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Zen and the Art of Ideating: A Story Writing Café with Ben Tanzer (Zoom) on Thursday, October 29th, 2026
$171.00

Zen and the Art of Ideating: A Story Writing Café with Ben Tanzer (Zoom) on Thursday, October 29th, 2026

Zen and the Art of Ideating: A Story Writing Café with Ben Tanzer

Begins Thursday, October 29, 2026

Live Seminar via Zoom from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET

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

Instructor Bio

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 new 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 that will be released by Thirty West Publishing House in spring 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 short story writers searching for ways to generate more ideas and build a deeper well of potential stories to write. It's also for writers interested in developing a group of pieces that might connect into a short story collection — linked or otherwise. This is an all-levels online writing class; whether you're just starting out or refining an existing practice, you're welcome here.

What to expect:

This highly interactive creative writing seminar will inspire you to embrace idea generation as a way to enhance your story writing, craft, and ongoing productivity. The session is modeled on "Parent Cafés" — a structured, peer-to-peer small-group discussion approach Ben has used throughout his work as a nonprofit leader, facilitator, and communicator — and adapts it into a generative engine for fiction writers.

What's distinctive here is the pace: the workshop pushes you to generate a flurry of ideas in short order while simultaneously crafting the concrete details your stories need to take flight. Through a series of individual and group exercises, you'll brainstorm, look within, and examine your own experiences — the people and places you know, and where you've lived, both physically and emotionally — to create a pool of ideas to work on and from going forward. The work focuses on the building blocks of fiction: setting, characters, situations, and dialogue.

Expect to talk, reflect, create, and write — a lot. You'll leave inspired, with the beginnings of a draft story and a stockpile of ideas for more. Instructor feedback runs throughout the live Zoom session and is welcomed after the workshop as well.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will produce two concrete takeaways: (1) a working list of story ideas and supporting details to build off and from going forward, and (2) the beginning of a draft story to continue developing after the workshop. Feedback is provided live by the instructor throughout the session, with continued support welcomed afterward.

Readings

Readings may include excerpts from Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury — specifically "Run Fast, Stand Still, or The Thing at the Top of the Stairs, or New Ghosts from Old Minds."

COURSE OUTLINE

This is a single, two-hour live seminar organized into the following segments:

Segment 1: Introductions

Segment 2: The Beauty of Lists (and the Art of Ray Bradbury)

Segment 3: Story Prompts, Parts I & II — Speed Round

Segment 4: Content Café, Part I — Setting & Characters (Solo Brainstorm + Talk)

Segment 5: Content Café, Part II — Situations & Dialogue (Solo Brainstorm + Talk)

Segment 6: Write & Share Segment 7: Q&A Segment 8: Close

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

  • A generative toolkit for producing story ideas quickly and consistently
  • A working list of story ideas and concrete details to build from
  • The beginnings of a draft short story
  • Hands-on practice developing setting, characters, situations, and dialogue
  • A peer-to-peer "Café" method you can reuse to sustain your productivity
  • Strategies for connecting individual stories into a potential linked collection

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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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: Ben Tanzer
  • Begins Thursday, October 29, 2026
  • Class will meet once via Zoom on Thursday, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET
  • Tuition is $99 USD.