WRITERS: Ask Us Anything!
Answering your Qs on dialogue, syntax, creative process, marketing and editing — all week long
Hey there, lovely workshoppers!
Somehow we’re at the end of March (like how?) and have a week of downtime in between Erin Zarbuczky’s Creative Process workshop and my upcoming Take it From Shakespeare workshop, sooooo instead of sitting around twiddling our thumbs, we thought we’d fill the gap with an extra treat for you all.
We’ve invited our amazing instructors back for a week-long Ask Us Anything!
Here’s how it’s gonna work:
Pick your question! Our AMA guests will be around all week to answer questions on their specific area of expertise — check out the bios below for more info, then drop your questions in the comments.
Flag up your expert! To make sure things run smoothly, please preface your questions with the recipient’s name in all caps. (Or, if your question doesn’t fit any of the categories below, preface with GENERAL QUESTION instead), eg:
JO: why are you so obsessed with Shakespeare?
Or:
GENERAL QUESTION: can anyone recommend a good writing playlist?
Sit back and wait for your reply! We’ll all be checking in daily from Mon-Fri this week, but please be patient if it takes us a little time to get back to you.
Now, without further ado, here’s our illustrious panel of Forever Workshop instructors:
ASK US ANYTHING!
Lauren Veloski is a screenwriter, teacher and coach, and founder of THAT’S
BANANAS—a revolutionary platform for women screenwriters. Her next-up online course, YOUR TEENAGE SELF WAS A F***ING STAR, kicks off at Write or Die on Sunday, May 18th. Lauren’s first feature script, the indie comedy, SORRY, THANKS, world-premiered at SXSW, played 15 fests internationally, and sold to IFC/Sundance. After 15 years as the “story brain in the room” on countless television and film projects, Lauren launched THAT'S BANANAS in 2022 to do what she most loves: work one-on-one with writers at all levels, helping them come fully into their badassery and power on the page. Visit her on Instagram at @writingisbananas
ASK LAUREN ANYTHING ABOUT: dialogue & scriptwriting
Nina Schuyler’s short story collection, In This Ravishing World, won the W.S. Porter Prize and the Prism Prize for Climate Literature and was published in July 2024. Her novel, Afterword, won the 2024 PenCraft Book of the Year in Fiction, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Science Fiction and Literary, and the PenCraft Spring Seasonal Book Award for Literary and Science Fiction. She teaches creative writing for Stanford Continuing Studies and Book Passage and writes a popular Substack, Stunning Sentences.
ASK NINA ANYTHING ABOUT: sentence structure & flow
Erin Karbuczky is a writer and workshop facilitator, and a regular contributor to Write or Die. Her fiction, poetry, and craft essays can be found across the web. Erin has a Master’s Degree in English Literature, and writes about writing, queer identity, technology, and the American Dream (among other things). Her biggest dream in life is to support other writers and artists on their journey, and loves geeking out about the creative process. You can join her upcoming workshop, Spring Into Summer: Writing Through the Fire and Fertility of Beltane, via Write or Die here. She’s also on Instagram/substack.
ASK ERIN ANYTHING ABOUT: building a creative process (or Taylor Swift)
PLUS: Shelby and I will also be joining in to answer your questions on our own areas of writerly knowledge:
Shelby Stretton is a co-founder at Chill Subs where she directs marketing campaigns, social media, and the Forever Workshop with an emphasis on tasteful promotion within the literary space. Say hi on Instagram!
ASK SHELBY ANYTHING ABOUT: marketing, social media & online promotion
Jo Gatford is an award-winning author, editor and writing mentor (and your friendly neighbourhood Community Corner host). Her course, Take it From Shakespeare, will be up at The Forever Workshop throughout April, exploring ways to borrow Shakespearean techniques to push boundaries, experiment with form, and play with rhythm, repetition and rhetoric.
Check out
for more writing workshops, exercises, and methods of ‘fixing your fiction’. (Or hire her for editorial and one-to-one creative development support!)ASK JO ANYTHING ABOUT: the editing process (or Shakespeare!)
Looking forward to chatting with you all this week!
GENERAL QUESTION: my character is in his neighborhood, a bustling one. He knows everyone’s name, every shop, but none of these people is a character in the story. It’s near the beginning of the story and I don’t want to throw out 3-5 more names to readers that aren’t relevant to the story, but I also don’t want to give a generic description of a busy street as if he’s there for the first time. How do you handle this? How do you balance specificity without overwhelming readers?
SHELBY (or maybe GENERAL): do you ever believe you are too picky in selecting submission opportunities from market lists like Chill Subs? So often I'll say no to a particular listing, not because of something obvious (like a genre mismatch), but because the acceptance rate is too low or high, they don't have enough Instagram followers, or what they publish just doesn't feel like a match. How do you know you're not cheating yourself from potential journal opportunities?