The Story Intensive is for you if you have a deep desire to write, but feel as though there’s a thick glass wall separating you from your vibrant, creative flow state. It’s also for you if you find it hard to write alone.
This program is suitable for both advanced and beginner writers.
The Story Intensive rewards you when you make your writing a priority. It helps change your thoughts, so you begin to feel moved to finish what you start.
“I was blown away by the characters and story I created. If you stick with it and focus on it you will get a lot out of this program.”
Aycee Brown
Entrepreneur / Coach
“I am reminded of what Julia Child said about flipping an omelette–that to have success, you must have the courage of your convictions. I think about that with writing. I now have a big toolkit to help facilitate that. So again, thank you.”
Barbara Berson
Literary Agent
“The Story Intensive far exceeded my expectations. This program is brilliant! It’s probably worth 3x as much as I paid for it (or more) and I am so grateful that I could learn as much as I did without having to enroll in an MFA program.”
Anne Heaton
Singer/Songwriter
“This is life-changing stuff. Do it. You owe it to yourself, and to your writing. It’s been almost a year and I still tell everyone about this class . . . My first ever story is coming out in June with Little Fiction | Big Truths! And all because of Sarah’s class!”
Tanya Ward
“I have nothing but excitement for those students who’ll get to write this fall—you’ll warn them the experience can be life-changing, right?”
Paige Cooper
Author of Zolitude, longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and finalist for the Governor General's Award for Fiction
“I love the course, love it hugely. I am full of astonishment, gratitude and admiration for you. My mind is a little bit blown.”
Leslie Davidson
Author of The Red Canoe
Sarah Selecky's breakout debut collection, This Cake Is for the Party, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, and was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her new novel, Radiant Shimmering Light, was published in Canada in May 2018 (HarperCollins Canada), Australia and New Zealand in August 2018 (Text), and will be published in the U.K. in November 2018 (Text) and the U.S. in December 2018 (Bloomsbury). It has been optioned for TV by Muse Entertainment, with plans to create a premium one-hour series.
Sarah Selecky Writing School is an online creative writing school that approaches writing as an art, and also as a contemplative practice. We believe that skill comes from study, that inspiration comes from love, and that both are necessary.
The school started in 2011 with one downloadable course called Story Is a State of Mind, which has now evolved into a larger community—Sarah Selecky Writing School. That first program is now called The Story Course. Writers can advance their study by taking two more writing programs that are guided by that same foundation course: The Story Intensive and The Story Workshop.
Photo: Inspiration comes from love—our 2017 teacher retreat.
AS SEEN IN
Caroline Donahue is a coach for writers and the host of the Secret Library Podcast. She has worked with books for over 10 years and has served as a copywriter, editor, and proofreader at various stages in her career, although fiction is her passion. She’s completed NaNoWriMo about five times and is an alum of the Story Course and the Story Intensive. She hangs out at carolinedonahue.com.
Christina Cha lives and writes her fiction in San Francisco. Currently, she earns her living as a copy editor and a writing coach. Two of her favourite reading experiences: The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (Julie Andrews) in 1981 and Teaching A Stone to Talk in 2009 (Annie Dillard). She aspires to catch the *something* she felt from those stories and give something like it back.
Erin Robinsong is a writer, interdisciplinary artist, and editor. Her debut collection of poems, Rag Cosmology was released with Book Thug in Spring 2017. Her work can be found in Tag: Canadian Poets at Play, The Capilano Review, and The Goose. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and has also taught writing at Humber College and the Toronto Public Library.
Kristin Offiler completed her MFA in Creative Writing at Lesley University in 2011, and went on to work as a freelance writer and then in communications for a top internet company. In 2017, she shifted her focus to writing full time. She recently completed her first novel (which began as a prompt in the Story Course) and is currently seeking a home for it, while also working on a second book and short stories.
Lana’s debut story collection, Moving Parts, was published in 2015 and shortlisted for the 2016 ReLit Awards. She has written and produced plays for stage, radio and film. She was longlisted for the 2014 CBC Short Story Prize and won the Random House of Canada Creative Writing Award at the University of Toronto in 2012. She lives in Toronto and is a freelance video producer, director, and story editor.
Mary Nicholson writes and workshops her work regularly with a dedicated group of five women, all alumni of the Story Course. After travelling, study, and working in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, Toronto, and the south of France, Mary has returned to her Prince Edward Island, where she was born, raised, and attended L.M. Montgomery elementary school, home of the famed author of Anne of Green Gables.
Nicole Baute’s writing has appeared in Joyland, the Feathertale Review, and in several newspapers including the Toronto Star, where she used to be a reporter. She’s the co-creator and editor of a collection of women’s writing called EAT IT, and works as a writing coach and editor. Nicole grew up on a farm in Canada and currently lives in Delhi, India, where there’s no shortage of things to write about.
Sidura Ludwig is a fiction writer living in Thornhill, ON. Her novel, Holding My Breath was published in Canada, the US, and the UK. She was shortlisted for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and her novel was a finalist for the CBC Cross Country Bookshelf in 2011. Her work has appeared on CBC Radio, and in several newspapers, magazines, and anthologies.
Sonal Champsee's work appears in Friend. Follow. Text, Hippocampus Magazine, Ricepaper, Literary Mama, and The New Quarterly. Her play, Everything But The Paper, was produced in Seattle in 2014. She serves on the board for PRISM International, and teaches creative writing for PEN’s Prison Writer Program. Sonal is completing an MFA in Creative Writing at UBC and lives in Toronto.
Suzannah Windsor’s writing has appeared in Geist, Prairie Fire, The Writer Magazine, Sou’wester, Grist, Not Somewhere Else but Here: A Contemporary Anthology of Women and Place, and others. She is the managing editor of literary journal Compose and is working on a novel and a collection of short stories. She is a dual citizen of Canada and Australia and currently lives in Northwestern Ontario with her husband and four children.
When she is not revelling in the joy of first drafts, or trying to avoid second ones, Tara Bragg works as a Pediatric Speech Language Pathologist and spends time with her family of two small people, one big one, and one medium-sized dog in Toronto.
“I think every writer—whether they’re an aspiring writer or a published author—would benefit tremendously from this course.”
Maureen Lee
“The Story Intensive has changed my writing in such a positive way, I have taken more risks than I ever have before, and I have much more confidence in my abilities than I used to.”
Dorryce Smelts
“It gives you everything you need in a short fiction class! I especially appreciated the kindness and generosity with which this course is taught. It instills confidence and allows us to believe in our writerly selves.”
Hajera Khaja
Journalist / Writer
In this MasterClass, Margaret Atwood is surprisingly candid about what it takes to dive into writing something of length, and she gives practical advice on how it is different than writing something shorter. She talks about story structure, story beginnings, the flow state, and how you can over-engineer a story.
In this conversation, Francesca Lia Block talks about writing your story with passion, not fear; the economy (and the publishing industry); and the relationship that writing has with magic. She also advises emerging writers about something she learned the hard way in her own career.
In this conversation, Karen Joy Fowler discusses the challenge of making and protecting time for writing, her thoughts on genre fiction, and shares a major pitfall that she had while writing her third novel. Then she walks us through how she got out of it.
Samantha Haywood provides her Strategy for the Best Submission Letter Ever: an honest guide to writing a query letter to a literary agent. For whenever you’re ready for it. From my agent to you, with love.
In this talk, Peter Levitt discusses the mystery of the writing process, how writers can use language to translate (and transmit) emotional truth, the creative state of mind, and how to say what must be said. This conversation took place outdoors, at his home on Salt Spring Island.
Ruth Ozeki, in her signature grounded, caring, clear-eyed style, talks to us about her Zen practice and how it connects to her writing. She tells us how she challenged herself to write magic. She lets us in on how she wrote A Tale for the Time Being – and the long, circuitous and uncertain path she was on while writing it.
Ann Patchett is rational, humorous and forthcoming. In this conversation she tells us how what she reads as an author is different from what she reads as the owner of a book store, how Buddhism helps alleviate her writing angst, and gives permission to write from any point of view, providing you do it well. She also explains how a friend forced her to change the ending of A State of Wonder.
In this lecture, Finding Flow and Cheating Chaos, Frances Phillips explains how to develop and use habits to reinforce the flow state more often in your writing life.
Acknowledgment for the ideas in her article:
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on Flow and Charles Duhigg’s work on Habit.
Haisla/Heiltsuk novelist Eden Robinson is the author of Monkey Beach, which won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Her most recent novel Son of a Trickster was also shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The author lives in Kitimat, BC.
In this conversation, George Saunders talks about winning your reader over with the force of your personality, how to use restrictions in your writing practice, how dreams may relate to stories, writing to charm or seduce, what is meant by “deep entertainment”, what FIRPO really means – and much, much more.
In this video, I talk to Neil Smith, author of “Isolettes” (one of the pieces of short fiction we study in the program). We discuss the transition from short fiction to novel writing, making false starts, taking wrong turns, backtracking, and one very important thing to know about all these pitfalls.
It is intense! But it’s not inappropriate for beginners who are ready to commit to writing. You do not have to be familiar with the Story Course to register for the Story Intensive. In fact, the Story Intensive would be a beautiful way to introduce yourself to the Story Course: you’ll have a teacher guiding you through every lesson, and a dedicated class to support your practice. Read about the Story Course carefully before you decide if this is right for you; if the Story Course feels right, the Story Intensive will deepen your experience.
The Story Intensive emphasizes short story writing and reading. The curriculum is based entirely on the Story Course. But the course is designed to help all writers, including novelists, develop their writing practice by changing their writing habits (and their minds). Both of these programs will teach you how to write with immediacy, mindfulness, specificity, and integrity. You will learn how to be present as you write. You’re going to learn how to transfer an experience to a reader—and this is important for writers working in all genres.
The Master Classes are made for graduates of the Story Intensive, and will only be available to them for the foreseeable future.
Intensive graduates are welcome to take the Story Intensive again. The curriculum is the same as last year, but we will have a new master class this year. And of course the live calls and personalized feedback during the semester will help you finish a brand new story, using the scaffolding and practice you know and love already.
Each week of the Story Intensive is the equivalent of a three-hour class, but this class time is stretched over three days to accommodate different schedules and time zones. Give yourself at least an hour a day, for three days—sometime during Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday—to login to discuss the readings and lessons and to read and give feedback on other people’s assignments. The flexible part: you can login whenever you can fit an hour of focused discussion into those days. All students do not have to meet online at the same time for class discussion.
If you must withdraw from the Intensive, you may transfer your spot at no cost. If you are able to fill your space with another person by September 3rd, 2019, you will receive a 100% refund. However, if you register and withdraw from the Story Intensive before June 15th, 2019 without transferring your tuition, you are eligible to receive a 50% refund of what you have paid so far. After June 15th, there are no refunds, even if you cannot attend the class. If you can’t fill your space by then and would like to defer your tuition fee to another year, we will do our best to make that happen. Please know that we can’t guarantee the Intensive will be offered every year.
If you registered with the early bird $300 nonrefundable deposit and flexible payment plan, the policy above still applies, except the nonrefundable $300.
“Now... I feel like I’m a writer. I can tell people I’m a writer. I understand what it means to be a writer. I just wrote the best story I’ve ever written in my life!”
Laurie McCulloch
“I’ve been through a writing program at a University, taken other writing courses, online and off, and never have I been able to engage authentically in the 'creative journey' as I did in this course. I feel I can write fiction now, and have arranged my life toward that end.”
Joan Fiset
“The Story Intensive convinced me to want to write and gave me the confidence to keep trying. I found the material fresh, engaging and cleverly selected and was guided through it intelligently, innovatively, and with compassion and encouragement.”
Loucas Raptis
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