The stories you need to tell are the ones I want to help you write and craft.
I’ve taught writing at five universities, at conferences, and privately for three decades, including in 2019 the first fiction workshop for the MFA program at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. My students and private clients have gone on to attend graduate school in writing, to self-publish, and to become published authors of acclaimed short stories, novels, and nonfiction at major publishing houses.
These inspiring, focused workshops are limited to two to four students each. We’ll meet on Zoom or at my dining-room table in Philadelphia. I’m also available to teach at conferences, libraries, community centers, schools, and elsewhere.
TO SIGN UP or find out more, email janet.thewordstudio@gmail.com.
TO PAY Once your participation is confirmed, you can pay via check, Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal.
PAYMENT POLICY A commitment to take a workshop is a commitment to pay in full. Fees are nonrefundable except in the case of a medical emergency.
New Workshops for Fall-Winter 2025-2026
I’m beyond excited to share these—it’s been at least six years since I’ve opened up new workshops! The ongoing ones tend to last a while, so get in now if you can use regular support for your writing life.
Note: There are no exact dates and times because we’ll find ones that work for all who register. As for whether it’s online or in person, we’ll decide together based on student locations.
If in person: The closest SEPTA regional-rail stop is Chestnut Hill West, Philadelphia. Parking is easy and free. Healthy and tasty snacks provided. But you can study with me from anywhere in the world!
Write me at info@janetbentonauthor.com or simply reply to this email to register, find out more about a workshop, and/or be added to my newsletter list to find out about future workshops.
Finding Your Gold
Whether you’re new or experienced, this is a chance to fuel your writing. What formative experiences has your life given you? What are your nuggets of gold—the stories only you can tell? By mining this material, you can create moving works that motivate you to hone your craft and move readers. In this three-hour workshop, I’ll lead you through talks, exercises, and discussions to expand and deepen story resources. Handouts will provide valuable prompts you can keep on using in the future.
In November 2025. Maximum enrollment: 4. Cost for 3-hour workshop: $200.
How to Tell It? Exploring Story Structure
Stories offer readers the chance to undergo a process of change. What are you offering to your potential readers? How do you entice them to start and continue reading your story? How can your story structure get to the heart of what you want to reveal? In three sessions of three hours each, this class will guide and support you in building a story structure that can carry you to the end of your manuscript. We’ll examine the meanings our stories hold for us, spin out inner and outer journey arcs, try several methods of structuring these arcs (such as chronological or non), and break them down into scenes that get at what you wish to explore and reveal. And guided writings will enable you to get some key moments on the page. I’ll also offer guidance on any other concerns you bring. Handouts will supplement our meetings. Fiction and nonfiction writers of all levels welcome.
In February 2026. Maximum enrollment: 3. Cost for three 3-hour meetings: $600.
Classic Fiction and Memoir Workshop
Limited to two writers, this tiny workshop offers a foundation and profound support for your writing life. Each month, you’ll submit up to 15 pages that we’ll read with care and respond to on paper, and in our three-hour workshop, we’ll explore and discuss both writers’ work in depth. I’ll model the practice of close reading to help you reach a heightened awareness of what’s on the page and not on the page. You’ll learn to better verbalize and understand your reactions to another’s work. I’ll offer individualized, specific craft guidance and exercises tailored to your manuscript. I’ll write in-depth feedback, supportive and concrete, on your manuscript and mail it to you after the workshop. We’ll start with three meetings, with the option to continue. (A current one has been ongoing for years.)
Starts in early December 2025. Maximum enrollment: 2. Cost for three meetings: $1185 ($395 per).
Short Story Workshop: Mapping Moments of Change
Have you got a short story that doesn’t yet do what you want it to? Let’s find and examine each moment of slight or major change. These moments are like bread crumbs along a path. Closely tracking them is a powerful way to explore a story’s arc and momentum.
We’ll start with two monthly meetings, with the option to continue. Each month, you’ll submit a story of up to 15 pages (about 3750 words), and we’ll read and comment prior to the three-hour workshop. In our meeting, we’ll find these moments of change, with each writer’s story getting at least an hour of focused discussion. Some questions we’ll consider include whether these central moments are shown to influence what happens in the main characters, what happens before and next, and whether something else might emerge if the path is followed with more attention. I’ll bring in specific craft guidance and exercises to heighten awareness and skills.
January and February 2026, monthly. Maxiumum enrollment: 2. Cost: $790 ($395 per).
Other Workshop Offerings Have Included These:
“I want to write, but I can’t find the time.” Sound familiar? This workshop gives you two hours a week to write. It offers imaginative prompts designed to open doors, whether for a project in process or for something new, fiction or memoir. We’ll write, share work as desired, and discuss aspects of craft in a warm, inspiring atmosphere. Take this chance to make sure you get writing done, and use the scenes and ideas you generate to spur further writing. All levels welcome.
Do you have the tools you need to craft memorable fiction? This workshop offers a chance to learn or polish fundamental skills for writing powerful fiction and to practice some in every class. Through interactive talks and exercises created and tested over decades of teaching, you’ll learn about finding the stories only you can tell, crafting plots, creating convincing settings, writing genuine dialogue, forging complex characters, using sensory details, exploring voices, and understanding and utilizing points of view. Includes a half-hour private session with me, in person or on the phone, on your work in progress. Handouts will supplement our meetings. All levels of fiction writers welcome. Seven sessions of 3 hours and a half-hour private meeting with Janet on an eighth day.
The voices in a piece of writing—narrators and characters—are living things that come off the page and become real to us. Writers can create many—perhaps innumerable—voices. And there are ways of speaking and thinking that are distinctive to your family, places you’ve been, cultural environments you know. What voices do you want to explore? Through talks, exercises, and discussion, you’ll bring more of these unique voices to the page. Three-hour class.
“You helped me to explore a creative side that I could never unleash on my own. You showed me how to become a risk-taker. You challenge me.”