Saturday, May 10th, 2025

Live Seminar Via Zoom 10AM – 1PM Central

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

Instructor Amber Sparks is the author of an upcoming novel, Happy People Don’t Live Here, an upcoming short story collection, Did Parents In the Middle Ages Love Their Children? (both from Liveright/W.W. Norton), and four collections of short fiction, including And I Do Not Forgive You: Revenges and other Stories and The Unfinished World. Her fiction and essays have appeared in American Short Fiction, the Paris Review, Slate, Tin House, Granta, The Cut and elsewhere.  

Writers have always been inspired by visual art. But art can also serve as not just inspiration, but pure prompt when you're stuck for a story.

 In this workshop, we’ll learn practical ways to harness that inspiration, and make it work for us. We'll play with images as triggers for new kinds of structure, ways to jog the parts of our brains that do narrative a little differently. We’ll use exercises and prompts to turn artworks into solid, creative fiction, and as flashes of light to get you out of a dark rut.

You'll leave the class with a whole lot of visual inspiration, some new favorite artists, a bag of tricks to turn art to prompt, and a solid piece of fiction or creative non-fiction essay you can polish.

Can't Make It Live?

No problem! The session will be recorded and available to watch after the seminar concludes.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS: 

A Toolkit for Artistic Inspiration: Students will leave with concrete methods—exercises, prompts, and “tricks”—for harnessing visual art as a springboard for new writing projects, ensuring they can easily generate fresh ideas whenever they feel stuck.

New Structural & Narrative Approaches: By using art as a trigger, students will experiment with novel ways of shaping their work, tapping into unconventional structures and storytelling techniques that revitalize their fiction or creative nonfiction.

A Finished Draft to Polish: Through hands-on writing exercises during the workshop, each participant will produce a substantial piece of writing—be it a short story or creative essay—that they can continue refining after the seminar.

TAKE THIS CLASS IF:

• You're finding the constraints of your current writing practice too limiting.
• You want exposure to a range of new approaches to bring to your writing practice.
  
• You want an expanded sense of what is possible in your work.
  

TESTIMONIALS:

"I took the class on a whim after seeing Amber mention it on Twitter. It exceeded my expectations. I come from a very traditional educational background and found Amber's perspective quite refreshing and very useful for my work in progress."

"Really this class blew my mind. It as exactly the espresso shot my private writing practice needed. I really appreciated the concrete craft lessons. I am at a stage of writing where this is exactly what I need."

"One of the more creative workshops I have ever taken. Amber Sparks really got me to think in different and creative ways. It was the right class at the right time for me."

"I really enjoyed Amber Sparks' workshop on Fractured Narrative! Great list of possible approaches to non-linear story-telling with helpful references to specific author's works as examples. Good exercises. Really enjoyed the chat input from other attendees as well. Great value for the price."

"Every class I have taken with Amber has exceeded my expectations!"

"The most valuable part for me was the prompts and the mini-workshop. Highly recommend."

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This class will meet via Zoom on Saturday, May 10th, 2025 from 10AM - 1PM CST

• Amber Sparks | Live via Zoom

• This class will meet via Zoom on Saturday, May 10th, 2025

• 10AM - 1PM CST

• Seminar is fully ONLINE and meets via Zoom