The Writing Practice: Getting Started — 4-Week Online Fiction and Nonfiction Workshop with Ben Tanzer Starts Saturday, February 6th, 2027
The Writing Practice: Getting Started | Online Writing Workshop, February 2027
The Writing Practice: Getting Started with Ben Tanzer
Begins Saturday, February 6, 2027
Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Saturdays, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM ET
🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:
- Los Angeles (PST): 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- Chicago (CST): 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- New York (EST): 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
- London (GMT): 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Berlin (CET): 7:00 PM – 9:00 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 who doesn't have a writing practice yet. You have ideas, maybe a few false starts, maybe a notebook you keep meaning to open. What you don't have is a routine, a plan, or pages. Over four Saturdays, you'll build all three. This is an introductory online writing workshop. No prior workshop experience is needed, and fiction and nonfiction writers are equally welcome.
If you already have a project underway and it has stalled, Ben's companion course, The Writing Practice: Back to the Page, starts in April and picks up where this one leaves off.
What to expect:
Each session gives you a concrete tool, time to use it, and a room of writers to use it with. 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 a prompt or on your own 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 practical. How to decide when, where, and for how long you'll write, and how to protect that time. How to set goals and deadlines you'll keep. How to generate more story and essay ideas than you can use, using the list-making methods Ray Bradbury swore by. How to take a first draft apart and put it back together.
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 your project, your practice, or whatever is in your way.
What are the writing goals?
By the end of the course you will have (1) a writing practice you've kept for a month, with a schedule and goals set in Week 2; (2) a working list of story or essay ideas to draw on; (3) new draft pages written in and between sessions; and (4) a plan for your next 30 days of writing, built in the final week. Feedback comes from Ben in writing between sessions, live in every session, and in your one-on-one.
Readings
Readings may include excerpts from Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury, My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing by Carl Phillips, and Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell.
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1: Getting Started. How writers begin, and how you will. Tips and insights on building a practice from nothing, then time to write and share.
Week 2: Crafting a Plan. Frameworks for setting goals and deadlines you can keep, and a calendar for the month ahead. Time to write and share.
Week 3: Generating Ideas. Approaches and techniques for idea generation, from Bradbury's lists to prompts you can reuse. Time to write and share.
Week 4: Your Next 30 Days. Strategies and practices for revising what you've drafted, and a written plan for the month after the class ends. 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 a current project or a prompt; and 45 minutes to share work and receive feedback, rotating through the group over the four sessions.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- A writing practice you've kept for four weeks, with a schedule you set and tested
- Goals and deadlines, written down in Week 2 and checked in on every week after
- A working list of story and essay ideas to draw on
- New draft pages, 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 written plan for your next 30 days of writing
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 Saturday, February 6, 2027
- Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Saturdays, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM ET, through February 27
- 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.