What Happens Next?

Plot and Story

July 16 – 20, 2025

Ellen and Elizabeth have very different approaches to story structure. But we both agree that the simple question, What happens next? can create a gripping plot and fuel a propulsive story. In this session of camp, we will tackle plot, exploring approaches to discovering and shaping your story. Find your way to organic character-rooted action with a cause-and-effect build. Make your story—whether short fiction, novel, memoir, or narrative nonfiction—a page turner without sacrificing depth, detail, and the pleasure of surprise for writer and reader.

DATES: July 16 – 20, 2025
LOCATION: the exquisite Ratna Ling, Cazadero, CA
COST for TUITION, LODGING & MEALS: $2495 SINGLE

Register here:

Bonus Add-On: Limited to 18 Guests! JULY 20 -23, $1350, open ONLY to Camp Participants

Follow up your camp immersion with three days of writing retreat with Ellen, Elizabeth, seven other writers and YOU. Build on the inspiration you’ve gained, maintain the focus, and keep writing. Ellen and Elizabeth will be writing, too, with early morning mediative “writing from where you dream,” ongoing cafe writing in the later mornings and afternoons, optional “Suss-ing” session with step-by-step instructions, timer, puzzles; shared meals and walks, and low-key, high positivity evenings of sharing work, chatting about books, and optional poker, all levels welcome.

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. www.ellensussman.com

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 Ca m pand Book Writing World. She earned her MFA from Columbia University, and her work has appeared in The New York Timesand The Rumpus.