The Final Cut: A Horror Revision Workshop — 4-Week Online Horror Workshop with Syr Hayati Beker Starts Tuesday, November 10th, 2026
Horror Revision Writing Workshop: The Final Cut | Nov 2026 Online
The Final Cut: A Horror Revision Workshop with Syr Hayati Beker
Begins Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Tuesdays, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM ET
🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:
- Los Angeles (PST): 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
- Chicago (CST): 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
- New York (EST): 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Please note: the class pauses for the week of November 23 (Thanksgiving) and resumes Tuesday, December 1, concluding Tuesday, December 8.
Now Enrolling!
Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.
Instructor Syr Hayati Beker (they/them) is a writer, horror nerd, and experience creator. Their BSFA-longlisted novella in mutated fairy tales, What A Fish Looks Like, was praised by Kate Folk as "fearlessly innovative… shattering the boundaries of climate fiction." Syr tours with the performance duo GH{ }ST and is the co-founder of Queer Cat Productions immersive theater company. They are an associate editor at Pseudopod and have taught horror classes for over seven years. They are a graduate of Clarion West. Their work appears in Foglifter, Joyland, Fairy Tale Review, F(r)iction, Michigan Quarterly Review, Spunk, Gigantic Sequins, Home is Where You Queer Your Heart (Foglifter Press, 2021), and ECO25, Years Best Speculative EcoFiction and in theaters, pirate ships, galleries, and queer bars near you.
Who is this class for?
Scaredy cats, seasoned horrorists, and everyone in between. This all-levels horror writing workshop is for writers with a draft in hand (a short story, poem, essay, novel excerpt, or hybrid text) who want to revise it and move it closer to publication. Not sure your work is horror enough, or far enough along? Come anyway. Syr defines horror broadly, and the class is built for work in progress.
What to expect:
Revision has a reputation for drudgery. Syr thinks it can feel like everything we love about horror: exciting, fun, and only a little haunted. Over four weeks, a small cohort of 8 to 10 writers will use horror's own concepts (the final girl, the monster, the haunted house, the ghost) as lenses for revising their drafts and thinking about the writing process.
Each session pairs a craft discussion with an artist-centered workshop of two works in progress, so the writer guides the conversation about their own pages. Every week, one or two writers present a horror market they've researched, which means the class ends with a shared, practical map of where horror gets published. Sessions close with a writing experiment drawn from the day's workshop. Syr brings their editorial eye from Pseudopod, their judging work at the Salem Horror Film Festival, and years of building haunted immersive experiences.
The class draws on concepts from Syr's The Horror Imaginary workshop, but you don't need to have taken it. This online writing class is a good first workshop, too. It ends with a celebration and an optional submissions party, where you send your work out into the world with your new spooky friends cheering you on.
What are the writing goals?
In this course, students will bring one draft and leave with one or two revisions, pages of new writing from weekly experiments, a submissions plan, and the chance to submit work at least once before the class ends. Each student receives detailed written feedback on their work in progress, including possible places to submit, plus feedback on a revision. Syr also holds office hours to help each writer build a submissions plan.
Readings
Readings may include excerpts from The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Seventeen and Volume Eighteen, edited by Ellen Datlow, along with writing on revision from horror writers including Stephen Graham Jones and Meg Elison.
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1 (begins November 10): There's A Reason We're Gathered Here
What is horror, what is revision? Horror concepts: the horror image, the hill behind the hill. Workshop of two works in progress. Market Showcase: one or two writers present a horror market they researched. We summarize what we learned from the drafts, generate revision ideas, and close with a writing experiment from workshop.
Week 2 (begins November 17): The Final Girl, The Monster
Characters in horror, narrative strategy, and on being the last one standing. Workshop of two works in progress (a third if the class fills to ten). Market Showcase. Summary of what we learned from the drafts, revision ideas, and a writing experiment from workshop.
No class the week of November 23 (Thanksgiving break). Class resumes Tuesday, December 1.
Week 3 (begins December 1): The Haunted House, Plots Are For Dead People
Places and plots in horror. Workshop of two works in progress (a third if the class fills to ten). Market Showcase. Summary of what we learned from the drafts, revision ideas, and a writing experiment from workshop.
Week 4 (begins December 8): Ghosts, Celebrations, Submissions
Ghosts, experiments, and haunting in horror. Workshop of two works in progress. A brief final writing experiment, then a celebration and optional submissions party.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- One or two revisions of a horror work in progress, shaped by workshop and instructor feedback
- Detailed written feedback on your draft and on a revision, with suggested places to submit
- A working vocabulary for how horror works and how to talk about it, built from concepts like the final girl and the haunted house
- A researched map of horror markets, assembled by the whole cohort
- A submissions plan and at least one submission sent before the class ends
- Pages of new writing from weekly experiments
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
Tuition is $330 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: Syr Hayati Beker
- Begins Tuesday, November 10, 2026
- Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Tuesdays, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM ET (no class the week of November 23)
- Tuition is $330 USD.