“Write What You Don’t Know”
audio writing course
Teach your imagination to shower you with gifts
Already working with the course and looking for the Prompt Archive? Click here.
Are you . . .
A total beginner? A seasoned pro? Somewhere in between?
Whatever your level of experience, the Imaginative Storm method will take you to a level of creativity and self-expression you’ve never experienced before.
What are you writing?
Memoir? Fiction? Poetry? Screenplay? Transformational or creative nonfiction?
Are you aiming for publication, or writing just for yourself?
Are you already published in one genre, but would like to expand your range?
Whatever your goals, the Imaginative Storm method will unlock the hidden potential of your imagination, and train your rational mind to shape its gifts into writing that amazes you.
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Praise for “Write What You Don’t Know”
Nine Imaginative Storm writers say what they love about our method
Course Content
Here’s what to expect: 10 sessions of approximately 90 minutes each, plus a Welcome session explaining the Imaginative Storm method, and a final session to send you into the rest of your writing life.
Each session includes 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 course also includes 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.)
Session 1: Spin the Kaleidoscope of Your Mind
Unlock the creative power that’s been waiting inside you.
In the first session of Write What You Don’t Know, you’ll discover the freedom of writing without second-guessing yourself. You’ll learn easy techniques to tap into your inherent creativity and write like you’ve never written before.
Whether you're starting a memoir, crafting fiction, exploring creative nonfiction, or simply noodling with ideas, 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
Session 2: Let Rip
Write boldly! Unleash your raw, uncensored voice.
In this high-energy session, you'll write passionately—without worrying about rules, judgment, or perfection. You’ll discover what’s been holding you back. By letting go of your inner editor, you'll begin to build real momentum—the kind that breathes life into characters, brings immediacy to dialogue, and connects deeply with readers.
This is where your creative writing begins to feel alive.
What you’ll learn:
How to trigger emotion in your reader through vivid, visceral storytelling
How to write dialogue that makes a character feel unique and grounded in their own reality
How to develop your authentic writing voice by silencing your inner critic and letting your truth rise
How to energize your writing practice and generate material you didn’t know was inside you
Session 3: Common Senses
Write with sensory power
Great writing doesn’t just describe—it immerses. In this session, you’ll explore not only sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell, but also those subtle sensations—body awareness, intuition, emotional memory, and the energy of place—that make a moment feel deeply real.
This is where your writing becomes embodied—where the page begins to breathe.
What you’ll learn:
How to make your reader’s mirror neurons fire, so they feel what you feel
How to use sensory language to make scenes come alive
How to uncover vivid details that anchor memory and create emotional connection
How to re-enter past experiences through the body and the imagination
Session 4: Go There
Use details of place to deepen emotional connection
Every scene unfolds somewhere—and in powerful writing, setting is more than 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.
Whether you’re writing a personal essay, novel, memoir, or poetry, details of place ground your story in the physical world and reveal what’s unspoken.
What you’ll learn:
How to avoid “laundry lists” of description and invite the reader into discovery
How to use sensory and spatial detail to heighten mood, tension, or nostalgia
How to link past, present, and future through the textures and echoes of a place
How to reinhabit past moments with honesty and depth
Session 5: Elemental Alchemy
Incorporate nature’s power and symbolism
Nature is more than scenery—it’s the original storyteller. In this session, you’ll explore how to bring the natural world into your writing. From seasons to weather, from urban flowers to ancient trees, you’ll learn to see life’s elements as mirrors for your own and your characters’ journey.
Whether you’re writing memoir, poetry, fiction, or journaling, this session will show you how to use natural imagery to ground your work, expand its meaning, and make the ordinary feel profound.
What you’ll learn:
How to use nature and the elements to create metaphors with emotional weight
How to connect personal experience to universal cycles for deeper resonance
How to zoom in and out, from tiny detail to big picture, to shape a scene or memory
How to place your story in the context of living history and the rhythms of time
Session 6: Socialese
See beneath the surface of human interaction
Every great story is built on more than words—it's built on subtext, tension, and what goes unsaid. In this session, you’ll explore “Socialese,” the hidden language of relationships, group dynamics, and social identity. You’ll learn how to track the subtle cues that shape human behavior—and bring those cues to life on the page.
This is where character, motivation, and emotional complexity take shape.
What you’ll learn:
How to create characters that feel real, layered, and deeply human
How to show identity, status, and affiliation through the silent signals of behavior and nuance
How to infuse everyday moments with meaning by capturing social subtext
How to hint at your characters’ off-page lives and make your world feel fully inhabited
Session 7: Tender Spots
Create characters with depth and complexity
Every compelling story is driven by people—and people are driven by what they often can’t explain. Before psychologists existed, it was writers who revealed the workings of the human psyche. In this session, you’ll learn how to go beyond surface traits to uncover the emotional truth behind your characters’ choices and behaviors—even when those characters don’t fully understand themselves.
Here’s where your characters will come alive—driven by their histories, contradictions, and hidden motivations.
What you’ll learn:
How to write multidimensional characters, whether they’re protagonists, antagonists, or somewhere in between
How to capture the feeling of being in someone’s presence, using voice, gesture, and emotional tone
How to make minor characters memorable, even with limited page time
How to write characters unlike yourself, with empathy, believability, and nuance
Session 8: Take Yourself Back
Use Personal Experience to Deepen Whatever You’re Writing
Whether you’re writing memoir, personal essays, or fiction, your own experience is your richest source material. In this session, you’ll explore the untold layers of your own story — not just what happened, but what it meant. You’ll uncover memories, perspectives, and emotional truths that bring authenticity and depth to your work.
Memoir isn’t just for memoirists. Even if you’re writing about gardening, travel, or teaching, a personal moment — skillfully told — draws readers in. This session helps you find those moments and shape them into something universal.
What you’ll learn:
How to identify the emotional arc of your memoir or personal narrative
How to choose the right life experiences to serve your story’s purpose
Why every memoir has a “happy ending” — and how to define yours
How to create connection and resonance between your experience and that of your reader
How to write about yourself with honesty and humility, without sounding self-absorbed
Session 9: There’s No Story If Nothing Changes
Build structure and momentum into your story
Every story—fiction or nonfiction—needs change. It’s what gives your narrative shape, purpose, and emotional power. In this session, you’ll gain tools to identify what your story is really about, understand what belongs and what doesn’t, and learn how to keep your reader engaged from beginning to end.
This is where your powerful material begins to take form.
What you’ll learn:
The building blocks of strong storytelling for memoir, fiction, or creative nonfiction
How to recognize what comes next, even if you’re not sure where you're going
How to elevate tension, stakes, or emotion to keep your narrative exciting
How to find a strong beginning and ending, so your story feels whole and satisfying
Session 10: The Oxymoronic Inversion
Use contradiction and paradox to add dimension to your writing
Great stories live in tension—between light and dark, certainty and doubt, love and fear. In this session, you’ll learn how to harness the power of opposites to add complexity to your characters and scenes. You’ll discover how duality make your storytelling more layered, more truthful, and more alive.
Paradox is what thrills the imagination, and where readers lean in.
What you’ll learn:
How to generate imaginative energy through paradox and opposing forces
How to reveal deeper truths by embracing what doesn’t easily resolve
How to frame conflict in unexpected ways that feel fresh and compelling
How to write stories that reflect the complexity of real life and aren’t simplistic or predictable
Your Guides into the Imaginative Storm
Allegra Huston
“As a former Editorial Director of the London publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson and holder of a First Class degree in English from Oxford University, I'm all about good writing. But when I started writing myself, I wasn't able to write anything I liked! Maybe I just can't write, I thought. I was trying as hard as I could to write well.
The Imaginative Storm method was a revelation to me. I learned that trying to write well didn't help me. That my writing would be better, and my own authentic voice would emerge, if I didn't try so hard. James Navé taught me to surprise myself and write what I don't know.”
As well as Write What You Don't Know, Allegra is the author of the bestselling Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, the novel A Stolen Summer, How to Edit and Be Edited, and How to Read for an Audience (with James Navé). She wrote and produced the award-winning short film Good Luck, Mr. Gorski, and has also written numerous feature screenplays. Her articles have appeared in many major magazines in the US, UK, and France. An editor for over three decades, she worked with authors including three Booker Prize winners, two Nobel Prize winners, and Jane Goodall.
“Allegra Huston is incapable of writing a dull sentence.”
James Navé
“I came to the Imaginative Storm method from the spoken word tradition. As a founder of the company Poetry Alive!, I memorized over 600 poems and performed them for schoolchildren. (Poetry Alive! has to date reached over 5 million students.) I've competed in the National Poetry Slam and have emceed the LEAF Festival slam for 25 years.
My focus on creativity began when I co-founded The Artist's Way Creativity Camp in partnership with Julia Cameron, author of the perennial bestselling guide to creativity The Artist's Way. The principles and prompts that make up the Imaginative Storm method are the culmination of over 30 years of practice and exploration.”
Navé holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. His latest book of poems, 100 Days: Poems After Cancer, was published by 3: A Taos Press in May 2023. His poetry has appeared in many publications, and he has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and Weekend Edition.
He hosts a weekly long-form interview podcast, available on YouTube @imaginativestorm, and has served on the advisory team of LEAF Global Arts since 1995.
“James Navé and I worked together for over 20 years. His work as a poet, teacher, and facilitator is an important force for change.”
FAQs
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Absolutely not.
The desire to write is all you need, plus pen and paper. In fact, you’re at an advantage. Schooled writers often have to unlearn formulaic techniques and find it harder to give up comparing themselves to other writers.
Total newbies have taken our course, and so have published authors. If you're a newbie, you'll gain confidence because you're generating surprising, intriguing material straight out of the gate. If you're a published author, you'll be astonished by the new dimensions our method brings to your writing.
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No. We don't hold up examples of how you should write or require that you write about anything in particular. Our goal is to help you find your voice, not to try and "teach" you what "good writing" is.
As we see it, good writing is writing that feels good to you: it feels original, powerful, insightful, and authentic. You'll be doing a lot of writing in this course—and in every single prompt you'll be writing about something that intrigues you.
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The Imaginative Storm method is far more wide-ranging than the simple concept of "free writing." It's not just a technique; it's a method. In these 10 sessions, you will move from the imaginative storm to the creative form.
First, you'll learn how to pack your writing with vivid imagery, fresh language, and authentic emotion. As you continue, you'll learn how to develop compelling character and narrative. Finally, you'll explore what creates the core of energy at the heart of all great stories.
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Yes. We have a thriving community that meets on Zoom for the Writing Prompt of the Week every Saturday and Thursday. People drop in and out, and we frequently welcome new participants. You’ll find the Zoom links in the footer here, and you’ll receive a newsletter via Substack to remind you.
We have a site hosted on Circle, where members of our community can post what they write to the Weekly Prompt and to the prompts in Write What You Don’t Know. Click here to visit the Circle.
As you’ll see, our community is all about encouragement and support. We let one another know what strikes us or moves us or amuses us, and that appreciation gives you confidence and helps to retrain your inner critic. Getting negative feedback too soon, or badly given, is a major reason why people suffer writer's block and have trouble finding their voice.
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Imaginative Storm writing prompts are suitable for all ages. The audio samples of writers reading their work include some adult-themed material.