Writing Heights Writers Association offers two monthly classes on craft, editing, marketing and more. Active and Sustaining members get these classes free, but they are also open to the public for a reasonable rate and are taught by knowledgable, experienced, and friendly instructors. Can’t make the class? No problem! When you register, you also get a recording of the class that you can access for up to a year.
What’s coming up:
Special Community Event:
Worth a Thousand Words: In-Person Workshop
Worth a Thousand Words: A Full-Day Immersive Workshop
Sunday, June 28th, 10 am – 3:30 pm
Kestrel Fields Studios (2434 W Vine in Fort Collins)
How do we develop our writing using good strong sensory details, pulling our readers into a scene or a poem? It all starts with an image; whether that image is visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, it’s the key to tapping into the emotion of a piece. You don’t need to be a painter or illustrator to use visuals in your writing process. Engaging the imagistic right half of the brain helps the reader enter a story or poem or even a personal essay. And we can help!
Join Writing Heights and the Grove Creative Collective for a collaborative full-day workshop incorporating visual art into the writing process. We’ll explore non-linear thinking, memory, and other tools for accessing the subconscious and “right brain” that will help nourish our writing.
Whether you’re working on generating new work or developing a WIP, you’ll go home with more ideas on how to create powerful images in your writing. Come prepared with comfortable clothes, an apron or smock to catch paint drips, and your curiosity.
Breakfast and snacks will be provided. BYO lunch!
Your Poo is Brown from Dead Red Blood Cells: Writing Engaging Nonfiction
One of the biggest challenges with non-fiction writing is how to capture and/or keep the reader’s attention, especially with topics that we may love, but that others don’t feel the same way. In this workshop, I’ll discuss the psychology behind how people learn, particularly from reading non-fiction, and give psychology-informed tips for writing engaging nonfiction.
Dr. Melanie Peffer is an accomplished writer and science communicator. Her book Biology Everywhere: How the Science of Life Matters to Everyday life won gold in the 2022 Colorado Independent Publisher Awards for educational texts. Thousands of learners from across the world have enrolled in her highly rated massive open online courses, including Biology Everywhere and Designing Effective Science Communication. She also developed a TED-ED lesson, The Artist who won a Nobel Prize…in medicine and gave a TED talk based on her book, How rethinking biology and positively change your life. Her first textbook, Biology for Life teaches biology through storytelling and relationship to the student’s daily life.
How do I Stay in My Write Mind?: Mindfulness Practices for Writers
Every writer faces the blank-page anxiety, the relentless inner critic, and the challenge of accessing emotional authenticity while managing creative stress. This condensed workshop offers evidence-based mindfulness and meditation practices specifically adapted for writers’ unique needs. Learn breathwork, body awareness, walking meditation, guided imagery, and thought/feeling labeling techniques that address creative blocks, performance anxiety, and sustainable writing practice. No previous meditation experience required.
Michael Kimball is a certified mindfulness teacher, published author, and anthropologist. For the last ten years he has offered mindfulness-based training to diverse groups, from fellow writers to college and graduate students, university faculty and staff, the general public, and incarcerated people. He is the author of the book Ethnowise: Embracing Culture Shock to Build Resilience, Responsiveness & Connection, and the Substack newsletter, “A Crowd of Twisted Things.” He has also embarked on writing his first novel, which regularly calls upon his mindfulness training to keep him creating, overcoming, and persevering!.
Interested in Teaching a Class or Workshop?
We’re a community based organization and believe that sharing information and knowledge helps us all to grow and learn. If you’re an author, editor, literary agent, professor, or just have a really cool specialty that you think would benefit authors and poets (crime scene investigation, ecologist, lawyer, screenwriter, visual artist or musician), feel free to send us a class proposal and we’ll market your class and pay you for your time!