Start your weekend off right (write!) with this shot to your imaginative spirit, designed specifically for the busy person who craves a little space in their schedule for creativity and community. Inspired by the popular class Writing for Women on the Verge, with a little bit of that good #1000wordsofsummer accountable energy tossed into the mix, this course will feature short readings, writing prompts, and shared writing time for an hour on Fridays.

We only have an hour together, so we’ll make it count. Each class will have a theme—joy, shame, nature, vulnerability, sex, terror—and begin with a reading on that theme followed by a short craft talk. Then we’ll settle in with a prompt to write together, after which we’ll share (if you’re feeling ready to, that is), and set creative goals for the week to come. The class is generative, meant to inspire you to get to work and, hopefully, keep at that work between classes and beyond. You can write in any genre you like—nonfiction, fiction, poetry, stream-of-consciousness, journaling, fragments, rants, letters, lists—whatever feels right each day. There’s no homework, no outside reading, and no critical workshopping.

Sneak it in on your lunch break! Or pretend you’re at a meeting so your coworkers don’t know what’s up. Believe me, I know how hard it is to feel like you have a creative self when you are beset on all sides by the demands of the work week plus whatever else you have going on in your personal life. So let this class be a lifeline, or at least an hour you can put into your schedule every week for your freaky creativity to flourish. It’s Friday, so let’s celebrate, resist the BS, and roll into the weekend with good, positive creative energy.

About the Instructor

Brian Gresko (they/he) is a writer, illustrator, and literary journalist based in Brooklyn, where they co-run Pete’s Reading Series, the borough's longest running literary venue. Their most recent book is You Must Go On: 30 Inspirations on Writing & Creativity. Their work has appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine, Slate, The Atlantic, Longreads, The Rumpus, and many other publications.

TGIF Creative Writing Happy Hour, 6 sessions with Brian Gresko