Writing Workshops & Retreats
Build confidence. Rekindle your creative fire.
About our workshops
Whether you're joining us online or in person, Imaginative Storm workshops offer more than just writing instruction — they’re a doorway to discovery. Every session is designed to unlock your voice, quiet your inner critic, and awaken your creative intuition.
Our participants often come to us at a crossroads — successful, experienced, and ready to ask, What now? They’re writers, yes — but also seekers. They come not just for craft, but for connection, insight, purpose, and momentum.
If you're looking to start something new, return to a long-lost project, or simply reawaken your creative energy, you’ll find your place here. You’ll be welcomed into a vibrant, supportive community of writers — and leave with the confidence to keep going.
Why It Works
Grounded in over 30 years of experience leading writers to their creative edge
Supportive, real-time feedback in every session
A method that emphasizes voice, energy, and flow — not perfection
A deeply human approach that acknowledges both the joy and struggle of being alive in uncertain times
Led by seasoned facilitators with global reach and lifelong dedication to the craft
Online Workshops
Write anywhere, but not alone
Our Zoom-based sessions offer intimate, high-touch instruction in real time — no videos, no pre-recorded lectures. Just the power of your imagination, and a community that listens.
“The Scent of Moonlight”:
Write With All Your Senses
Facilitated by Imaginative Storm co-creator James Navé
August 11, 2025: 6 – 9 PM ET
Whether you’re deep into a novel or just beginning a writing practice, “The Scent of Moonlight” offers you a high-impact, MFA-style experience—without debt, deadlines, or gatekeeping.
You can see your writing flow across the page. But what if you could hear it breathe, taste its urgency, smell its subtext, and feel its pulse?
What if you could smell the moonlight? Taste music? Hear a star falling? See the wind?
In this special 3-hour Zoom session, you’ll venture into the vivid, untapped world of your sensory writing. You’ll work through five field-tested Imaginative Storm exercises from our acclaimed book Write What You Don’t Know.
You’ll write longhand on the page, read aloud for revision insights, and leave with five new pieces of writing grounded in your sensory depth.
Think of it as cross-training for your writing practice—discipline and discovery, practice and surprise, and techniques you can apply to your fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction, poetry, and performance.
Limited to 12 participants • $97
Imaginative Storm Writer Training
A 10-week get-fit program to stretch and strengthen your writing creativity
September 9 – November 18, 2025
11 sessions, Tuesdays, 3–5:30 pm PT / 6–8:30 pm ET
Overcome creative blocks
Discover your authentic voice
Pack your work with emotional power
Facilitated by Imaginative Storm co-creator James Navé
Following the 10 sessions of our acclaimed book Write What You Don’t Know, Imaginative Storm Writer Training will take you through all the major skills of storytelling: voice, narrative, character, setting, and more. You’ll discover how to bring energy and flow to your writing. You’ll break through your blocks. And you’ll build a writing habit that sticks.
By the end, you’ll have 40 new pieces of writing—plus a toolbox of creative skills you’ll use for life.
Looking for a do-it-yourself MFA program? Look no further. Imaginative Storm Writer Training was developed by Allegra Huston, who has a Double First in English from Oxford University, and James Navé, MFA in Poetry from Vermont College.
What you’ll learn:
How to write with emotional truth and imaginative power
How to connect to your authentic voice—not the one you’ve been told to use
How to silence your inner critic and build lasting confidence
How to write freely—even when you feel stuck or unsure
How to develop a sustainable writing practice that gives you great joy.
You’ll also get:
Direct personal support from James Navé by phone or Zoom.
Lifetime access to private Zoom recordings of every session
Limited to 10 participants • $625 • Payment plans available
In-Person Retreats
Get away. Go deep. Come home to your voice.
Our immersive retreats are designed to awaken your creative instincts and help you discover the story only you can tell.
“Write Without Limits”: Memoir, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction
5-Day Imaginative Storm Retreat with Allegra Huston and James Navé
Join us in places where creativity animates the air:
Taos, New Mexico, and Asheville, North Carolina
After an evening orientation in the Imaginative Storm method, you’ll enjoy four immersive days of generative writing, creative play, insightful feedback, and personal discovery.
You’ll hone your writing project in one-on-one sessions with Allegra. You’ll delve into fascinating salon-style conversations about writing and life with Navé and your fellow participants. You’ll leave with inspiration enthusiasm, momentum, and a powerful set of tools to take into the rest of your writing life.
Asheville, NC: November 3 – 7, 2025
Focus on memoir
Taos, New Mexico: April 2026
Focus on fiction and creative nonfiction
Imaginative Storm Writing Transformation
with Allegra Huston and James Navé in La Veta, Colorado
June 25 – 28, 2026
Spend an inspiring long weekend delving into the acclaimed Imaginative Storm method—three and a half days that will shift your approach to writing forever.
You’ll discover how to write with confidence, energy, and flow. You’ll retrain your inner critic. And you’ll say goodbye to writer’s block forever.
5-Day Memoir Retreat
with Allegra Huston in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Discover the emotional core of your story. Leave with new material, deep insight, and a clear path forward for your memoir.
October 7 – 12, 2025
SOLD OUT
Local Community Workshops
Led by Certified Imaginative Storm Facilitators
Current workshops:
St. Louis: “Creative Writing the Imaginative Storm Way.“ Led by Heather Deifell. Contact heather@webster-arts.org or visit them on Facebook
Los Angeles / Zoom: Jill Schary Robinson/Jazz Lion Writers Workshop. Focusing on memoir, and incorporating Imaginative Storm method and prompts. Led by Levy Lee. Contact Lyn Rothman for more info.
In Spanish:
La Paz, Baja Cal. Sur / Zoom: Facilitated by Maru Ortega, Wednesdays, 9 pm PST. Contact Maru to join.