Learn to revise your writing from “good enough” to great, find your voice, and use story, structure and plot to create publishable writing you’re proud to share.

This workshop is suitable for memoirists, essayists and novelists at all levels—the exercises will be tailored to each individual’s work and needs.

You’ve got a draft or some pages, and you know you want to write this book…now what? Maybe you need more words—or fewer—but which ones, and where? Or you’ve somehow lost momentum before finishing, and don’t have a clear plan to restart. You know it takes more than shifting some scenes and checking the spelling to create a finished novel, memoir or essay that hooks agents, sells to publishers and attracts readers. But how do you stride through the next draft with a clear map…and where should you be going?

This week, learn how to revise early drafts into a structured, powerful story with engaging characters and a strong hook. You’ll discover how to find and polish your unique narrative voice, and when to honor or break the conventions of your genre. Your second (or next!) draft process will be smoother and stronger, and your work much closer to publication-ready.

Each day, we’ll work on writing craft and apply it directly to your work-in-progress. Allison will “live-edit” pages to illuminate your work and show the next steps; you’ll write those next steps right away. We’ll also touch on different publishing paths, and participants will have a personal consultation during the week to discuss their writing and publishing goals.

This retreat will cover:
– How to let the writing you have guide you to the writing you need to do.
– Finding your true voice as a writer.
– The difference between story, plot and structure, and how each guides your sequence of events.
– Moving from sentence to scene to story to create the reader’s experience.
– Starting your novel or memoir with an engaging hook in the very first pages (and the promise a prologue must make).
– How to know exactly what events belong in your book…and what to let go.
– Creating tension in scenes to keep the reader turning pages
– Discovering how much worldbuilding, backstory, and family history to keep in the next draft— and the easiest way to make sure your story starts in the right place.
– Using mystery to create tension in memoir, genre fiction and literary fiction.

Who should attend this retreat:
– Writers with a partial/early draft or a strong idea, but unsure how to move forward
– Writers experiencing rejection for their manuscripts or essays and wondering what the “secret” is to getting read.
– Novelists facing a second draft without the creative excitement of the first draft.
– Memoirists in anything from a first to a fifth draft who know their manuscript “isn’t quite done…” but who don’t know what “done” will look like.
– Creative writing students and graduates of MFA programs who want to expand their writing craft with conscious practice.
– “Plotters” who want to build on the structure they have with more freedom and creativity, and “Pantsers” who need to anchor and focus their storyline.
– Writers hearing feedback that their book lacks tension, needs a stronger hook, or the story is “hard to follow” or “didn’t grab the reader.”