Finding Your Creative Spark Bootcamp

4.8

(7 ratings)

·

3 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

Learn how to overcome imposter syndrome, achieve flow, and gain the right tools to finally create your life's work.

Course overview

Find Your Creative Spark

Whether you write novels, blog posts, stories, plays, or poems, this 3-day workshop will take your self-doubt, inertia, fears, and change them into confidence and a never-ending flow of ideas.


Get expert guidance to rekindle your creative spark. Write your best work in the new year. Map out your whole year and set goals for your writing with a trusted coach.

Who is this mini bootcamp is for

01

Novice Writers.


You've always wanted to write, but up until now, life has gotten in the way. 

02

Seasoned Writers.


You've been working on your writing project for a long time, but you're currently encountering a block.

03

Content Creators.


You've been suddenly tasked with writing as part of your job.

Topics covered

How to Deal with Imposter Syndrome in a Creative Context


Whether it's due to lack of support, micro-aggressions, or a difficult world, artists are sensitive and often our own worst critics.


We'll uncover what causes imposter syndrome in all of us and use simple but proven effective techniques to address the root of what silences us.

How to Find Joy In Writing & Not Just Having Written


No matter whether we are beginners or professional writers, we all face the blank page. In this workshop you'll learn how to leverage those anxieties and integrate them into your process.


How to Use Universal Storytelling Techniques to Craft Hot New Work


We'll use the universal elements that run through all types of narrative writing in our own writing through guided writing exercises engineered to help you immediately apply them to your work.

How to Get Better at What You Struggle With Using the Creative Process


We'll begin drafting work in class and you will receive both instructor and peer feedback on your writing that you can immediately implement to make your specific project come into focus.

How to use Goal Setting and Forecasting as a Creative Person


We'll go over how to use goal-setting techniques and forecasting and how to use these strategically to map out the rest of your month and year creatively, always careful to allot for real life situations and the creative context. We'll plan out our creative year together.

4.8

(7 ratings)

See what people are saying

        From her own writing expertise and global literary knowledge, Alexandra knows how to prompt the writer forward from seed of an idea to completion. I have learned to write longer narratives that have become starting points for memoir, flash fiction and now a novel. Working with her gave me the confidence to read my work in public and send it out.
Yvonne Campbell

Yvonne Campbell

Professor of ESL, Artist, Writer
        Alexandra's workshop equipped me with the skill of going deep in my writing. It's something I turn to again and again—going deep, getting to the emotional core of a character—and it's paying off so much.
Tracey Lien

Tracey Lien

Author, All That's Left Unsaid, and Los Angeles Times Reporter
        Through SF Creative Writing Institute, Alexandra has successfully woven a community for writers to connect, grow, and nourish one another as artists, both seasoned and new to their craft. As a forever writer forever growing as a poet and educator, I owe my own creative transformation to her program.
K.R. Morrison

K.R. Morrison

Author of “Cauldrons,” San Francisco high school teacher
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This bootcamp is broken up into three main parts:


  • Mindset
  • Creation
  • Envisioning

What we will cover each week

01

We will focus on mindset and dive right into writing new work before we even know what's happening.

02

We will focus solely on shaping the narrative and the writing, feedback and critique.

03

We will envision the future, the end of our piece and map out our year.

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Meet your maven

Alexandra Kostoulas

Alexandra Kostoulas

Alexandra Kostoulas is an award-winning writer of poetry, fiction and journalism and the founder & executive director of the San Francisco Creative Writing Institute.


Alexandra has taught students from all walks of life in her career as a professor and independent educator and has coached many aspiring writers to publication and performance of their work.


She teaches writers to find their voice and unblock themselves creatively every day at http://sfwriting.institute.


Her students have gone on to run literary organizations, become professors at top universities, publish their work in peer-reviewed journals, land prestigious book deals and break barriers in their writing and lives.

Course syllabus

01

Mindset- Overcoming Imposter Syndrome & Obliterating Fear


We'll expose imposter syndrome as writers, break down where the term came from and I'll show you a simple but effective technique for thwarting it when it rears its ugly head in your own creative process.

02

Practice - Writing Prompts to Get You Unstuck


We'll create new work from several writing prompts that help you get at the core of what you want to say and talk about the dynamics of storytelling in the pieces you just wrote and how to write ideas on the page.

03

Creating - Crafting a Narrative


We'll go over some universal principles of good storytelling together as they apply to the structure of a narrative in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or dramatic writing. You'll ideate and begin to draft a new piece or a new part of an old piece you want to finish in class with these principles as a guide, leaving the session with promising new work

04

Deadlines - Submit Work For Class Feedback & Support


You'll share your new work with the group and accountability partners, receive peer and instructor feedback and an individualized strategy session how to move forward with your work.

05

Applying - Instructor Feedback & Critique


We'll go over the work that we liked and provide a sounding board for the artist to pitch new ideas and try out new pieces of writing on our ears.

06

Envisioning - Goal setting & (Gently) holding yourself accountable


We'll use techniques like scripting, goal setting, forecasting, recasting to plot your writing goals on a timeline for the rest of the week, month and year. Together we will derive strategies to hold ourselves accountable and produce a metric for what success looks like for ourselves in each of our unique projects.

More about SF Creative Writing Institute

Learning is better with cohorts

Learning is better with cohorts

Active learning, not passive watching

This course focuses on live workshops and hands-on projects

Learn with a cohort of peers

Surround yourself with like-minded people who want to grow alongside you

Meet creative people from all over the world

Form bonds with people just like you from all over the world.

Finish the piece you've been dreaming about

You got this! You have it in you. Imagine how good you'll feel on the path to accomplishing your goals in 2023!

Learn from a working artist

This course was designed from years of working with creatives. Gain insight and understanding from a working artist.

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