, and card sharing. Supplies will be provided.

Samplers and free classes like this can help you decide if a class is a good fit for you, from our practices, to the facilitator, and more.

• Open to: All Genders, Ages 18+
• Meets in-person at WWfaC Building