Spark Your Story Programs
I believe creative writing comes down to desire, inspiration, and craft.
If you want to write, the spark of story is already burning inside you.
Creativity can be nurtured. Form and craft, like any skill, can be learned.
If you’re here, you’re ready. Let’s spark your story.
I’m Nicole Breit, the creator of Spark Your Story—a unique and transformative creative writing program designed for brave, beautiful, radical truth tellers.
I help life writers tell their stories
artfully, truthfully, and powerfully
with an emphasis on craft and form.
Writer, if you’re looking for a way into your stories but feel blocked by fear, self-doubt, or overwhelm, you’re in the right place.
I can help.
Spark Your Story Courses
Learn the forms, tools, and techniques I use to write award-winning creative nonfiction.
My writing programs are designed to help you move through blocks and draft compelling, shapely personal narratives from the very first draft.
Live courses are offered just a few times a year. Subscribe to my newsletter to be the first to know when registration opens!
The Spark Your Story Lab is an accelerated program for writers who want to produce submission-worthy short-form memoir. Discover the possibilities of 10 essay forms – the collage, hermit crab, list, visual, photo essay + more! – guaranteed to spark your creativity, transform your writing, and shape your memories into powerful stories. In each story lab (i.e. workshop) you’ll tap memories associated with a theme, experiment with story structure, practice key elements of craft, and deepen your trust in the process. By the end of the program you’ll have mastered the skills to move past blocks, craft innovative new work and revise like a pro. Spark Your Story Lab writers have celebrated their first publications and won awards for the work they’ve generated in this program.
You’ll love the Spark Your Story Lab if:
- you’re new to short-form memoir/creative nonfiction/the personal essay and you want to shorten your learning curve so can start sharing your work with the world.
- you’ve done lots of workshops and courses – maybe even a professional writing program – but you aren’t seeing big shifts in your work (or breakthroughs in your career)
- you write poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction and you want to produce innovative new work to submit to contests and publications
- you’ve survived a shake up and feel compelled to write about it but you aren’t sure where to start
- you having a burning desire to share your stories with the world but are held back by the fear that there isn’t a market for your work and you’ll never get published.
I came to Nicole’s writing program with specific goals in mind; instead, I learned to explore and trust my intuition.
Her appreciation of experimentation enabled me to approach topics I had avoided or ignored, value my unique perceptions, build confidence as a writer, and to craft the first essays I have published.
~ Heather Diamond, author of Rabbit in the Moon: A Memoir
The next session is planned for Winter 2023.
The Spark Your Story Intensive is a 12-week synchronous program for writers who want to generate a portfolio of submission-worthy essays toward the completion of a collection or memoir. Taught by multi-award winning author, Rowan McCandless (Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments, Dundurn Press, 2021), the Intensive is limited to a cohort of 10 writers. Discover how contemporary writers are stretching the boundaries of the traditional essay as you experiment with “outlier” (genre-bending, -blending, and hybrid) forms. Deepen your craft with weekly writing projects submitted for 1:1 instructor feedback. You’ll complete the program with valuable notes on next steps for revision and publication on a portfolio of 8-10 pieces drafted and polished in the program. At the end of the Intensive writers will be invited to celebrate their work in an online Zoom reading.
You’ll love the Spark Your Story Intensive if:
- you want to make significant progress on an essay collection/ memoir and boost your literary CV with fresh work to submit to contests/publications
- you’re keen to stretch in new creative directions (and challenge traditional ideas of what an essay can be) by experimenting with structure, constraints and visual elements
- you’re a more productive writer with external accountability (i.e. weekly deadlines)
- you crave community and thrive in a small group setting (i.e. a private online forum + Zoom calls) where you can ask questions, discuss readings and your own work
- you’re eager for 1:1 instructor feedback on your writing to help with next steps for revision and publication
The experimental CNF forms I explored in the Spark your Story Intensive opened me up in new, creative ways.
As an instructor, Rowan McCandless was incredible. Alongside her knowledge of the forms, she created a safe and intimate space, which made it possible for me to tackle difficult subject matter, like my father’s passing.
As a result, while working with Rowan, I wrote my prose poem, “My father as rhythm in lakewater,” which placed second in the Banff Centre Bliss Carmen Poetry Contest.
~ Diana Hope Tegenkamp, author of Girl Running
I ‘m Nicole Breit
- Award winning poet and essayist residing on Canada’s gorgeous Sunshine Coast
- Memoir coach whose superpower is helping writers achieve their literary dreams faster than they thought possible