I teach writing workshops and courses centered on honesty, craft, and psychological depth. The work begins with attention—to language, lived experience, and the moments we’re tempted to soften, dodge or look away.
We practice moving past self-censorship so the writing grows more dimensional and resonates more deeply with readers.
Programs range from one-time talks to multi-week courses and can be tailored to your audience, goals, and setting.
WORKSHOPS & COURSES
The First Pages Workshop
How to Make Readers Lean In
In this interactive workshop, writers submit the first three pages of their work. I select a few pieces to discuss as a group, examining how writing earns—or loses—a reader's attention from the opening lines. Together, we look closely at what's working and what might be strengthened.
We explore voice, momentum, specificity, and emotional stakes—how choices on the page shape a reader's experience. Writers leave with clear insight they can apply immediately to their own work.
Ideal for libraries, conferences, and community programs.
Demystifying Publishing
What Writers Actually Need to Know
This clear-eyed talk cuts through myths about publishing. Drawing on decades of experience across traditional, hybrid, and independent publishing, I offer a practical overview of today’s publishing landscape. We look closely at how writers find agents, develop pitches, discuss advances and timelines, evaluate self-publishing costs, and compare the strengths and limits of each route. Writers leave with a clearer sense of which publishing path aligns with their goals, timeline, and temperament—and the confidence that there is no single “right” way to bring a book into the world.
Ideal for large audiences with Q&A. A recorded version (presented at UCLA) is available for preview.
Writing Memoir Without Self-Protection
Most memoir writers get stuck trying to tell their whole life story, or they write summaries instead of scenes. This workshop helps you write memoir that grips readers by focusing on what matters: specific moments told with honesty, complexity, and craft.
Through provocative prompts and close reading of published work, participants write moments that still carry emotional weight. We examine how writers transform charged material (a father's silences, the moment you understood you'd been lied to) into scenes that reveal character without explanation.
Participants learn how to move beyond chronology, how to write about real people with complexity, and how to create work that engages readers rather than simply recounting events. The workshop balances emotional truth with craft—teaching writers how to shape raw memory into narrative that has momentum, specificity, and resonance beyond the page.
Suitable for beginners and experienced writers working on book-length projects.
The Naked Page
Writing with Honesty, Risk, and Psychological Freedom
Great writing isn't polite. It's alive because it doesn't flinch.
Most writers censor themselves before a word hits the page. Through exercises and close reading of published work, writers discover how honesty, specificity, and vulnerability create dimensional work. Writers learn how honesty creates complexity on the page: the contradictions, and self-deceptions that make characters feel credible, even when the subject is your own life.
This isn’t confession for its own sake—it’s about using craft to create writing that feels alive, surprising, and deeply human.
Popular with writers crafting memoir, personal essay, and psychologically complex fiction.
Lust, Sin, Violence, Magic
What Makes Writing Compelling (And Why We Avoid It)
Why do certain stories grip us while others feel evasive or flat?
This workshop examines the charged material writers often avoid—desire, transgression, fear, obsession. Through close reading, writing exercises, and discussion, we explore why these forces are central to compelling storytelling and how to approach them with intelligence and nuance, rather than cliché or shock.
What makes a sex scene compelling versus embarrassing? How can writers approach shame, loss, and longing without flinching or moralizing?
Originally developed for book fairs and public audiences. Works especially well as a one-time event or conference session.
Mindfulness & Storytelling
Writing with Full Attention
Self-consciousness is the enemy of good writing. We perform. We explain too soon. We default to familiar language and inherited stories.
This workshop uses mindfulness—attention, observation, clear seeing—as a practical tool for stronger storytelling. When we slow down and observe without immediately interpreting, the writing gets more specific, more surprising, and more alive.
I'm a UCLA-trained mindfulness teacher and a working writer. In this workshop, short periods of stillness lead directly into writing. A coffee cup stops being "a coffee cup" and becomes weight, heat, impatience, a chipped rim, the sound it makes when set down too hard. That shift—from concept to perception— changes everything on the page.
Writers leave with concrete ways to generate fresh material, revise with clearer eyes, and write with greater psychological freedom.
Suitable for memoir, fiction, and narrative nonfiction. Offered as a one-time workshop or multi-session course, tailored to your audience and setting.
Build Your Own Happiness Toolkit
Mindfulness for the rest of us
Mindfulness is more than a single practice. Test-drive evidence-based techniques—breathwork, meditation, tai chi, mindful movement, qigong—and discover what works for your nervous system. Reduce stress, improve sleep, quiet the mind.
I've studied meditation and tai chi for decades, three years in India and China. A UCLA-certified mindfulness teacher, I've taught in senior centers, low-income housing communities, law enforcement agencies, workplaces, and LGBTQ groups.
Best taught in person. Available as a single session or multi-week course, tailored for educators, students, employees, or community groups.
Experience
I have over 20 years of experience teaching creative writing and storytelling to adult audiences. My work includes lectures and workshops at UCLA, the Greater Los Angeles Writers Conference, public libraries, book fairs and independent bookstores.
A graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, I am a former columnist and reporter for the Los Angeles Times and have worked as a journalist, editor, and ghostwriter. I have helped more than 100 writers publish with major houses including Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, as well as shepherding independent projects to publication.
Program Options
All workshops can be offered as:
Single talks (60–90 minutes)
Extended workshops or intensives (half-day or full-day)
Multi-week courses (6–8 weeks, meeting weekly)
These can be adapted for:
Introductory audiences (no prior writing experience needed)
Experienced writers ready to go deeper
Large lecture settings or intimate workshop groups
I'm happy to tailor content to your audience and needs.
Interested in bringing a workshop or course to your institution?
Contact: gali@mightywordsstudio.com