Write What You Don’t Know: The Imaginative Storm Book and Method
The Heart of the Imaginative Storm Method
Something has been waiting a long time for you to write it. What's holding you back? An idea, but not enough material? No idea where to start? Your own inner critic snarking at you that your writing isn't good enough, or you're not a writer? Well, once you start writing, you're a writer. And in the very first session of Write What You Don't Know, you'll write with a power that surprises you. You'll say to yourself, "I had no idea I could write like that!"
It's happened time and time again, for hundreds of writers.
Write What You Don’t Know sits at the center of everything Imaginative Storm teaches. The underlying idea is simple and slightly counterintuitive. Write what you already know, and you are trying to download words from your head that, when they hit the page, often feel dull, lifeless, and secondhand. When you write what you don’t know, you don't pre-think, you don't try to write well, and you allow your imagination to lead. Now you are exploring, playing, and discovering, so the words have an authenticity, originality, and emotional charge that effortful writing cannot capture.
Timed prompts get you there quickly, before the inner critic has time to clear its throat. Craft instruction then tells you what the material needs.
Disciplined free-writing on one side, real craft instruction on the other. Almost nothing else pairs them. As one participant put it, the method “actually combines free writing with craft and technique.” The prompts open you up, the craft gives you something to do with what comes out, and both happen in the same session, on the pages you have just written.
Write What You Don't Know was designed to work equally well for memoir, fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Whatever you’re writing, you’ll write like you’ve never written before: original, authentic, surprising, zesty!
What is the Imaginative Storm Method?
In this three-minute video, James Navé and Allegra Huston explain how they developed the Imaginative Storm method and what makes it so special.
One Method, Four Ways to Experience It
One method, four doors. Read it, train live with a group over ten weeks, listen on headphones, or watch at your own pace. The substance does not change from one to the next: ten sessions, the same principles, the same prompts. What shifts by the end is more than the writing. People finish this course with a rediscovered joy in creativity, a firm momentum, and a new confidence not just in their writing but in themselves.
You'll finish the course with 40 pieces of writing that will energize your existing project or send you well on your way into a new one. Plus, you'll have a powerful set of tools to take into the rest of your writing life.
Read the Book
The revised and expanded edition runs 198 pages and holds the whole method: the ten steps, the prompts, and new essays on the parts of writing that matter most. Writers use it alone, in pairs, and as the backbone of groups they run themselves. If you like to learn with a pen in your hand and nothing in your calendar, start here. Read it straight through, or open it wherever the day sends you.
Train Live on Zoom: The 10-Week Writer Training
The online workshop takes the method off the page and into a live online setting with other writers. Every Tuesday for ten weeks (eleven sessions total), deliberately small, with co-creator James Navé leading every session. You write in 5- or 10-minute bursts, then read your work aloud.
As with all Imaginative Storm workshops and retreats, the reading space is safe and supportive. It’s absurd to critique something written in 5 or 10 minutes! The only thing we’re looking for is what pops: and you will feel that for yourself as you read. This real-time reading is the great value of the live course: you’l be amazed at how it catapults you to a much higher level of confidence in your writing voice.
Download the course on your favorite podcast app and take it anywhere: the car, the trail, the kitchen before anyone else is up. Allegra and James talk you through each step and keep the time for you, so all you need are a notebook, a pen, and somewhere to sit.
Interspersed with the sessions are short essays on aspects of writing. You’ll see for yourself how well the Imaginative Storm method works—and these interludes will help you understand why it works so well.
The prompts are designed to be used again and again, for different scenes, different characters, different locations in your story. So take your time. Do some sessions again or return to them later. Listen to the interludes while you go about your day.
You have lifetime access.
Listen: The Audio Course
Watch: The Video Course
The same course, filmed, with Allegra and James speaking directly to you. Watch one, do the prompts, come back when the next one calls. Seeing the method demonstrated helps some writers, who catch the pacing, the tone, and the small shifts in how a prompt is framed. Take a session a week, or binge them all in one thrilling week—and then return to the prompts you loved best. You have lifetime access.
Which Format Is Right for You?
Start with the honest question: how much time can you devote to your urge to write? If the answer is two and a half hours a week, at a fixed time, train live. You get a group who notices when you go missing—accountability, the thing most writers either yearn for or underrate until they have it. If the answer is "whatever I can find," take the audio or the video course and move at your own speed. Nothing expires and nobody is waiting on you. If the answer is that you are not sure yet, buy the book. The method will unfold for you and you'll get a clear idea of where it can take you.
How do you like to learn? Some people need to read something before they try it. Some need to hear someone talking about it. Some need to watch it done. Most writers end up using more than one format, in whatever order suits them, and whatever you choose first doesn't rule anything else out.
And if you would rather test the Imaginative Storm method before diving into the full course, join the Weekly Writing Circle this Saturday, or next.
The 12 Sessions of Write What You Don’t Know
The book and course contain 10 writing sessions, each about 90 minutes long. The Welcome session introduces you to the Imaginative Storm method, and the concluding session launches you with momentum on your writing path.
Each writing session consists of a short intro, a warmup prompt, two 10-minute prompts with a shorter list-making prompt between them. (We do the timing for you.) Each session ends with a Surf the Storm prompt to do in your own time.
The video and audio course also include access to the Prompt Archive, so you can hear what other course participants wrote to the prompts you’re working with. (We recommend you listen to these after you write to the prompt yourself.)
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Learn the principles of the Imaginative Storm method which includes: writing by hand, using a timer, writing what you don’t know.
What you’ll learn:
The benefits of not trying to write well, and why unleashing your imagination is the secret to powerful, original writing.
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Unlock the creative power that’s been waiting inside you
In this first session, you’ll discover the freedom of writing without second-guessing yourself. You’ll learn simple techniques to tap into your inherent creativity and write like you’ve never written before. This session opens the door to creative breakthroughs that will amaze you.
What you’ll learn:
● How to tap into your imagination and write with spontaneity, originality, and creative flow
● How to find your true writing voice and express your experiences, insights, and emotions with authenticity
● How to revive stories you’ve told before by uncovering fresh angles, deeper truths, and untold layers
● How to write more powerfully and freely by letting go of perfection and embracing curiosity
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Unleash your raw, uncensored voice
In this high-energy session, you’ll write without rules or judgment. By letting go of your inner editor, you’ll begin to build momentum that breathes life into characters, brings fluidity to dialogue, and connects with readers. Your creative writing begins to feel alive.
What you’ll learn:
● How to transform your writing and produce material you didn’t know was inside you
● How to tell vivid, visceral stories that evoke emotion in the reader.
● How to make a character feel unique and grounded in their own reality by writing truthful dialogue.
● How to silence your inner critic, let the truth come forth, and develop your authentic writing voice.
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Write with sensory power
Great writing doesn’t just describe—it immerses. This session will help you connect with all your senses, including physical feelings, intuition, memories, and the atmosphere of a place, to make moments feel more vivid.
What you’ll learn:
● How to make your readers feel what you feel
● How to make scenes come alive using sensory language
● How to uncover rich details that create an emotional connection
● How to re-enter experiences through the body and the imagination
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Use details of place to deepen emotional connection
In great writing, setting is more than just a backdrop. It holds memory, mood, and meaning. In this session, you’ll learn how to use location as a tool for emotional depth, character development, and narrative movement.
What you’ll learn:
● How to avoid descriptions that read like laundry lists
● How to use sensory and spatial information to build atmosphere, suspense, or reminiscence.
● How to use a place’s textures and echoes to bridge the past, present, and future.
● How to re-inhabit past moments with honesty and depth
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Incorporate nature’s power and symbolism
Nature is more than scenery—it’s the original storyteller. In this session, we will explore ways to integrate the natural world into your writing. Life’s elements, from seasonal changes and weather patterns to plants and trees, will become a lens through which you understand your own and your characters’ journeys.
What you’ll learn:
● How to use nature and elements to build impactful metaphors
● How to connect personal experience to universal cycles for deeper resonance
● How to transition from granular focus to an expansive perspective to craft a scene or memory
● How to place your story in the context of living history and the rhythms of time
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See beneath the surface of human interaction
Great stories are constructed not only from words but also from subtext, tension, and unspoken elements. This session explores “Socialese,” the secret language of relationships, group dynamics, and social identity. This will teach you to recognize the subtle indicators of human behavior and to effectively translate them into your written work. This is where character, motivation, and emotional complexity take shape.
What you’ll learn:
● How to create life-like, layered, and deeply human characters
● How to use silent behavioral cues and nuances to convey identity, status, and affiliation
● How to infuse everyday moments with meaning by capturing social subtext
● How to allude to your characters’ lives outside the main narrative to make your world feel richly inhabited
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Create characters with depth and complexity
The essence of a gripping story lies in its characters, who are propelled by things they themselves don’t understand. This session explores how to look beyond surface-level traits and expose the emotional reality behind your characters’ actions and decisions, even when they themselves don’t grasp their own inner workings. This is where your characters come to life, animated by their experiences, inconsistencies, and underlying drives.
What you’ll learn:
● How to create multifaceted characters, be they heroes, villains, or neutral figures.
● How to use voice, gesture, and emotional tone to capture the feeling of being in someone’s presence
● How to make minor characters memorable, even with limited page time
● How to create characters different from yourself with empathy, credibility, and subtlety
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Use personal experience to deepen whatever you’re writing
Even though you are writing creative nonfiction, your own experience is your richest source material. In this session, you will uncover the deeper meanings behind your life experiences. Discover memories, perspectives, and emotional truths that can add authenticity and depth to your work.
What you’ll learn:
● How to identify the emotional arc of your story
● How to choose the life experiences that support your narrative’s aim
● How to make your reader feel connected to the experiences
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Build structure and momentum into your story
Every story needs change. It’s how your narrative gains its shape, purpose, and emotional force. In this session, we’ll cover how to identify your story’s central theme, decide what to include or exclude, and maintain reader interest throughout the narrative. This is where your powerful material begins to take form.
What you’ll learn:
● The building blocks of strong storytelling for creative nonfiction
● How to recognize what comes next, even if you’re not sure where you’re going
● How to build excitement in your narrative by intensifying tension, stakes, or emotion
● How to make your story feel whole and satisfying with a strong beginning and ending
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Use contradiction and paradox to add dimension to your writing
Use contradiction and paradox to add dimension to your writing
Paradox is what thrills the imagination — and where readers lean in. The most compelling narratives thrive on conflict, balancing opposing forces like light and dark, certainty and doubt, or love and fear. In this session, you will learn to leverage opposites to create complex characters and scenes, and understand how duality makes storytelling more layered, truthful, and alive.
What you’ll learn:
● How to spark imaginative energy by embracing paradox and opposing forces
● How to reveal deeper truths accepting ambiguity and complexity
● How to reimagine conflict in fresh, compelling ways
● How to craft narratives that capture life’s nuances and avoid simplistic, predictable plots
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Our goodbye session. We will send you off into your writing future with one final prompt, and the hope that you will become part of our welcoming, supportive community.
Listen Now
A selection of the essay interludes
How a playful approach leads to breakthroughs
How to find your authentic voice on the page
How to vanquish your inner critic
Your most powerful material comes when you surprise yourself
The secret to writing well is not trying to write well
Be vulnerable, explore the uncomfortable, and develop your confidence
Meet Allegra Huston and James Navé
Allegra Huston and James Navé wrote Write What You Don’t Know together, after co-teaching
writing workshops for nearly 20 years. They built it over a year of intense work, tested every step on real writers—including themselves—and only then created the course and the book. Everything is grounded in practice, and a combined six decades of experience. It has since been taught to writers on six continents.
Allegra, author of the bestselling memoir Love Child and the novel A Stolen Summer, along with many magazine articles and screenplays, is also a renowned editor. She teaches with an editor’s patience for a draft that has not found its shape yet. James, a performance poet and active participant in the original cohort of the Poetry Slam, brings insights gained from his work with Julia Cameron (author of The Artist's Way) and the schools program Poetry Alive! They lead every video and audio course session, and James leads the live training for all ten weeks. Whichever door you come through, the teaching is first-hand.
What people remember afterward is the tone the two of them set: serious about the writing, playful about the method, and supportive of where you are in your writing journey.
What Writers Say
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“It’s life-changing. Even if I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing.”
— Deborah Williams, writer
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“Writing what I don't know has given me more confidence and freedom and flow to write what I do know. It's like having a base camp to set out on writing adventures."
— Alice W. Meadows, writer
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"After Imaginative Storm, writer's block is a myth."
– Abdullah H. Erakat, journalist and filmmaker
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“All the other offerings out there are focusing on the leaves and the branches: how to do it this way or that way. Imaginative Storm is the roots, a stabilizing, nourishing connection so we can each grow our own way.”
— Sandi Dittmer, writer
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“It’s like meeting a part of yourself you didn’t know existed. What a gift!”
— Wendy Shaw, artist
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“With each continued immersion in this process I am brought ever closer to something Carl Jung said many years ago: ‘Until we make the unconscious conscious, we will live our life and we will call it fate.’ I feel the Imaginative Storm process is ever getting me closer and closer to a more conscious understanding of my life.”
— Dan Stenabaugh, writer
Start With the Weekly Writing Circle
Not ready to commit to anything? Come to the Weekly Writing Circle. It is an hour on Zoom every Saturday, run on the same method the book lays out. You will get an idea of how Imaginative Storm prompts work before you commit to anything, and you will meet Allegra and James, who lead every session wherever possible. You'll also meet a welcoming, supportive group of writers. Plenty of people turn up once out of curiosity, even introducing themselves as "I'm not a writer," and are still Zooming in years later. Nothing needs to be decided before you arrive. Just bring yourself, paper and a pen.