Writing feeds and workshops

Creative-writing advice is clustering around short prompts and beginner craft sessions instead of long theory posts this week. (robinwoodsfiction.com) Robin Woods’ long-running Prompt Me line is built around ready-to-use exercises, including photo prompts, story starters, dialogue prompts and reference lists. Her 2020 book *Picture This* added “over 50” color photo prompts plus written prompts and master lists, according to her site. (robinwoodsfiction.com) That format is showing up in older sample posts too: Woods’ site has published sets of five photo prompts since 2018 and 2019, each asking writers to look at an image and start drafting without overthinking. (robinwoodsfiction.com) A parallel strand is coming from Narrative Alchemy, a Substack by Jen Twang that bills itself as “tools and tales from the threshold” for people trying to “write a truer one.” The recent prompt cycle referenced in social posts leans on turning points and personal change rather than plot mechanics alone. (substack.com) The workshop side of the same trend is more formal and more expensive. Gladstone’s Library is advertising a beginner memoir class with Kit de Waal on May 30, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., priced at £390.00. (gladstoneslibrary.org) Gladstone says the one-day session will cover self-care, legal pitfalls, getting other people “on board,” and shaping scenes into chapters, and the ticket includes a two-course lunch and a memoir writing pack. The class is part of the library’s 2026 “Writing Kit” program with de Waal and is listed as sold out on the program page. (gladstoneslibrary.org, gladstoneslibrary.org) Roz Morris pushed the same practical mood from the editing side on April 12, 2026, in a Nail Your Novel post about “5 craft fixes” for flat drafts. Her examples target abstract emotion, anecdote overload and time-jumping that makes readers work too hard. (nailyournovel.wordpress.com) Morris’ first fix is to replace named feelings with concrete evidence, using a detail like a saved answerphone message instead of simply writing that a character was devastated. She also says true incidents in memoir still have to “earn” their place by moving the story or deepening character. (nailyournovel.wordpress.com) Taken together, the week’s writing chatter is less about inspiration as mood and more about prompts, structure and revision tools that can be used the same day. The common unit is small: one image, one turning point, one scene, one workshop day. (robinwoodsfiction.com, gladstoneslibrary.org, nailyournovel.wordpress.com)