Monday, March 9th, 4:00-5:30 PT/7:00-8:30 ET (Zoom)
Recording Included
$97 USD. Free with Labyrinth Membership
Many writers spend a lot of time writing their characters into their plots, charting their arcs, and, analyzing their motivations—without ever truly talking to them.
In this Labyrinth Craft Workshop, we’ll explore Off-Stage Writing, a powerful practice rooted in the Story Journal concept first named by author Janet Lee Carey. This is the private, unseen writing you do about your story rather than in it: a place for curiosity, frustration, imagination, and direct conversation with your characters.
Off-Stage Writing gives you a way to engage characters beyond analysis—to ask them questions, argue with them, listen to them, and discover what they know that you don’t yet. It’s especially useful when a character feels flat, confusing, resistant, or overly “designed,” and when you sense there’s more beneath the surface than you’ve been able to access on the page.
In this 90-minute workshop, you’ll be guided through a small set of focused, low-pressure exercises designed to help you:
- Open a private channel of communication with a character
- Explore motivation, contradiction, and desire through freewriting
- Use off-stage writing as a tool for discovery without self-censorship
- Bring what you learn back into your manuscript with greater clarity and confidence
This workshop is for writers at any stage who want characters that feel more alive, more surprising–and for anyone who suspects the missing ingredient in their work isn’t structure, but intimacy.
You’ll leave with new writing, a repeatable practice, and a renewed sense of connection to the people at the heart of your story.