Fall 2025 Classes and Workshops
Give yourself the space to enhance your writing craft!
After a hot and busy summer, I’m excited to work with writers again on their craft! I’ve developed a few new classes and added some writer favorites! No matter where you’re at in your writing journey, there’s something here that I hope will inspire, will get you creating, and lead to publication!
To register, please message me through Substack or send an email to thomasrdean13@gmail.com.
Catching Lightning: A Flash Reading/Writing Club
Next Session: Thursdays, August 21-September 11 (for new participants)
Time: 3:00-4:15 pm EST
online/Live Zoom, 15 spots left
In my generative Zoom classes, I often wish I had more time to invest in each example story, to fully expose its foundations, to bring to light the craft moves made by the writer, and to discuss the story’s merits with my students. I wish I had more time to build community with all of you, to find the joy in discussing the value of flash fiction and how exhilarating it can be to bend and break the traditional writing rules and precepts.
Frankly, I’d love to spend more time working together to find new ways of expressing craft moves and elements in our flash fiction, to learn from the masters of the form, to create an in-person form of community. To do that, I want to create this club, where we meet on Zoom 1 time per week to analyze and discuss 1-2 flash/micros and then spend time writing together.
How it works:
Meet 1x per week for 4 weeks (75 minutes per meeting). Each session is recorded.
Participants will receive the story/read the story before the meeting. (The group may decide to use a particular book, or stories will be found in litmags online.)
I will develop a brief lecture/analysis on how the story(s) work to show a particular craft move(s).
We will discuss the story(s) as a group. Share as much or as little as you want each week.
I will provide a writing prompt(s) based on the story(s). We will have time to write and share a piece of our draft.
Cost: $17 per session or $55 when paying for the full 4 weeks
Thursdays, August 21-September 11 (for new participants)
Time: 3:00-4:15 pm EST
Revising Flash Through Prompts
Cost: $30
When: September 30, 2025, 2:00-4:00 pm EDT
Join me for a 2-hour session focused on revising fiction through the lens of flash and micro! Suitable for all writers of fiction and non-fiction narratives. Bring your almost-finished drafts and near-masterpieces! We’ll review model texts and hopefully get inspired by the revision prompts! Participants will be able to use the strategies to get their drafts closer to submission-ready. We’ll look for static scenes, undeveloped stakes, ambiguous feelings, murky openings, and so much more!
Writing Flash Fiction with Raymond Carver
Cost: $120
Where: Online/Asynchronous
August 31 through September 14, 2025
12 spots
In this 2-week asynchronous workshop, we’ll use the work of Raymond Carver to investigate how to create tone and mood in our flash. The way Carver’s characters long for and fight against isolation in an alienating world. We’ll focus on how Carver balances character, setting, and conflict while deploying his famous minimalism. How can we apply his craft moves to our own writing in 2025?
The class structure is asynchronous, so you can log in as needed throughout the week. I’ll provide 1-2 prompts per day, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and repeat this the next week with model texts and my analysis of how to use the model texts. You can write a flash for both or just one and post it to the learning environment (Canvas). I will then provide positive, encouraging feedback for each flash piece you write. You will also get a chance to give and receive positive comments from your peers. We’ll use Saturday and Sunday to catch up on writing and commenting!
Writing Microfiction: Horror
Cost: $120
Where: Online/Asynchronous
October 05-October 19, 2025
In this 2-week asynchronous workshop, we’ll use horror/thrilling microfictions to create hair-raising stakes and plots through eerie tones and moods in our own stories. We’ll focus on balancing brevity and plot to develop scary characters, settings, and conflicts.
The class structure is asynchronous, so you can log in as needed throughout the week. I’ll provide 1-2 prompts per day, Monday through Wednesday and Friday, and repeat this process the following week with model texts and my analysis of how to use them. You can write a micro 1-2 prompts and post them to the learning environment (Canvas). I will then provide positive, encouraging feedback for each flash piece you write. You will also get a chance to give and receive positive comments from your peers. We’ll use Saturday and Sunday to catch up on writing and commenting!
Wild Life: Flash Fiction Inspired by the Stories of Kathy Fish
Cost: $135
Where: Online/Asynchronous
November 30-December 14, 2025
I just love Kathy’s stories, and they’ve inspired so many of my own stories and flash fiction craft moves that I’d love for writers to join me in a 2-week asynchronous workshop to read, analyze, and write our own flash fictions inspired by prompts based on Kathy’s work. Kathy has generously permitted me to use her stories for this class! If you’re a fan like me, I know you’ll get so much out of this deep dive into how her stories work and thrill readers.
The class structure is asynchronous, so you can log in as needed throughout the week. I’ll provide 1-2 prompts per day, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and repeat this the next week with model texts and my analysis of how to use the model texts. You can write a flash for both or just one and post it to the learning environment (Canvas). I will then provide positive, encouraging feedback for each flash piece you write. You will also get a chance to give and receive positive comments from your peers. We’ll use Saturday and Sunday to catch up on writing and commenting!
To register for any of the classes on this page, contact me at thomasrdean13@gmail.com. I will provide payment details via email.
I've got to go over my calendar, but I sure hope to sign up for 1 or 2 of these.