Hey, adults! If you have ever said to yourself, Boy, I wish I could sign up for an 826michigan workshop, or, Geez, I wish 826michigan offered workshops for adults too, this is for you: 826’s How to Write Like I Do, a series of writing workshops for adults taught by professionals in their fields. These absolutely affordable workshops benefit the free programming we provide for students (AND feature Zingerman’s goodies!). This fall: fiction, graphic novels, screenplays, and blogging!

And so, without further ado, we proudly present our fall series of How to Write Like I Do workshops for adults:

Saturday, Oct. 31, 1-4pm — Stephen Elliott, (!!!!), author of seven books including the just released true-crime memoir The Adderall Diaries, presents: Writing from Experience. Attendees will discuss how to use their own lives as jumping points and framing devices for their stories, both fiction and non-fiction.

* Stephen Elliott will also be at 826michigan TONIGHT, Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7pm, as the kick-off for our new Great Lakes, Great Times Reading Series (details forthcoming). He’ll read from his new novel and answer questions. This event is free to the public, so please come. (We should probably note that this is not exactly, well, “family friendly.”)

Thursday, Nov. 5, 6-9pm — Jim Ottaviani, Eisner-nominated author of eight graphic novels about scientists, most recently T-Minus, presents: How to Write with Pictures: Scripting Graphic Novels. Attendees will discuss how the graphic medium has progressed, how to tap into its particular strengths, and how to get from idea to script to an effective collaboration with artists and editors.

Thursday, Nov. 12, 6-9pm — Jeff Meyers, lead film critic for Detroit’s Metro Times, and editor of the online publications Metromode and Concentrate presents: A Crash Course in Screenplay Structure. Attendees will discuss the basics of screenplay structure and constructing an effective logline.

Thursday, Dec. 10, 6-9pm — Mark Maynard, local blogger, has been publishing the award-winning zine Crimewave USA for fifteen years, and blogging for about eight, at the popular local site MarkMaynard.com. During the course of the evening, he will share some of the more successful and unsuccessful articles, interviews and comics that he’s put out over the years, and work with people on their own ideas for blogs/zines/etc. He will also talk about the use of blogs for social change.

Cost is $60 for a single workshop, or $50 per workshop for those signing up for multiple workshops. Do these make a great present to yourself or someone you know? YES! To sign up for a workshop, click here. As I mentioned, all proceeds benefit free student programming (including our on-site tutoring program at West Middle School, in-school residencies for four Ypsilanti schools and one Ann Arbor school, writing workshops, field trips, publishing opportunities, and more!), AND coffee and goodies (read: brownies and other yums) provided by Zingerman’s.

Questions? Email Angela at Angela@826michigan.org.