Let It Rip: Writing A Fearless First Draft

July 22-26, 2026

optional extension: July 26 – 29

Re-vision: Draft Two to Submission-ready

Sept. 23 – 27, 2026

optional extension: Sept. 27 – 30

Let It Rip: Writing A Fearless First Draft – July

How do we discover our story ? In this camp session, we will learn how to trust our inner voices, the rhythms that propel us toward an image, an unexpected action or line of dialogue, a shocking twist in scene. We will mine our deepest understandings, those big fears, great joys, most human experiences, and we will share recklessly, openly, in the stories we create, whether fiction, narrative nonfiction or memoir. This session will get you onto the page, deep into the story. Take risks in good company, inspired to levels of courage great storytellers must rally to complete that powerful, fearless first draft.

Sign up here, at the Ratna Ling site.

Re-vision: Draft Two to Submission-ready – September

So you’ve got pages. Pages and pages. Now what? This camp will show you how to let the story teach you its secrets. We will begin by assessing what you’ve got–what’s evolved on the page. By discerning what your story wants to be, you will be able to build on what you’ve achieved. We will take you through the steps of reimagining the whole from inside. Finally, you’ll master honing the craft, securing the structure, and polishing it until it gleams. Dive deep and take your work from here to done… ready to take the world by storm!

Sign up here, at the Ratna Ling site.

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ELLEN SUSSMAN

is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels, A Wedding in Provence, The Paradise Guest House, French Lessons, and On a Night Like This. She is the editor of two critically acclaimed anthologies, Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave and Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex. She teaches through Stanford Continuing Studies and in private classes.

ELIZABETH STARK

is a novelist (Shy Girl: FSG, Seal Press, finalist for the Ferro-Grumely and Lambda Literary Awards) and award-winning filmmaker (producer of Lost in the Middle: Best Feature at Broad Humor 2019 and a Festival Favorite at Cinema Diverse; co-director and co-writer of FtF: Female to Femme and Little Mutinies, distributed by Frameline), co-hosts the podcast StoryMakersShow.com and co-directs and teaches at Sonoma County Writers Camp and Book Writing World. She earned her MFA from Columbia University, and her work has appeared in The New York Timesand The Rumpus.