Tips

Workshop Title: How to Write a Flash-Fiction Story of 1,000 Words or Less

Can you tell a complete story in 1,000 words or less? Join us for an interactive session that explores the art of flash fiction by writing a story together—from the first spark of an idea to a finished piece.

Using the simple premise that every character must want something—even something as ordinary as a glass of water—participants will work together to build a flash-fiction story in a fun, brainstorming style, adding and sometimes subtracting story elements along the way. By the end of the session, members will have experienced how to develop a complete flash-fiction story from beginning to end.

Mary Langer Thompson has taught this process to students from middle school through college. She also describes her approach in the article “Thirsting for a Way to Teach the Short Story,“ published in California English (September 2022).

Mary’s Bio:

Mary Langer Thompson is an award-winning writer who writes articles, fiction, and poetry. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was the 2012 Senior Poet Laureate of California. She is the founder of The Poemsmiths of the Mojave High Desert and recently edited a book of poetry, From Silence to Speech: Women of the Bible Speak Out, available on Amazon and Kindle. She resides in Apple Valley, California with her husband, Samuel T. Lujan. She holds an Ed.D. from UCLA.

Article: Thirsting for a Way to Teach the Short Story

Meeting on Saturday, August 15, 2026
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am
The general meeting begins at 9:15 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield

Workshop Title: How to Create Characters Readers Care About

Readers don’t fall in love with perfect characters—they root for characters they care about. Discover the emotional building blocks that turn ordinary characters into unforgettable ones in this practical workshop for fiction writers.

In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the emotional building blocks that create sympathetic, memorable characters. We’ll look beyond personality traits and discover how a character’s actions, emotional wounds, fears, mistaken beliefs, self-protective behaviors, wants, needs, and growth work together to create someone readers understand, care about, and remember after the story ends.

We’ll examine examples from well-known stories, discuss why certain characters capture our hearts, and learn a practical framework that you can immediately apply to your own writing.

Whether you’re creating your first character or developing an existing one, you’ll come away with the tools to build characters that readers will care about and root for, and a simple character-development framework you can use in every story you write.

Jennette’s Bio:

Jennette is an author who loves helping other authors. She began indie publishing in 2010 and has since published 20 books in both romance fiction and nonfiction. Along the way, she has helped hundreds of authors prepare the files needed to publish their books and navigate the indie publishing process.

She is also the author of Book Formatting for Self Publishers, now in its second edition, and creates writing tools, workbooks, and publishing resources designed to make the writing and publishing journey feel less overwhelming.

Author Website: https://www.jennettegreen.com
Publishing Services: https://www.selfpublishingnerd.com
Etsy Writing Tools: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PlotAndPublishStudio
Substack: https://plotandpublishstudio.substack.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plotandpublishstudio

Meeting on Saturday, July 18, 2026
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am
The general meeting begins at 9:15 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield