Pop-Up Workshops
with Allegra Huston and James Navé
Live on Zoom, 3 hours, Saturdays 3 – 6 pm ET
"Right from the start, I knew this was no ordinary writer’s workshop. Allegra and Nave created a collaborative and safe environment in a short amount of time, by taking us all to our playful selves."
— Alice W. Meadows
“You two are the Bonnie and Clyde of writing workshops.”
— Rev. Diana V. Gustafson
10 pop-up workshops a year
Level up your storytelling chops in one afternoon! (Or an evening, if you’re in Europe; a very early morning, if you’re in Australia or Asia.)
Bestselling author and TEDx speaker Allegra Huston and creativity guru James Navé will help you unleash your imagination and hone your craft—from developing a story, to writing or telling it orally, to performing it onstage.
Upcoming workshops will focus on how to write about home, how to show character, how to memorize, and even how to write a memoir in just 100 days!
The Imaginative Storm method is easy, fun, and amazingly effective. If you’re not yet a member of our warm, supportive community, what are you waiting for?
You’ll leave each workshop energized and motivated, with new tools to take into the rest of your writing and performing life.
We’re announcing these pop-up workshops one by one, so join our mailing list to be the first to know when a new workshop is announced.
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![Abdullah H. Erakat]()
"After Imaginative Storm, writer's block is a myth."
— Abdullah H. Erakat, journalist and screenwriter
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![Corinne Crone]()
“You helped me over come my critic. I went from being a fearful writer to a joyful one.”
— Corinne Crone, intimacy coach
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“I found what to trust in myself. In my writing and in myself."
— Rev. Diana V. Gustafson, Episcopal priest
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![Deborah Williams]()
"It's life-changing. Even if I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing."
— Deborah Williams, writer and educator
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![Sandi Dittmer]()
“Other offerings focus on the leaves and the branches. Imaginative Storm is the roots, stabilizing and nourishing, so we can each grow our own way."
— Sandi Dittmer, writer
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![Daniel Barber]()
"There's such joy in stepping into who-cares-land. And we-don't-know land. It creates a field where joy and abundance happen."
— Daniel Barber, music coach
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![Wendy Shaw]()
"It's like meeting a part of myself I didn't know existed. What a gift!"
— Wendy Shaw, artist
Next Imaginative Storm Pop-Up
Saturday, July 11, 2026, 5:30–9:00 PM ET
Speak What You Don’t Know
With Allegra Huston and James Navé
There comes a point when the writing itself is no longer enough.
You may have spent years developing your craft, your ideas, your stories, your way of seeing. But eventually the world asks something more difficult: Can you speak it in a way that feels natural, emotionally connected, and alive?
Many people cannot. They freeze during interviews. They over-explain on podcasts. They stiffen during readings or speeches. Or they never develop the confidence to bring their ideas fully into public life.
Speak What You Don’t Know will show you how to develop an idea into living spoken language. It's not presentation coaching, though it grows partly from Allegra Huston’s TEDx talk on Imaginative Intelligence and James Navé’s decades of work in performance, memorization, spoken word, and public presentation.
Over three and a half hours, you will create a piece of approximately 150 words, using the Imaginative Storm process: generating raw material, discovering the through-line, tightening the language, reading aloud, finding the thought beats, and shaping the piece into something that can live in an interview, on a podcast, or on stage.
As in all Imaginative Storm workshops, the goal is not perfection. The goal is authenticity, originality, connection, and ease.
This workshop is especially useful for writers, memoirists, poets, teachers, podcasters, coaches, artists, retreat leaders, speakers, and anyone who wants to talk about their work without sounding forced, corporate, inflated, or rehearsed.
You do not need previous performance or speaking experience. All you need is a desire to communicate orally with narrative, authority, voice, and ease.
Your voice is not missing.
It develops through practice, imagination, revision, embodiment, and the courage to speak what you did not know you knew.
$225 - limited to 12 participants
Learn how to:
· generate fresh material by accessing your imaginative intelligence
· shape raw thought into a clear spoken narrative
· strengthen authority through specificity and lived experience
· write for the ear, not just the eye
· revise by listening to rhythm, breath, and emotional truth
· memorize through imagery, feeling, and physical connection
· reduce stiffness and self-consciousness
· speak with greater clarity, confidence, and natural presence
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 is racking up views and enthusiastic comments on YouTube.
James Navé has worked professionally in performance poetry, storytelling, memorization, and public presentation since the 1980s. He co-founded Poetry Alive!, was a founding facilitator for TEDxNewYork salons, and has coached multiple TEDx speakers.
Together, Allegra and Navé have decades of experience in helping people discover a stronger creative voice and bring their work more fully into the world.
Join us on Zoom
Saturday, July 11, 2026, 5:30–9:00 PM ET
Praise for Allegra’s TEDx talk
The Imaginative Storm Method
Write by hand
Before you come to Nova Scotia, find a pen you enjoy writing with, and a notebook that doesn’t make you feel you’re supposed to write well in it. I prefer cheap spiral-bound notebooks, but you may prefer something that makes your writing feel special—as long as it doesn’t put pressure on you to write well!
Start with a prompt to spark your imagination
We’ll offer you a prompt that invites you to approach a memory, a person, a place, or an idea, in a way you’ve never approached it before.
Set a 10-minute timer
That might seem like pressure, but actually it’s the opposite! The biggest pressure most people put on themselves is their desire to write well. Your rational mind probably doesn’t believe it’s possible to write well in just 10 minutes, so the timer makes it much easier to get the rational mind, with all its ambitions and anxieties, to step back and let your imagination take the lead.
Read what you wrote aloud
When the 10 minutes is up, we’ll each read what we wrote aloud. There’s huge benefit in reading your writing aloud, and you’ll quickly get over any nerves. Reading aloud is the secret to finding your voice and moving your writing into a place of intense originality and authenticity.
Why It Works
You stop trying to “write well.” That frees your real voice to come through and retrains your inner critic.
You develop a consistent writing habit that boosts emotional wellness and mental clarity.
You train your brain to be curious, not critical. Which makes writing—and life—more interesting and more enjoyable.
You gain new insights, perspectives, and energy. They ripple into all your creative work.
You join a welcoming, supportive writing community, where you're encouraged, not judged.
Participants tell us they’re happier with what they write in these 10-minute sessions than what they manage in hours on their own. That’s because Imaginative Storm writing isn’t just about the prompt—it’s a practice.
You’re stretching and strengthening your imagination. You’re learning how to write what you don’t know—and that’s where the sparky, original writing comes from.
