Starport is bringing  a variety of Creative Writing classes to the Gilruth Center to help you enhance your writing abilities. Whether your interests are writing blogs, novels, biography, short stories, historical or flash fiction or poetry, you will benefit from the teachings of Katherine Sanger (see instructor bio below).

Current Opportunities:

Two-Part Fiction Writing Workshop – Brainstorm, Learn, Write, and Edit

Come brainstorm, learn, write, and edit!

In week one, we’ll focus on brainstorming techniques and basic story structure. Bring an idea or use one of the many prompts that will be available. During the one-week break, you will write a short story or one (to two) chapters of a novel.

When you come back in week two, we’ll share and edit our work, focusing on moving to a more polished draft. Please bring your computer or writing materials as we will be doing exercises. In week two, you will need to bring printed copies of your work for critiquing. 

• Two 3-hour classes
• Saturdays, September 19^th and 26^th
• 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
• Gilruth Center, Mars Room
• $90 Early registration until September 11^th
• $100 September 12^th– 19^th

Register for Two-Part Fiction Writing Workshop

Description Workshop: 2-Hour Class

Description draws us into a story, letting us fully inhabit the world we’re reading about. Learn the basics and beyond of using description and setting to help create the world of your story. Please bring your computer or writing materials as we will be doing exercises. 

• 1 Day, 2-Hour Class
• Tuesday, October 13th
• 6:00 – 8:00 pm
• Gilruth Center, Inspiration Room
• $45 Registration Fee

Register for the Description Workshop

Dialogue Workshop: 2-Hour Class

Don’t let the dialogue in your story fall flat! Come learn about using dialogue for description and exposition, using subtext and using realistic dialogue. Learn how to make your characters sound unique, avoid the dreaded adverbs in your dialogue tags, and keep clear of common dialogue mistakes. Please bring your computer or writing materials as we will be doing. 

• 1 Day, 2-Hour Class
• Tuesday, November 10th
• 6:00 – 8:00 pm
• Gilruth Center, Inspiration Room
• $45 Registration Fee

Register for the Dialogue Workshop

Novella Writing Workshop

A novella may have started out as a short story that accidentally grew too long, or it might be a novel that was accidentally too short. But now that you have one, it’s its own thing, and it has to be treated as such. Learn the basics of writing novellas, from idea to publication. Please bring your computer or writing materials as we will be doing exercises.

• 1 Day, 3-Hour Class
• Saturday, December 5^th
• 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
• Gilruth Center, Inspiration Room
• $65 Early Registration until November 27^th
• $75 Late Registration November 30^th – December 5th

Register for Novella Writing

Flash Fiction Workshop

Flash Fiction is a short story – under 1,000 words! It requires just as much, if not more, skill as writing a longer piece. Taking the literary world by storm, it has become more, and more popular by the increasing popularity of e-books and Internet reading.  Come learn about the elements of story and tips and tricks for Flash!

• 1 Day Workshop, 3-Hour Class
• Saturday, December 12th
• 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
• Gilruth Center, Inspiration Room
• Virtual Class Option Available
• Minimum Class Size – 6
• $65 Early Registration until December 4th
• $75 Late Registration December 5th – 12th

Register for Flash Fiction

About the Instructor:

Katherine Sanger was a Jersey Girl before getting smart and moving to Texas. She’s been published in various e-zines and print, including Baen’s Universe, Black Chaos, Wandering Weeds, Spacesports & Spidersilk, Black Petals, Star*Line, Anotherealm, Lost in the Dark, Bewildering Stories, Aphelion, and RevolutionSF, and edited From the Asylum, an e-zine of fiction and poetry, and Serial Flasher, a flash fiction e-zine. Kate is a member of HWA and SFWA. She taught English for over 10 years at various online and local community and technical colleges. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter @ KatherineSanger.