Wednesdays on Zoom
Online Writing Workshop
Make time for the pages that matter. Bring an idea, a half-finished draft, or simply the need to write with other people who are making room for the work.
The Details
Pacific Time
on Zoom
A Regular Place to Write
Start With What You Have.
Writing can become lonely long before it becomes difficult. You keep an idea close, wait for enough time or enough confidence, and suddenly weeks have passed without a page you can point to. A weekly workshop changes the rhythm. You arrive with other people, receive a clear place to begin, and give the work your full attention for a few hours.
Writing Your Heart Out is for people who want to make new material without pretending every first pass has to be brilliant. You might be shaping a solo show, opening up a novel, finding the voice of a screenplay, or trying to get back to writing after a long pause. Cheryl's prompts give you something specific to respond to, then help you notice the detail, character, conflict, or image worth following further.
You are not required to arrive ready to read a polished piece aloud. Some weeks, the important work is simply writing without stopping long enough to discover what has been waiting underneath the usual first idea. Other weeks, you may bring a page that needs a sharper turn, a more truthful image, or the courage to let a character say what they have been avoiding. The workshop gives those early discoveries room to stay unfinished until they are ready for their next shape.
How the Work Begins
Write First. Find the Shape Together.
A useful writing session does not need to begin with a perfect plan. It needs a way past the part of your mind that has already decided the work is not ready. Cheryl's approach uses timed writing and practical prompts to get material onto the page while there is still some surprise in it.
- Start with a prompt: use an image, memory, question, character trait, or contradiction as a real entry point.
- Follow the specific detail: stay close to the language, action, or feeling that has energy instead of forcing a broad idea to behave.
- Let characters speak: use monologue and dialogue exercises to discover what a person wants, hides, or cannot quite say.
- Keep the work moving: return each week with more material and a clearer sense of what deserves another pass.
This is not a room for waiting until you have earned the right to call yourself a writer. It is a room for writing, noticing what is alive, and building enough momentum to keep going after the session ends.
Led by Cheryl King
Decades of Helping Artists Make the Work.
Cheryl has led Writing Your Heart Out workshops since 1999. The group met weekly in New York City and Los Angeles through 2015, and it has continued as a national online workshop since then. The exercises have been tested in rooms full of actors, writers, improvisers, playwrights, and people who thought they had lost touch with their creative voice.
Her background is unusually broad for a writing room. Cheryl has written and performed solo work, toured as a stand-up comic, directed more than 60 plays and solo shows, and spent more than two decades building Stage Left Studio as a home for developing new work. She understands that good guidance is both practical and personal: the note has to help the work get clearer without making it sound like somebody else's work.
Meet Cheryl →
For Writers and Performers
Your Project Does Not Need to Fit in One Box.
Some people come to the workshop with a performance in mind. They want to turn a personal story into a solo piece, discover a character, or find the emotional turn that gives a scene real movement. Others are writing fiction, essays, poetry, or a screenplay and want a practice that creates more raw material than their usual self-editing allows.
The group makes room for both. A prompt can lead to a monologue, a memory, a scene, a piece of dialogue, or something you do not yet know how to name. The point is not to force every writer toward the same finished form. It is to find the form that serves the material you are actually making.
That is also why the ongoing rhythm matters. One session can give you a surprising page. Returning gives you the chance to recognize patterns in your work, test a new direction, and keep a project in motion long enough for its real shape to emerge.
This Workshop Is a Good Fit If You Want To
Get Back to Writing
Trade the pressure of a blank page for a regular time, a clear prompt, and other people who are doing the same.
Develop Original Material
Find the stories, characters, and images that can become a solo show, script, novel, essay, or next creative project.
Stay With the Work
Build a weekly practice that gives your rough drafts enough attention to reveal what they can become.
Your Next Step
Bring the Page You Have, or the One You Want to Write.
Tell Cheryl what you are working on, or simply what has been difficult about getting started. She can share current workshop details, help you decide whether the group is the right fit, and tell you more about individual creative support or the second weekly workshop she is preparing.
You do not need a finished concept to reach out. An honest description of the project, question, or stuck place is enough to begin the conversation.
Ask About the WorkshopFrequently Asked Questions
Who is the workshop for?
The workshop is for writers, performers, playwrights, novelists, screenwriters, and people with a creative project that needs regular attention. You do not need to arrive with a finished draft or a formal writing background.
When does the online writing workshop meet?
Writing Your Heart Out currently meets on Wednesdays from 10 AM to 1 PM Pacific Time on Zoom. Contact Cheryl for current availability and details before joining.
What happens in a typical session?
Each session begins with a prompt or warm-up, moves into timed writing, and makes room to reflect on what appeared. The work is designed to help you generate material first, then notice where it wants to go.
Is this only for solo performers?
No. The workshop grew from Cheryl's work with performers developing original material, but its exercises are also useful for playwrights, fiction writers, screenwriters, and anyone looking for a more active writing practice.
Can I ask about private coaching or a different workshop?
Yes. Cheryl also works with artists on individual creative projects and is preparing a second weekly workshop. Reach out with the kind of work you want to make and where you are getting stuck.
Writing Your Heart Out
Make a Date With the Work.
Join Cheryl online on Wednesday mornings and give your next pages a place to begin.