Writing Programs Available

Fees quoted are intended as institutional fees for a school, library, or other organization to pay for a class of up to 25 students. We enjoy working with writers of all ages! Please let us know the age of the group for which you are hiring us: Pre-teen (Ages 10-12), Teen (Ages 12-18), or Adult (Ages 18 on up)

Please email us if you would like to know where The Grumpy Dragon is booked in the near future. Additionally, feel free to contact Spring Lea Henry if you would like to hire her for individual instruction or editing work.

All sessions come with moderated teen-friendly writing support through GrumpyDragonTeen on Yahoogroups.

One-shot Sessions: $150 for each 3-hour workshop

• Science Fiction and Fantasy: Learn how to create magic systems, alien races, believable realms, and more!
• Character Development: Create characters that will keep the reader reading and last after the last page
• Humor in Your Writing: Learn how to inject humor into character, plot, setting, and dialogue, plus how it all fits together.
• Mythic Writing: How your personal mythology affects your writing—everything from what music you like to what your favorite colors are.
• Romance Writing: Learn how the personalities and tensions between the characters creates the impact when they finally kiss! Note: PG-13 content for teens or Adult content for adults are both available. Not recommended for Pre-teen writers.
• Mystery and Suspense Writing: Crank up the tension as writers learn how to handle twist endings, action scenes, and adding in gore without grossing out your reader completely!
• Poetry: What is the difference between a haiku and a sonnet? What does it mean to show and not tell? Does anything really rhyme with orange? A variety of poetry forms explored along with guidelines on how to make so few words pack a big punch!
• Vampire Fiction: Learn about the various types of vampire stories and how to make your own characters who suck... blood that is!

Two-part Series: $300 for two 3-hour workshops

• Short Story Magic: Part 1—Learn the basics of character, setting, structure, and conflict. Start a work of fiction in a discussion setting with input from the instructor and other students.
• Short Story Magic - Part 2: Polish a work in progress even if you're stuck in the middle (students will bring their writing in progress). Learn how to wrap it all up so the reader won't be left hanging or get bored with the falling action.

National Novel Writing Month: One-shot Session: $150 for each 3-hour workshop

• November is National Novel Writing Month! (http://www.nanowrimo.org)
• Ideas and outlines, strong characters, structure to last a whole novel, tricks to keep you writing all month long

National Novel Writing Month Series: $600 for a 4-part series of 3 hours each.

• Session 1: Ideas generated and outlines created, character sketches for the full cast
• Session 2: A peer-to-peer review of novel starts, conflict analysis, plus a full hour of writing with personal assistance!
• Session 3: Middle of the month pitfalls and stall-outs, picking up sagging middles, writing yourself out of that corner you're in.
• Session 4: Motivation to keep it going to the end, strong conclusions, and what it takes to get novels published.