Build a steadier writing life with practices that build momentum, expand your range, and bring more ease to the page.
Writers don’t only grow by pushing a single project forward. Like painters and musicians, writers benefit from practices that develop technique—small, repeatable ways to work with language, attention, and imagination.
The Practicing Writer is a four-hour workshop with Susan Palmer built around three distinct practices you can use alongside any larger project. These practices are structured, focused, and—yes—genuinely enjoyable: a kind of creative play with a purpose. You’ll explore exercises that loosen the grip of perfectionism, strengthen craft skills, and help you find new angles on work that’s stalled.
Because “writer’s block” is often a vague name for a specific problem: missing information, unclear stakes, flat characterization, a scene that hasn’t found its shape, or simply an empty well. Practice gives you a way back in.
When the writing won’t move
Sometimes you don’t know what comes next. Sometimes the characters feel thin. Sometimes you sense something isn’t working, but you can’t name what.
That uncertainty can bring up doubt—about the draft, about the idea, about yourself.
A steady practice helps you meet those moments differently. It builds familiarity with the page. It strengthens your ability to diagnose what the writing needs. And it makes it easier to begin again, even when you don’t feel ready.
Who it’s for
This workshop is for writers who want more steadiness and more range—whether you’re just starting out, coming back to the page, or ready to deepen an established practice.
A great fit for writers working in creative nonfiction, poetry, or fiction.
If you’re looking for practical tools and a writing practice that keeps the work feeling alive, curious, and possible, you’ll fit right in.
What you’ll take away
Participants can expect:
- Clear ways to identify what’s missing in a story, essay, or poem
- Fresh material and new approaches that add depth, texture, and momentum
- Methods for entering flow and returning to the page without overthinking
- Problem-solving strategies for stuck places in draft and process
- More confidence through repetition—because practice builds capability, and capability builds steadiness
What we’ll do together
This is a practice-centered workshop with short craft instruction, guided writing, discussion, and sharing. You’ll try each practice in real time, then talk through how to adapt it to your own writing life.
Workshop schedule (1:00–5:00 PM)
1:00–1:30 — Welcome + sharing our writing experiences
1:30–2:30 — Copywriting/copywork exercise + discussion: what we can learn from other writers
2:30–3:15 — “Three Pages” practice: writing freely to build flow and momentum
3:15–3:30 — Break + regroup at 5th Street Public Market food court
3:30–4:00 — Plein air writing: what artists can teach writers about attention and detail
4:00–4:30 — Sharing plein air writing + brainstorming how to apply it to current projects
4:30–5:00 — Additional non-writing practices for writers + next steps for building a sustainable routine
What to bring
- A notebook and pen or a laptop—whatever helps you write comfortably
- Curiosity and an open mind
- A current writing project is welcome, but not required
Saturday, June 20, 2026 | 1–5:00 PM
In-person at the Wordcrafters studio
436 Charnelton St. Ste 100
Eugene, OR 97401
Cost: $119
Pricing info: Our classes and events are priced at their actual cost to run.
If paying the full price would keep you from joining us, use the code ACCESS at checkout to reduce your registration amount by 20%—no questions asked. If you’re a Wordcrafters member, use code MEMBERACCESS.
If the full price is within your means, please leave the ACCESS code for those who truly need it.
If you’re able, you can add a donation during registration to support our scholarship fund.
Scholarship info: We want everyone to have access to our writing programs. If you need additional support, please complete our scholarship request form.
Ready to strengthen your practice?
If you’re looking for a steadier way to write—one that supports craft, confidence, and momentum—come build practices you can return to again and again.
Wordcrafters members save 10% on this and other events and classes.
Click here to learn about becoming a Wordcrafter.
HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS
Masks are optional. Please stay home if you’re unwell with any upper respiratory illness.
Your instructor
Susan Palmer (she/her) is an award-winning journalist, a dilettante birder, and a lover of trees. Her short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies. Her first novel, The Tabernacle Bar, was set in Utah and received positive reviews in the Salt Lake City press. Her second novel, The Booker Rebellion, is set in the Oregon Coast Range and will be published in November 2026. She dabbles in poetry because it’s fun. She knows how to order a meal and ask about the weather in French and Spanish. In Italian, she can say: “How sweet to do nothing” and “Please let me off this bus.” In Swedish, she has perfected her pronunciation of “Tack” which means thank you.
As a working journalist for 30 years, she has techniques for overcoming writer’s block and uses a daily practice to maintain the skills all writers need for fluency with storytelling. When she’s not writing, she’s embroidering or traveling or sweetly doing nothing.
You can find links to recent journalism and blog entries at susanpalmer.org
Other Classes You May Enjoy:
Get your writing time in at the Wordcrafters studio at our regular write-ins. FREE for Wordcrafters members (open to the public, pay from your heart pricing).
Tuesdays 9:30 am-noon
Sundays 6:30-9 pm
Nap-a-thon: a fundraiser for people who are tired. Which, statistically, is everyone.
Nap Ambassador sign ups close Sept 30.
Napping and fundraising happens Oct 1-31.
Share your words in sweet community at our monthly open mic emceed by spoken word poet Jorah LaFleur.
Second Thursdays, September through June | Age 14+
The Oregon Author Series brings a visiting Oregon writer into our space for an afternoon of live conversation: about their book, their process, and the stubborn, beautiful work of making something true on the page.
Sept 13, Dec 13, 2026; March 14, June 13, 2027 | 4-6 pm
Ages 16+
A community nap for tired people.
Saturday, Oct 10 | Wordcrafters studio and online
Come share a meal with other writers and talk shop—craft, process, money, motivation, publishing, rejection, weird writing habits, and whatever’s currently living rent-free in your brain.
Friday, Sept 18 | Noon–1:30 pm
Ages 18+