Begins Saturday, August 8, 2026

Live One-Day Seminar via Zoom from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone: Los Angeles (PDT): 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM / Chicago (CDT): 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM / New York (EDT): 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM / London (BST): 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM / Berlin (CEST): 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

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

Instructor Bio

Instructor Aida Zilelian is a first-generation American-Armenian writer, educator and public speaker. She is the author of novels THE LEGACY OF LOST THINGS (winner of the Tololyan Prize) and ALL THE WAYS WE LIED. Aida has told stories across the country, including on PBS's televised Stories from the Stage. She was a storyteller-in-residence at Keepsake House in 2025. Aida is the co-producer and co-host of the first Armenian storytelling show in NYC. In 2025, she was a speaker coach for TEDx Cabarete. Aida's debut poetry chapbook DISSONANCE won the Swan Scythe contest in 2025. Her short story "Where There Can Be No Breath at All" was runner-up for Third Coast's fiction contest and will be released this spring. She gave her first TEDx talk at TEDx Cabarete in April 2026.

Who is this class for?

This two-hour online writing workshop is for fiction and nonfiction writers of all levels who want to find new ways to write stories rooted in family dynamics. Whether you're drafting thinly veiled fiction, true memoir, or something in between, you'll leave with a story framework brainstormed during our session and fresh writing built around conflict and setting.

What to expect:

Betrayal, tough love, secrets, regrets — families are filled with conflict, and some of our most powerful stories live inside those tensions. But how do we capture them on the page? In this generative online writing class, you'll examine family conflict through close reading of a literary excerpt, then move into focused brainstorming and writing of your own. Whether you're working in fiction or nonfiction, you'll learn to use dialogue as the primary engine of conflict — leaning on subtext, tension, and the small charged moments that make a scene crackle.

The workshop blends craft instruction with hands-on writing time. We'll discuss narrative arc and the various types of conflict (internal, external, interpersonal), dig into character dynamics, and build out specific story situations grounded in the kinds of family relationships you know best. You'll have multiple windows to write, share favorite lines, and shape new directions for the work you generate.

Aida brings a culturally inclusive, flexible teaching approach honed over twenty-three years in classrooms — pacing the session to participants' needs and encouraging writers to draw on lived experience as raw material for the page.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will generate 3–5 story concepts rooted in family dynamics and craft two pieces of dialogue exploring conflict and subtext. Feedback is verbal during the session, with input from both the instructor and fellow participants for those who choose to share their work.

Readings

Readings may include excerpts from:

• Tobias Wolff, "Say Yes"
• Jhumpa Lahiri, "Unaccustomed Earth" (excerpt)
• E.L. Doctorow, "The Writer in the Family"
• Celeste Ng, "Little Fires Everywhere" (excerpt)
• J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey (excerpt)

COURSE OUTLINE

Part 1: Welcome & Opening Prompts (10 minutes) Introductions and an opening discussion: Who is your favorite writer? What is your favorite short story? What do you want to learn or achieve by the end of this workshop? Will you be writing fiction or nonfiction today? Warm-up prompts may include: If a book were written about your life, what would the title be? Write the opening sentence of the story of your life. From a third-person perspective, write a seven-word sentence that describes you. If you were a landscape, what would you be? Overview of the workshop and the option of writing fiction, nonfiction, or thinly veiled fiction.

Part 2: Reading & Discussion (15–20 minutes) Reading Excerpt #1: "The Writer in the Family" by E.L. Doctorow. Discussion: What is the overarching conflict in the story? What underlying conflicts are at play (internal, external)? What is the most powerful moment of dialogue? We'll examine subtext, point of view, and conflict-driven dialogue.

Part 3: Brainstorming Your Story (15 minutes) Brainstorming our own stories — fiction or nonfiction. Choosing what to write about: list the themes you associate with family dynamics (guilt, love, betrayal, etc.); write down three character dynamics based on family members (no more than three family members in total — e.g., mother–daughter, husband–wife–mother-in-law, sister–sister); choose one and write out three specific conflicts in vivid detail.

Part 4: Writing (20 minutes) Begin writing. To skip exposition, write a three-sentence premise — the set-up — then launch into your dialogue wherever you choose. Begin just before the conflict rises.

Part 5: Sharing Out (10 minutes) Share your favorite part, lines, or talk about what you wrote.

Part 6 (Round 2): Reading & New Writing Reading Excerpt #2: "Say Yes" by Tobias Wolff. Discussion: What is the overarching conflict? What underlying conflicts surface? Then choose your path: continue from your original piece, return to your character dynamics and write a new conflict, or pull a new conflict from your list and start fresh. Sharing out follows.

Closing: Reflection & Forward Movement Reflect on what we accomplished and how to keep moving with the piece you've started. Closing prompt options: What does your treasure look like? You're swimming in your favorite color — what does it feel like? If love were a smell, what would it smell like?

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Generate 3–5 story concepts grounded in family dynamics, ready to develop further after class
• Draft two pieces of dialogue that use subtext and tension to drive conflict
• Learn to identify and layer multiple types of conflict (internal, external, interpersonal) within a single scene
• Discover techniques for skipping exposition and launching directly into charged narrative moments
• Read and analyze how master storytellers (Doctorow, Wolff) build family conflict through dialogue
• Leave with concrete next steps for continuing your story, plus prompts to keep generating new material

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: Aida Zilelian
• Begins Saturday, August 8, 2026
• Class will meet for one live session via Zoom on Saturday, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET
• Tuition is $99 USD.