The Writing Practice: Back to the Page — 4-Week Online Fiction and Nonfiction Workshop with Ben Tanzer Starts Wednesday, April 7th, 2027

The Writing Practice: Back to the Page | Online Writing Workshop, April 2027

The Writing Practice: Back to the Page with Ben Tanzer

Begins Wednesday, April 7, 2027
Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:

• Los Angeles (PDT): 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
• Chicago (CDT): 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
• New York (EDT): 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Now Enrolling!

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

Instructor Ben Tanzer is an Emmy-award winner whose acclaimed work includes the short story collection UPSTATE, the science fiction novel Orphans, and the essay collections Lost in Space and Be Cool. His recent novel, The Missing, was released in March 2024 by 7.13 Books and was a finalist for the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in the Traditional Fiction category. His book After Hours: Scorsese, Grief and the Grammar of Cinema, which Kirkus Reviews calls "A heartfelt if overstuffed tribute to the author's father and the ameliorative power of art," was released by Ig Publishing in May 2025. Ben's next book, Human Noise, is a short story collection out from Thirty West Publishing House on March 23, 2027. Ben is also the host of the long-running podcast This Podcast Will Change Your Life, teaches at Lake Forest College and Roosevelt University, and lives in Chicago with his family.

Who is this class for?

This workshop is for the writer with a stalled project. You started a novel, a collection, a memoir, an essay, and somewhere along the way it stopped. Maybe you pitched it and heard nothing. Maybe life got in the way. Maybe you lost the thread and can't find your way back in. You have pages, or at least a plan, and you want to be working on it again. Over four Wednesday evenings, you'll diagnose what stopped you, reset the goal, map the path to a finished draft, and write new pages toward it. This is an intermediate online writing workshop, and fiction and nonfiction writers are equally welcome.

If you don't have a project yet and want to build a writing practice from the ground up, Ben's companion course, The Writing Practice: Getting Started, is the place to begin.

What to expect:

Each session gives you a concrete tool, time to use it on your own project, and a room of writers in the same spot. Ben opens with a short check-in on everyone's progress and obstacles, teaches the week's tool for thirty minutes, gives you thirty minutes to write on your project, and closes with forty-five minutes of sharing and feedback, rotating through the group over the four weeks so every writer gets their turn.

The tools are built for restarting. Techniques for naming the obstacle precisely enough to work around it. Frameworks for setting a new goal for the project you actually have, not the one you planned two years ago. A method for mapping the steps between the pages you have and the draft you want. And in the final week, a written plan for the project, with new pages already under it.

Between sessions, you'll send Ben pages and get one round of written feedback. You'll also book one 30-minute one-on-one with him at any point during the course, to talk through the project, the practice, or the specific thing that's in your way.

What are the writing goals?

By the end of the course you will have (1) a clear diagnosis of what stalled your project, written in Week 1; (2) a reset goal and deadline for it, set in Week 2; (3) a map of the steps from your current pages to a finished draft, built in Week 3; and (4) a revised plan for the project plus new draft pages, completed in Week 4. Feedback comes from Ben in writing between sessions, live in every session, and in your one-on-one.

Readings

Readings may include excerpts from Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell, My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing by Carl Phillips, and Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Obstacles. Techniques and methods for naming what stopped you and working past it, then time to write on your project and share.

Week 2: Goal Setting (and Re-Goaling). Frameworks and strategies for resetting the target for the project you have now. Time to write and share.

Week 3: Pathways. Mapping the steps from your current pages to a finished draft, with Matt Bell's three-draft model as one route. Time to write and share.

Week 4: Your Project, Restarted. A revised plan for the project, new pages under it, and a final round of sharing.

Each session follows the same four-part model: a 15 to 20 minute check-in on progress and challenges; 30 minutes on the week's topic; 30 minutes of writing on your project; and 45 minutes to share work and receive feedback, rotating through the group over the four sessions.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• A written diagnosis of what stalled your project, and the technique you'll use to get past it
• A reset goal and deadline for the project
• A step-by-step map from the pages you have to a finished draft
• New draft pages on the project, written in session and between sessions
• One round of written feedback from Ben on your pages
• A 30-minute one-on-one session with Ben, scheduled at any point in the course
• A revised plan for finishing the project after the class ends

TESTIMONIALS:

"I get a great deal of value from your sessions… You were among the most positive and encouraging workshop leaders I've encountered, not only because of the beneficial material presented, but because your facilitation skills were excellent. Your interactions with participants were respectful and expressed genuine interest in their views. I don't offer this praise lightly — I spent nearly all of my 42-year career in human resources and training and conducted many classes during that time. You were great!"

— Larry Pike, Mountain Heritage Literary Festival

"Ben Tanzer did a great job of compressing meaningful theory, plus practice and interaction, into a short time frame. He created an opportunity for each person to have a valuable experience. You should take his Introducing Hope into Our Writing Process seminar if you can."

— Former Student

"Ben [Tanzer], thank you so very much for this truly terrific workshop! So many valuable insights. And the fact that you seek to write 30 minutes a day, and you don't look for that 'precious' place to write is the best piece of news about writing I have heard in years! What a relief for me to hear that! It gave me a path to start with, right then and there. In regard to the amount of time we had, I, for one, thought the two-hour schedule was just right."

— Former Student

"Ben Tanzer's Introducing Hope into Our Writing Process seminar offers a peek behind the curtain at the real assumptions, motivational issues, and habits that get in the way of productive writing. It offers practical experiments and ways to rethink what we are doing so that we can find new pathways to our goals, or new goals."

— Former Student

"The workshop with Ben Tanzer was a fantastic combination of science, personal experience, and psychology that gave me clear, applicable tools to improve my writing life. Ben is a warm, empathetic, and engaging instructor, and he created a safe, fun, and enlightening space for us to learn and grow as writers—and as people."

— Former Student

"I wasn't sure how the concept of 'hope' might relate to the writing process. All of these workshops have helped open my eyes to different views of writing, from meeting the x-number of words per day challenge to a more human yet complex task of organizing thoughts into an inspiring product. Introducing the Power of Hope to Our Writing Process seminar with Ben Tanzer was no different."

— Former Student

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $395 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: Ben Tanzer
• Begins Wednesday, April 7, 2027
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM ET, through April 28
• Includes one round of written feedback between sessions and one 30-minute one-on-one with the instructor
• Class size is limited to 12 students
• Tuition is $395 USD.