Free Writing Workshops
Join Muse & Margins for free online writing workshops on storytelling, character development, editing, publishing, and book marketing. Each hands-on session focuses on two topics, includes practical activities, and lasts 90 minutes or less. Writers at every stage are welcome, whether you’re working toward independent or traditional publication.
Explore Our Workshops
Browse our workshop topics below. Dates are announced one workshop at a time. Want to hear when a favorite is scheduled? Use the Notify Me button above to select your interests.
Where Do Story Ideas Come From?
Discover story possibilities in everyday life and develop the ideas you most want to write.
Finding Ideas
Developing Ideas
Developing Your Story’s Hook
Find your concept’s strongest appeal and bring a fresh perspective to familiar ideas.
Finding What Makes Your Concept Compelling
Making Familiar Ideas Feel Specific and Fresh
Finding Your Story’s Direction
Give your story direction through its genre promises and the thematic questions it explores.
Using Genre to Establish Reader Expectations
Developing the Thematic Questions Your Story Explores
Can This Idea Sustain a Novel?
Explore whether your idea has enough conflict for a novel and how much story it needs.
Testing Your Concept’s Capacity for Conflict
Choosing the Right Scope for the Story
From Idea to Premise
Turn an initial idea into a clear premise and a central question readers want answered.
Turning an Idea Into a Workable Premise
Identifying the Central Dramatic Question
Knowing Who You’re Writing For
Identify your intended readers and shape the experience you want your story to offer them.
Identifying Your Intended Readership
Aligning the Reading Experience With That Audience