Writing the “We”: Crafting the Collective Voice — 3-Hour Online Fiction Workshop with Omaria Sanchez Pratt Starts Saturday, February 27th, 2027

Writing the “We”: Collective Voice Workshop | Feb 2027 Online

Writing the “We” Seminar: Crafting the Collective Voice with Omaria Sanchez Pratt

Begins Saturday, February 27, 2027
Class will meet once via Zoom on Saturday, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:

• Los Angeles (PST): 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
• Chicago (CST): 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
• New York (EST): 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
• London (GMT): 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
• Berlin (CET): 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Now Enrolling!

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

Instructor Omaria Sanchez Pratt is a Black trans writer from North Carolina. They received an M.F.A. from the University of Kentucky where they were a recipient of the 2018 Nikky Finney Fellowship. They have received scholarships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Tin House Summer Workshop, Community of Writers, and fellowships from Periplus Mentorship Collective, Kimbilio for Black Fiction, Lambda Literary, and more. Omaria’s short stories have been published in Story Magazine, Anthology of Appalachian Writers Volume XII, and the 2023 Emerge Anthology, with forthcoming work in The Greensboro Review. Their story, “Blood Sisters on the Ghost Train,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. They currently live in Durham, North Carolina where they design and teach writing workshops in community and are completing a program in teaching creative writing with the University of Cambridge.

Who is this class for?

This online writing class is for writers at every level who struggle with first-person plural narration, and for readers who love the “we” and want to understand how it works. Fiction writers, poets, and essayists are all welcome. All Levels.

What to expect:

The first-person plural is one of the least explored points of view available to writers. A collective “we” can create intimacy, build a sense of community, hold several perspectives at once, and turn an individual experience into a shared one. It can also turn vague, confusing, or emotionally ungrounded when the relationship among the voices inside the “we” is unclear.

In this three-hour creative writing workshop, Omaria Sanchez Pratt approaches collective voice as both a craft technique and a way of thinking about communal experience, cultural reality, and who the “we” speaks to and for. The seminar is built on three questions. What makes a collective narrator work? Who is included in the “we”? What can a collective voice reveal that an individual narrator cannot? Through close readings of fiction, poetry, and essays, you’ll study how writers construct a “we,” draw the boundaries of the collective, move between communal and individual experience, and create tension. You’ll also weigh when collective voice is the right choice for a story, and the risks of using it without a clear narrative purpose.

The final segment is yours to write. You’ll spend 20 to 30 minutes drafting a short passage in the collective voice, either new work or a passage recast from a project in progress, then share briefly and test it against a revision checklist the group builds together. Participants will leave with a one-page draft in the collective voice and a revision checklist they can apply to any manuscript.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will draft a one-page passage in the first-person plural during a 20 to 30 minute in-class writing session, either generating something new or revising a passage from a work in progress. Students will think specifically about who belongs to the collective, what holds that group together, and what the collective voice can reveal or conceal that an individual narrator might not. Students will then share briefly with the group and use the collaborative revision checklist to plan how to keep developing the piece. This seminar does not include individual written feedback from the instructor.

Readings

Readings may include excerpts from The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, “Women Like Us” by Edwidge Danticat, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, and “The Imaginary Iceberg” by Elizabeth Bishop.

COURSE OUTLINE

Opening: Who Is “We”? Defining Collective Voice

An introduction to first-person plural narration and the different forms a collective “we” can take. We’ll distinguish between a singular narrator speaking on behalf of a group, a genuinely collective consciousness, and a chorus of individual perspectives, and consider what narrative problems collective voice can solve and why a writer might choose “we” rather than “I,” “you,” or “they.”

Activity: Guided discussion and a brief diagnostic exercise. Participants examine several examples of first-person plural narration and identify who is speaking, who is being represented, and what the collective perspective makes possible.

Texts: “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “The Imaginary Iceberg” by Elizabeth Bishop

Who Is Included in the “We”? Individual Voice Within the Collective

How a collective narrator establishes its boundaries: who belongs to the group, who is excluded, what the group knows, and what it cannot know. We’ll pay particular attention to the tension between individual experience and communal knowledge, and to the techniques writers use to create multiplicity within a collective narrator, including shifts between individual and communal perspective, contradiction, interruption, and moments when the “I” emerges from the “we.”

Activity: Close reading and a “map the we” exercise. Participants diagram the relationship between the narrator, the collective, and figures outside the collective, then annotate a passage for shifts in perspective and discuss how those relationships shape narrative authority, character, and tension.

Texts: “Women Like Us” by Edwidge Danticat, an excerpt from The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

When the “We” Works and When It Collapses

What makes collective voice feel earned rather than gimmicky? We’ll identify common craft problems: an undefined collective, inconsistent access to information, a “we” that simply behaves like an “I,” and a group voice that erases meaningful differences among its members. We’ll also consider when collective voice can create ethical or representational complications.

Activity: Craft diagnosis using sample passages. In small groups, participants identify what is working, what is unclear, and what questions the use of “we” creates for the reader. We’ll then build a collective-voice revision checklist together.

Beyond “We”: Choosing the Right Voice for the Story

What can collective voice do that another point of view cannot? Participants compare passages written in different points of view and consider how changing the narrator changes intimacy, authority, distance, character, and the reader’s relationship to the story.

Activity: Point-of-view comparison exercise. Using a provided passage, participants consider how the narrative might change if told through “I,” “we,” or third person, then discuss which perspective best serves the material and why.

Closing: Writing the “We”

Participants spend 20 to 30 minutes drafting a short passage in the collective voice, either new or revised from a work in progress, thinking about who belongs to the collective, what holds the group together, and what the collective voice can reveal or conceal that an individual narrator might not. We’ll close with a brief share-out and use the revision checklist to consider how each piece might keep developing.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• A one-page draft in the collective voice, new or recast from a work in progress
• A collective-voice revision checklist you can apply to any manuscript
• A working vocabulary for the forms a “we” can take: a narrator speaking for a group, a collective consciousness, a chorus of individual voices
• Techniques for setting the boundaries of a collective and letting individual voices surface within it
• A way to diagnose when a “we” is earned and when it collapses
• A clearer sense of when the first-person plural is the right point of view for a story

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: Omaria Sanchez Pratt
• Begins Saturday, February 27, 2027
• Class will meet once via Zoom on Saturday, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
• Tuition is $99 USD.