Budding novelists, enthusiastic writers, big thinkers, storytellers, and fantastic plot dreamer-uppers!

Here’s the chance you’ve been waiting for!

Whether a seasoned story writer or ready to take the plunge for the first time, this is the class where your student gets to compose that long awaited story, from start to finish.

Over five weeks, we provide your student with everything they need on this journey: community, structure, advice, and encouragement. 

Welcome your child to the worldwide community of WRITERS! 🎉

Class Overview

Made With You in Mind

Each student will conceive and draft a short story of up to 1,200 words. 

We begin with a foundational story and build from there, reading examples, working with myths and fairy tales, drafting and revising, finding moments of tension and intensity, discovering the story spine, exploring how to begin and how to end.

Students with a long story or novel in mind can focus on a shorter narrative arc with this class. Later, they can transfer what they’ve accomplished to their longer-form work.

Your student will receive individualized help to create, revise, trim, and mold their story from an expert writing coach—all in a writer's workshop environment. Just like professionals! 

That means your student will

  • Be able to read other students’ stories as they progress
  • Read instructor and student responses to their writing
  • Learn to consider audience when writing
  • Get a taste of “publishing” as they submit their work

Note: While age recommendations are flexible, this is one class where we highly recommend a minimum age of 11 to participate. The pace of writing and reading in this class has proved overwhelming for younger participants.

Join the club! 

We want students to feel like they belong. This class features advice from famous writers and short stories by the greats. We gain inspiration and learn from their words as we go!

This class hosts a Sharing Space for students to share their work with each other and discuss books and writing. 

Week by Week

Week One

Freewriting. Class begins with freewriting prompts that connect to character and explore a fictional world using the senses. The generative writing this week provides the initial spark towards a complete short story. 

Week Two

Expansion. Using myth, fairy tale, epigraphs, songs, and/or works of art, this week’s exercises help students add dimension to their blossoming stories. 

Week Three

Shape. Students look for the spine of the story this week. Writers explore character motivation, inherent story tension, and potential moments of surprise. 

Week Four

Ending. Students find an ending and work backward, revising with the goal of bringing forth the narrative elements that support the forward motion of the story. 

Week Five

Revisit and Revise. With a sense of the central idea that emerged in the previous weeks, students engage in revision to strengthen the writing. Writers emerge with a powerful short story ready to share or publish!

Registration Details

Join Us!

Tuition:
$279.00 per student
Recommended Ages:

11 - 18

Class Size:
20 students
Class Length:
5 weeks
Class Type:
  • High School
  • Middle School

Select from the available class dates below to register for that session:

–
Aimee Gonzalez Niebuhr   Register
–
Caitlin Rose Myers   Registration opens May. 6th at noon ET

Word on the Street

I learned that you don't need to have a clear idea of your story when you start. The key thing is that you start. Let the story develop from there. It doesn’t have to be perfect at first.

Kate, 13

Reading other peoples' work (both professionals and peers) really inspired me to realize everything a short story could be.

Junie, 15

Learning to play was a huge insight for me and it helped me along the road to conquering the fear of getting messy; giving me the freedom to mess up and work through the hard stuff. I loved every minute!

Alla, 15

This class has been really awesome, especially because I never got stuck or had writer's block like I often do because of the way the activities immediately inspired and provoked ideas. 

Samuel, 13

More Information

Sample class login

Want to see how our classroom works? Test drive a sample class complete with real class readings, assignments, and instructor comments!

Follow these instructions:

  1. Navigate to class.bravewriter.com. If you are a current student, you’ll need to log out in the upper right corner before proceeding.
  2. Log in using these credentials:
    Username: [email protected]
    Password: Brave1
  3. Next, you will land on our Family Dashboard. You'll find a Parent icon and a Student icon to represent classes where the parent or the student is the primary participant. Click on Parent to view parent participation classes. To find classes with direct student-instructor interaction, click on Student.
  4. Click on the class name of interest and start reading posts!
How Our Classes Work Download a class summary
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