Unblock Your Voice. Find Your Story. Improve Your Writing.

Become the Writer You Want to Be

Discover the Imaginative Storm: a proven method to unleash your creative flow

“After Imaginative Storm, writer’s block is a myth.”

— Abdullah Erakat, screenwriter

Created by pioneering workshop teachers Allegra Huston & James Navé

Our work has been featured in

Free Online Writing Workshops

Whatever level you’re at, from beginner to advanced, we’re excited to share our easy, enjoyable writing method with you.

Thursdays, 6 pm ET: Prompt Lab

Experiment with the Imaginative Storm method

Saturdays, noon ET: Writer Playtime

Discover how much fun it is to write without limits

No judgment. Just freedom, fluency, and the thrill of surprise.

The Creators of Imaginative Storm

Allegra Huston and James Navé

What makes our collaboration so unique and powerful?

We come from opposite ends of the writing spectrum. Allegra from the academic side: a renowned editor in publishing and author of a novel, screenplays, and a bestselllng memoir. Navé from the grassroots side: slam poetry, old-time storytelling, and performance art.

We combined our decades of experience to develop a method that helps any writer to improve their writing.

Whether you’re writing fiction, memoir, poetry, or something just for yourself; whether you’re seasoned or just starting out, the Imaginative Storm method meets you where you are and moves you forward.

How the Imaginative Storm Method Works

Let go of the pressure to be perfect. Just bring pen and paper, and we’ll guide the rest.

Some of the images we’ve used in our Saturday “Writer Playtime” online session

  • Start with a powerful writing prompt, so you’re never staring blankly at a blank page.

  • Write of focused 10-minute bursts, to quiet your inner critic and unlock creative flow.

  • Use evocative word lists to spark surprising ideas and fuel original language.

  • Read your work aloud in a safe, supportive space and discover the richness and range of your authentic voice.

Each time you do this, your creative flow strengthens. Your ideas multiply. Your writing becomes more vivid, more confident, more you.

Want to know the top 6 secrets of the Imaginative Storm method?

Click here

allegra and nave

The Top 6 Secrets of the Imaginative Storm method

1. Spontaneity is your superpower.
When you let go of control, you access a deeper, more authentic voice.

2. Bad writing is the gateway to great writing.
When you write without fear, you allow your imagination to give you its gifts. Those intriguing images and insights that you can’t just “think up” are what make your writing powerful and original.

3. Voice is found in motion, not stillness.
You can’t think up your writing voice. You find it by writing, and writing, and writing.

4. Feeling free is more important than getting it right.
Freedom while you write matters more than following the rules. At this stage, grammar and spelling don’t matter!

5. Curiosity and criticism cannot coexist.< When you pique your curiosity with unexpected prompts, the pleasure of imaginative exploration takes over, and your inner critic is carried along in the flow.

6. The Imaginative Storm doesn’t end. It evolves.
Every session brings something new. The excitement of discovery makes it easy to build a creative writing routine.

What happens when you write from the Imaginative Storm?

Consider this: your best writing won’t come from effort or perfectionism—but from letting go.

Because trying to write well is the enemy of actually writing well.

The Imaginative Storm method moves you past your inner critic and the anxiety of “getting it right” into a space of spontaneity, emotional truth, and creative surprise.

At the heart of the Imaginative Storm is a radical idea:

Write what you don’t know

Most writing advice tells you to “write what you know.” But that’s exactly what stifles your imagination. When you write what you don’t know, you don’t pre-think what you’re going to write. You approach your ideas and memories from unexpected angles. You provoke your curiosity and intrigue your imagination.

“Writing what you don’t know” is more than just a writing technique. It’s a practice of self-discovery.

When you write from the Imaginative
Storm, you will:

  • Break through writer’s block

  • Write with emotional truth and power

  • Cultivate your unique writing voice

  • Replace criticism with curiosity

  • Surprise yourself every time you sit down to write

What holds you back is not lack of imagination — it’s lack of trust in your imagination.

The Imaginative Storm method builds that trust.

Want to know the top 6 secrets of “writing what you don’t know”?

Click here

allegra and nave

The Top 6 Secrets of "Writing What You Don't Know"

1. What you don’t know is as important as what you know.
Because in life, we don’t know far more than we know. So getting that sense of not-knowing into your writing gives it the spark of life.

2. You don’t need answers to begin. You need questions.
Curiosity, not certainty, is the source of originality and verve.

3. Writing what you don’t know helps you grow into the person who knows.
As you write, you learn more about yourself, your past, and the mysteries of human nature. Your universe expands.

4. The unknown isn’t just dark. It’s full of light you haven’t named yet.
Not knowing doesn’t mean you’re lost. It means you have the potential to find something. An image, an insight—maybe yourself.

5. You write not to display what you know, but to uncover what you don’t know.
Great writing reveals. It doesn’t just perform.

6. Fear is often a signal you’re on the right path.
That material wouldn’t scare you if it wasn’t powerful! Courage in revealing your vulnerability gives your readers courage in their own.

What our writers say:

  • "After Imaginative Storm, writer's block is a myth."

    Abdullah Erakat, screenwriter and journalist

  • "Every session has been deeper and more fulfillling. It's infusing my entire life with creativity."

    Chris Minnich, businessman

  • "It's like meeting a part of myself I didn't know existed. What a gift!"

    Wendy Shaw, artist

  • "You helped me overcome my critic. I went from being a fearful writer to a joyful one."

    Corinne Crone, intimacy coach

  • "Write What You Don't Know is like a bible for me now."

    Dan Stenabaugh, writer

  • "It's life-changing. Even if I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing."

    Deborah Williams, publicist and educator

What the pros say:

  • Kate Christensen

    “Brilliant! Your exercises are both common-sensical and revolutionary.”

    Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner award-wining novelist and visiting professor, Iowa Writers’ Workshop

  • “I felt encouraged to try new things. It brought joy back to my writing process.”

    Jahman Hill, poet, author of the award-winning one-man show Black Enough, and professor, University of Alabama

  • “Extraordinary in the way it turned my mind inside-out.”

    Lan Samantha Chang, novelist and director, Iowa Writers’ Workshop

  • “It unlocked my writing abilities. I recommend it to my students.”

    Judy Walgren, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, professor of journalism, Foothill College, San Francisco

  • “Working with these clever prompts, you end up feeling creatively and spiritually well-nourished.”

    Nicole Perlman, screenwriter, Guardians of the Galaxy

Gems from our writers, and the prompts that inspired them

  • Photo of Correfoc by Melissa Wozniak
  • Photo by James Navé, taken at Matuod Beach, Philippines
  • Photo by Allegra Huston, Santa Ynez, CA
  • Image by Ron Furedi, from his calendar "Taos Trucks"
  • Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry mural detail
  • Photo by Allegra Huston, outside Red Tail Surveying, Taos NM
  • Edu Aguilera, "Bird Trails"
  • Frida Kahlo, detail from "Self-Portrait on the Border Between Mexico and the United States"
  • Promotional image for David Hockney's show promotional image for David Hockney’s show “Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)”
  • Jocelyn Slack, crab
  • Photo by John van Hasselt of Laurence de la Ferrière on her solo trek to the South Pole.

Explore the Imaginative Storm

Write boldly. Share freely. Grow creatively.