The Lab Online Writing Workshop: Love and Other Paradoxes

About the Workshop

Why do the stories we can’t let go of—the ones we return to again and again—refuse to fit inside a single emotion? Love, in life and on the page, rarely arrives alone. It tangles with longing, contradiction, rage, grief, humor, tenderness, and the ache of what we can’t resolve.In this generative workshop based on Chapter 4 of The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre (a new Craft Book from W.W. Norton co-authored by Matthew Clark Davison and Alice LaPlante), we invite writers to explore the paradoxes that give their work emotional heat.

Drawing from a teaching moment at an LGBTQIA+ youth center—where the prompt “write what’s not fair” cracked open a student’s material in unexpected ways—we’ll guide you through a sequence that helps transform unresolved feeling into layered, compelling art.

What You’ll Gain

*A fresh start or deepening of a piece-in-progress
*Tools for writing complexity and contradiction
*Prompts for generating emotionally charged material
*A reusable structure for revising or expanding drafts
*A deeper understanding of how “artistic heat” emerges on the pageWho

This Workshop Is For

Each session of The Lab stands fully on its own and is designed for all levels—from beginners to published authors. All genres of creative writing are welcome. No prerequisites, no required reading.

Pricing

Single session: $85

3-session bundle: $225 — choose any three workshops

5-session bundle: $350 — choose any five

7-session full-series bundle: $455 — attend the entire online Lab sequence

Upcoming Workshops in the Series

All workshops run 8:30–11:00 am PT

Feb 7, 2026 – Chapter 5: The Unexpected: When Bad Things Happen to Good Characters

Mar 14, 2026 – Chapter 6: Poetic Strategies as Inspiration for All Genres

Apr 11, 2026 – Chapter 7: Fiction Strategies as Inspiration for All Genres

May 9, 2026 – Chapter 8: Creative Nonfiction Strategies as Inspiration for All Genres

Jun 6, 2026 – Chapter 9: Hybrid Strategies as Inspiration for All Genres

Jun 20, 2026 – Chapter 10: Controlling Chaos in the Re-Visioning of Your Initial Drafts

Choose what inspires you—or join the full experience.

Ready to Write Into Complexity?

This workshop invites you to stay with the paradox, trust your unresolved material, and discover what pressure can do for voice, form, and meaning.

We hope you’ll join us.