Single-Session Online Writing Workshops from Imaginative Storm

Online workshops that push your love of writing further.

How Online Writing Workshops Differ from our Weekly Writing Circle

The weekly Writing Circle is a practice. An Intensive is a push. They work together and do not compete.

Where a weekly session builds consistency a little at a time, an intensive session creates a concentrated burst of momentum. That burst is what can unlock a project that has been stuck for months, produce a substantial body of new work in a single afternoon, or simply remind you what you are capable of when you give your writing real, uninterrupted time. Think of the weekly group as the rhythm that keeps you writing, and the intensive as the occasional deep dive that carries you somewhere new. One keeps the engine warm. The other puts your foot on the accelerator for an afternoon.

It is also a lower-commitment option than a multi-week program. You do not have to enroll in an intensive writing course that stretches across your calendar. You commit to one focused session, and you walk away from it with something to show for it. Many writers use both formats: the Weekly Circle to stay in motion, and an intensive whenever they feel ready to break through. It is a good fit whether you are deep into a manuscript or just hungry for one good, serious stretch of writing time.And the two formats are only the start. As your practice grows, the same method runs through the 10-Week Writer Training, the self-paced audio and video courses you can take on your own schedule, and the multi-day retreats, so there is always a next form for your writing to grow into.

Intensives are scheduled at various times throughout the year: always on a Saturday, after our Weekly Writing Circle (with a break between). Each one is a standalone session you can join on its own. All are taught by Allegra Huston or James Navé, or both.

What Are Imaginative Storm Online Workshops?

An online writing workshop is a concentrated, single-session experience, run live over Zoom and led by one or both of the Imaginative Storm founders: James Navé and Allegra Huston.. It is longer and more immersive than our weekly writing circle, usually a full afternoon, and it is built to move your writing forward in ways a single hour cannot.

The structure follows the Imaginative Storm method, and is stretched out and given room to breathe. You move through a sequence of extended generative prompts, write more than you usually would in one sitting, and pause along the way for focused craft instruction and real-time feedback. Because everyone is writing at length together, the session builds its own momentum. By the second or third prompt, most writers find themselves somewhere they could not have reached in a shorter format. If a weekly session is a spark, this online writing intensive is a sustained flame.

Because it all happens online, you can join from wherever you are. This makes a generous block of guided writing time available to people whose lives or locations would never allow a multi-day retreat. It is a virtual writing workshop in the truest sense: the depth of an in-person session, delivered to your desk. No experience is required to take part, and there is nothing to read or prepare beforehand. You bring your attention and a few hours, and the facilitator handles the rest.

Click on the video to play it

What You’ll Learn

You’ll learn how to:

  • Format photographs and images for digital use

  • Organize dictated text—100% verbatim—your words, into clean, readable copy

  • See how your color choices change a design's feel

  • Organize, outline, storyboard, and lay out project ideas

  • Pressure-test your strategic plans

  • Create readable, easy-to-understand documents

  • Learn to spot when AI is confidently wrong — and build the habit of checking

  • Explore the differences between ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, including what each one actually does with your writing by default

We'll also discuss how to use AI without surrendering your authorship, along with the philosophical, environmental, and ethical questions you might want to consider.

Our Next Online Intensive:

How to Make AI Work for You

You've probably had some experience with artificial intelligence by now. If you have, you know that whether you love it, hate it, or don't know what to make of it, it's gonna be here for a while, like a good penny, or maybe a bad one. Time will tell.

So it's worth figuring out how to fold AI into your creative practice in ways that support your style, not flatten it.

By now, you likely know that when you lean too heavily on AI, you risk abdicating your creative sovereignty to its faux-authority. Of course, you don't have to. AI is a powerful tool if you use it like a drill or a screwdriver. Don’t expect it to design the bookshelves for you, but you’ll get those bookshelves up a lot more quickly and sturdily when you use it.

Sign Up for the AI Intensive

Your Workshop Leaders

James Navé, co-founder of Imaginative Storm, has been using ChatGPT since its launch, and is also an experienced user of Claude. He will be leading the AI workshop.

in 1984 Navé co-founded Poetry Alive!, which sent teams of poets into schools to perform classic poems as theater. Criss-crossing the country, Poetry Alive! teams reached 5 million children. After that, as one of the original participants in the Poetry Slam, he wrote, memorized, and performed his own poetry, getting a perfect 30 at the Green Mill in Chicago (the birthplace of the Slam) and placing in the National Finals as a member of the Asheville team.

Allegra Huston, co-founder of Imaginative Storm, is the bestselling author of six books including Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found. Her TEDxAsheville talk on Imaginative Intelligence has garnered thousands of views and a stack of enthusiastic comments on YouTube.

What Past Participants Say

A few hours can do more than you might expect.

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

    — Corinne Crone, intimacy coach

  • “There’s an energy of inspiration and permission to everybody to be themselves. It’s comfortable and safe.”

    — Bronwyn Morrissey, writer, coach, and inspirational speaker

  • “I found what to trust in myself. In my writing and in myself.”

    — Rev. Diana V. Gustafson, Episcopal priest

  • “Right from the start, I knew this was no ordinary workshop. Allegra and Navé created a collaborative and safe environment in a short amount of time by taking us all to our playful selves.”

    — Alice W. Meadows, writer

Register for the Next Online Writing Intensive

No prior experience is required. Virtual Intensives emphasize connection, not perfection. Each intensive is limited to just 12 people, so the group is small and the feedback stays personal. Choose the session that suits you, reserve your place, and give your writing the afternoon it has been waiting for. A single, focused stretch might surprise you with its transformative power.

$197

After you register, you'll receive an email with the Zoom link and brief instructions on preparation.

REGISTER NOW