Romance Writing Workshop

Course Description:

This year, inspired by Nanowrimo, Vanessa and Ariana are going to be leading an eight week Romance novel writing workshop! 

In 2018, we hosted a podcast called Hot & Bothered that walked people through how to write a Romance novella. Julia Quinn, bestselling author of Bridgerton, came on the show to give romance-writing advice and ten authors tried their hands at writing a Romance novella for the first time. 

This October and November, Vanessa and Ariana are taking their wisdom from Hot and Bothered to a brand new class from Not Sorry. They’ll break down writing Romance novels into its key components, so that in the month of November, you can write your very own Romance novel.

This course will meet eight times over October and November. We will spend our time in October giving you the tools you need to write 50,000 words during the month of November. We will develop our characters, outline, learn how to give and receive feedback in a workshop, and hear from experts! Then, we will meet during November to make sure we are meeting our goals while making sure you are set up for success while you write. We will be your accountability partners, cheerleaders, coaches, and biggest fans.

And not only will this class give you the resources, opportunity, and community needed to write your own novel, we’ll spend some time digging into the personal and spiritual component of romance-writing: What does love look like? What do you find sexy? What do you believe about good partnership? Writing a romance novel is a practice of joy and an exploration of what we mean by “romance.” 

We have been treating secular things as sacred for years now at Not Sorry. We invite you to spend a month treating writing a Romance novel as a sacred practice with us.

Faculty bios:

Vanessa Zoltan - Instructor

Vanessa Zoltan is the CEO of Not Sorry Productions. She has her BA from Washington University in St. Louis in English and Creative Writing. She also has her Master's of Divinity from Harvard. She averages two Romance novels a week during her Romance spells. She hosted and co-created the first season of Hot & Bothered, which was all about writing Romance novels.

Her favorite romance trope is Marriage of Convenience, and during this class, she’ll be working on her story which is Friends to Lovers--her other favorite trope.

Ariana Nedelman - Instructor 

Ariana Nedelman is the Executive Producer of Not Sorry. She has her BA from the University of Chicago and a certificate in Documentary Studies from the Salt Institute. She is an avid Romance reader and co-created and produced the first season of Hot & Bothered, which was all about writing Romance novels. Her favorite Romance trope is Enemies to Lovers, and during this class she’ll be working on her story about lesbian pirates chasing love across the high seas.

Guest Faculty Bios:

Chloe Angyal

Chloe Angyal is the author of Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers is Saving Ballet From Itself, which Publisher’s Weekly called “a captivating debut.” Her writing about gender and power has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Marie Claire, and The Atlantic.

Chloe grew up in Sydney and lives outside Iowa City, where she is a senior editor at VICE News. Her first Romance novel, Pas de Don't, will be published in summer 2023.

Julie Anne Long

Julie Anne Long is the internationally bestselling author of the Pennyroyal Green and Palace of Rogues series of historical Romances and the Hellcat Canyon series of contemporary Romances. Her books have been translated into eighteen languages. She lives in Northern California.

Lauren Sandler

In addition to co-hosting Hot & Bothered, Lauren Sandler is a journalist and author investigating inequality, with a focus on gender. Her most recent book is This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home, a 2020 New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the PEN America Jean Stein Prize.

Sandler’s journalism has appeared in dozens of publications including Time, The New York Times, Slate, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and New York. She has been on staff at Salon and NPR, a columnist at the relaunched HuffPost, and has held a Poynter Journalism Fellowship at Yale and a Calderwood Journalism Fellowship at MacDowell. Lauren is currently developing This is All I Got into a Broadway musical.

Brittney Winters

Brittney Winters is a Romance reader, writer, reviewer, and editor. She has been an avid Romance reader since the tender age of ten and has made it everyone else’s problem ever since.

Brittney works in nonfiction publishing by day and lives her own HEA every day in Chicago with her husband and child. She can be found on most social media platforms under the handle @litandknits, and frequently posts Romance recommendations for Love’s Sweet Arrow, a Romance-only bookstore in Tinley Park, IL.

The details:

• Tuition: Sliding scale, $300-$500

• Dates: Saturdays starting at 11AM EST starting October 15 and ending December 3. The first class will be two hours. The last class will be one hour. All others will be 90 minutes.

• Recording: Classes WILL be recorded for later viewing, but the course is best experienced if participants attend each session live.

• Cost: Full price is $400. If you can’t quite afford that, we have a price option of $300. If you would like to pay $500, all money above $400 will go toward scholarships that we will offer and help subsidize. 

• Prep work or pre-reqs: None! We will have assignments ready for you when you arrive. All you have to show up with is the desire to write!