Begins Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Class will meet via Zoom on Tuesday, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM CDT

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone: Los Angeles (PDT): 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM / Chicago (CDT): 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM / New York (EDT): 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us. 

Instructor Alex Temblador is the award-winning author of a writing craft book, Writing An Identity Not Your Own, and two magical realism novels, Half Outlaw and Secrets of the Casa Rosada. In addition to receiving her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Oklahoma, Alex's creative work has been published in literary outlets like PALABRITAS, D Magazine, Colorado Review, as well as two anthologies — Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology. Alex has taught creative writing seminars, workshops, and classes with WritingWorkshops.com, the Women's Fiction Writers Association, the Writer's League of Texas, StoryStudio Chicago, WorldShift: The Speculative Fiction Writer's Summit, Texas Book Festival, Macmillan Publishers, Abydos Learning Conference, and more. When she's not writing her next book, Alex is working as an award-winning journalist, traveling, gardening, or exploring her home base of Dallas with friends.

Who is this class for?

This seminar is designed for writers of all levels who want to build intersectional characters with identities different from their own. Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or screenplays, you'll leave with concrete tools for crafting characters free of stereotypes, harmful tropes, and other problematic depictions. All experience levels welcome.

What to expect:

In this live online writing workshop, award-winning author Alex Temblador — author of the craft book Writing An Identity Not Your Own — will lead writers through one of the most contentious topics in creative writing: crafting a character whose identity is not your own. Drawing from material in her published guide and from excerpts, examples, and insights not included in the book, Alex creates a safe, candid environment where writers can examine their own biases and learn how those biases might shape everything from overall storyline to characterization.

Across this two-and-a-half-hour multigenre seminar, you'll learn how to write authentic main, secondary, and tertiary characters who hold historically marginalized races and ethnicities, gender identities, sexual and romantic orientations, disabilities, and nationalities. Topics include trauma porn, how to approach physical descriptions, the ways stereotypes appear in dialogue, and how to edit identities not your own. Alex's accessible, exercise-driven approach welcomes uncomfortable questions and treats them as the heart of the work.

This online writing class is built for writers across genres and skill levels. You'll come away with a clearer framework for recognizing bias, more concrete strategies for character craft, and a practical plan you can apply immediately to your current project or future work.

What are the writing goals?

In this seminar, students will leave with a working plan for writing and editing characters whose identities are historically marginalized. Through a series of in-class exercises, you'll apply each craft principle directly to a piece you're currently working on — or generate ideas you can bring to future projects. The emphasis is on practical, repeatable tools you can use long after class ends.

Readings

Suggested reading: Writing An Identity Not Your Own: A Guide for Creative Writers by Alex Temblador. During the seminar, Alex will share short excerpts (one sentence to a paragraph in length) from novels across multiple genres, along with film summaries and other examples that illustrate craft principles in action.

COURSE OUTLINE

Part 1: Identity, Bias, and the Craft Framework — Define "identity" in a craft context, examine unconscious bias and bias blocks, and discuss the state of diversity in publishing as it relates to your work as a writer.

Part 2: Building Authentic Characters — Approaches to writing main, secondary, and tertiary characters with marginalized identities; how stereotypes appear in physical descriptions, dialogue, and storyline; and pitfalls like trauma porn to recognize and avoid.

Part 3: Editing Identities Not Your Own + Q&A — Practical strategies for editing identities not your own, plus an open Q&A where attendees are encouraged to ask the uncomfortable questions that lead to better, more responsible work.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• A working framework for recognizing your own biases and bias blocks before they appear on the page
• Concrete strategies for writing main, secondary, and tertiary characters whose identities differ from your own
• Tools for handling physical descriptions, dialogue, and storyline elements without leaning on stereotypes or harmful tropes
• A clearer understanding of pitfalls like trauma porn and how to avoid them
• A practical editing approach for revising characters of identities not your own
• A personal plan you can apply directly to a current project or carry into future work

TESTIMONIALS:

"Alex is positive, engaging, and encouraging. Terrific at listening to participants and pulling out/distilling/reinforcing salient points from their questions/comments." — Writer's League of Texas Student

"Alex's friendly personality helped relax the class. Her exercises led to insightful writing." — Writer's League of Texas Student

"Very informative. Real advice. Not a lot of sugar coating. Alex provided us with a lot of resources and valuable information." — Writer's League of Texas Student

"I will look for Alex Temblador's workshops again because I found a unique connection and synchronicity with her methods, writing experience, and knowledge, and my own needs at this point in my writing journey. I'm a published author, yet I'm writing, for the first time, about race and ethnicity from my personal experience in South Africa in a fictional context. I'm drawn to speculative fiction for its ability to portray complex socio-political worlds and resistance to oppression in an adventurous, yet true way. I know I'll learn more valuable insights from Alex." — Writing Workshops Student

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $99 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Alex Temblador
• Begins Tuesday, August 11, 2026
• Class will meet via Zoom on Tuesday, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM CDT
• Tuition is $99 USD.