RBWG Spring 2026 Classes
In-Person, Zoom, & Online Tutorials
Weekly Calendar
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Register Here Please register first with Maribeth at [email protected] to make sure that the class is running (at times we do not have enough participants to make the class work) or is not already filled. Maribeth will respond to you within a day. Pay Here Because we are committed to keeping our classes small and because we can only continue to do this if participants commit to and pay for all classes, we ask that ONCE WE CONFIRM THE CLASS WILL RUN, you pay for the full class amount up front. If you are interested in a class and cannot pay for it up front, just send Maribeth an email and we’ll work out a payment plan. Please do not pay prior to hearing from Maribeth that the class is running and a seat is available. We are unable to make full refunds if payment is received without confirmation from Maribeth first.
Our Instructors
Click here to read brief biographies for each of our instructors.
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Fiction
Writing Science Fiction 101 — Gina Hagler (4 sessions)
When: Mondays 7-8:30 p.m., Apr 20, 27, May 4, 11
Where: Zoom
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $240
Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again.
— Ray Bradbury
Science fiction is an amazing genre with a storyworld that comes from an individual author’s imagination and universal themes and conventions that span the work of many authors. In this four-week Zoom class, you'll take a close look at the themes that have held the genre together across generations. You’ll also create your own storyworld and make a start at writing your work of science fiction.
Week 1: Define Science Fiction
Week 2: Identify Themes That Resonate with You
Week 3: Describe Your Storyworld
Week 4: Start Writing
We’ll begin each Zoom by reading texts related to our topic for the week. You’ll also receive your assignment, due on the Sunday following our class. There will be time for questions during class, and each assignment will receive written feedback.
Driving a Car at Night: Assignments in Fiction - Maribeth Fischer (8 sessions)
When: Fridays, Apr 3, 10, 17, 24, and May 1, 8, 15, 22
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $400; Non-Members $450
”[Writing is] like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
— E.L. Doctorow
This is a tutorial for writers who are looking for inspiration—each assignment could be the start of a short story, a scene in a novel, or may be used to more deeply develop and define existing characters. Each week writers will be given an assignment (with examples from a work of contemporary fiction) that helps develop character or plot and also helps the writer hone a key skill crucial to fiction writing. One assignment might ask you to develop your character’s backstory (yes, there is a technique to this), another might ask you to write a scene where your character is angry (how does one write anger?), another might ask you use summarized dialogue rather than actual dialogue (a terrific writing tool!) Each assignment helps the writer discover new aspects of her story. Many of the Guild’s published writers have incorporated these assignments into their finished novels and stories—and we’ll look at a few of those examples too.
(Maribeth requires at least two online fiction tutorials (Grad School in a Box, Driving a Car I and/or Driving a Car II) before jumping into a Novel Workshop.)
The Next Step: Novel Workshop - Maribeth Fischer (7 sessions)
When: Thursdays 2-4 p.m., Apr 2, 9, (no class on 16) 23, 30, May 7, 14 (no class 21) 28
Where: Lutheran Church of Our Savior, (behind Big Fish Grille, Bay Vista Road, Rehoboth)
Cost: RBWG Members $350; Non-RBWG Members $400
This is a class for those who have either a) completed Graduate School in a Box and at least one of the “Driving a Car at Night: Exercises in Fiction Classes,” or b) taken in-person novel classes with Maribeth previously, and are now ready to step away from the assignments and exercises and just write the novel you’ve been developing. There are no assignments in this class beyond writing up to 2,000 words a week, which you’ll send to Maribeth for critique, and showing up to the in-person workshops with about 800 words of your novel that you will share with your classmates. There is nothing like having a group of talented writers all looking at your writing and weighing in, telling you what makes them curious, what makes them want to keep reading, and yes, where they’re a little confused. The best is when that group starts talking about your characters, your made-up characters, as if they were real! If you have been writing in isolation, think about taking this next step and sharing your work with a slightly larger audience
When: Mondays 7-8:30 p.m., Apr 20, 27, May 4, 11
Where: Zoom
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $240
Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again.
— Ray Bradbury
Science fiction is an amazing genre with a storyworld that comes from an individual author’s imagination and universal themes and conventions that span the work of many authors. In this four-week Zoom class, you'll take a close look at the themes that have held the genre together across generations. You’ll also create your own storyworld and make a start at writing your work of science fiction.
Week 1: Define Science Fiction
Week 2: Identify Themes That Resonate with You
Week 3: Describe Your Storyworld
Week 4: Start Writing
We’ll begin each Zoom by reading texts related to our topic for the week. You’ll also receive your assignment, due on the Sunday following our class. There will be time for questions during class, and each assignment will receive written feedback.
Driving a Car at Night: Assignments in Fiction - Maribeth Fischer (8 sessions)
When: Fridays, Apr 3, 10, 17, 24, and May 1, 8, 15, 22
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $400; Non-Members $450
”[Writing is] like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
— E.L. Doctorow
This is a tutorial for writers who are looking for inspiration—each assignment could be the start of a short story, a scene in a novel, or may be used to more deeply develop and define existing characters. Each week writers will be given an assignment (with examples from a work of contemporary fiction) that helps develop character or plot and also helps the writer hone a key skill crucial to fiction writing. One assignment might ask you to develop your character’s backstory (yes, there is a technique to this), another might ask you to write a scene where your character is angry (how does one write anger?), another might ask you use summarized dialogue rather than actual dialogue (a terrific writing tool!) Each assignment helps the writer discover new aspects of her story. Many of the Guild’s published writers have incorporated these assignments into their finished novels and stories—and we’ll look at a few of those examples too.
(Maribeth requires at least two online fiction tutorials (Grad School in a Box, Driving a Car I and/or Driving a Car II) before jumping into a Novel Workshop.)
The Next Step: Novel Workshop - Maribeth Fischer (7 sessions)
When: Thursdays 2-4 p.m., Apr 2, 9, (no class on 16) 23, 30, May 7, 14 (no class 21) 28
Where: Lutheran Church of Our Savior, (behind Big Fish Grille, Bay Vista Road, Rehoboth)
Cost: RBWG Members $350; Non-RBWG Members $400
This is a class for those who have either a) completed Graduate School in a Box and at least one of the “Driving a Car at Night: Exercises in Fiction Classes,” or b) taken in-person novel classes with Maribeth previously, and are now ready to step away from the assignments and exercises and just write the novel you’ve been developing. There are no assignments in this class beyond writing up to 2,000 words a week, which you’ll send to Maribeth for critique, and showing up to the in-person workshops with about 800 words of your novel that you will share with your classmates. There is nothing like having a group of talented writers all looking at your writing and weighing in, telling you what makes them curious, what makes them want to keep reading, and yes, where they’re a little confused. The best is when that group starts talking about your characters, your made-up characters, as if they were real! If you have been writing in isolation, think about taking this next step and sharing your work with a slightly larger audience
Multi-Genre
Getting Started 101: From Idea to First Draft — Gina Hagler (4 sessions)
When: Mondays, Apr 20, 27, May 4, 11
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $240
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.
— Anne Lamott
How many times have you had a terrific idea that stayed just that — a terrific idea — because you didn’t have a process for getting beyond that point? In this four-week tutorial, you’ll go from idea to opening with a solid vision for your work of fiction or nonfiction.
Week 1: Productive Brainstorming
Week 2: Deciding Upon the Scope
Week 3: What Else Do I Need
Week 4: Writing the Opening
This is an email class. You’ll receive the lesson and assignment for the week each Monday morning, with assignments due on Sunday. Each assignment will receive written feedback, and student questions are encouraged.
Getting Started 201: Writing the First Draft — Gina Hagler (6 sessions)
When: Mondays, April 13, 20, 27, May 4, 11, 18
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $300; Non-Members $350
You can’t finish what you don’t begin.
This class is for those who have either completed Getting Started 101 or have a well-thought-out idea for the piece they will write but would like some guidance related to characterization, structure, and pacing. We will discuss the inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, with examples and the opportunity to complete related exercises while also applying what we’re covering to your own work.
Week 1: Reviewing Your Opening
Week 2: The Inciting Incident
Week 3: The Ending You Envision
Week 4: Rising Action
Week 5: The Climax
Week 6: Falling Action
This is an email class. You’ll receive the lesson and assignment for the week each Monday morning, with assignments due on Sunday. Each assignment will receive written feedback, and student questions are encouraged.
When: Mondays, Apr 20, 27, May 4, 11
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $240
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.
— Anne Lamott
How many times have you had a terrific idea that stayed just that — a terrific idea — because you didn’t have a process for getting beyond that point? In this four-week tutorial, you’ll go from idea to opening with a solid vision for your work of fiction or nonfiction.
Week 1: Productive Brainstorming
Week 2: Deciding Upon the Scope
Week 3: What Else Do I Need
Week 4: Writing the Opening
This is an email class. You’ll receive the lesson and assignment for the week each Monday morning, with assignments due on Sunday. Each assignment will receive written feedback, and student questions are encouraged.
Getting Started 201: Writing the First Draft — Gina Hagler (6 sessions)
When: Mondays, April 13, 20, 27, May 4, 11, 18
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $300; Non-Members $350
You can’t finish what you don’t begin.
This class is for those who have either completed Getting Started 101 or have a well-thought-out idea for the piece they will write but would like some guidance related to characterization, structure, and pacing. We will discuss the inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, with examples and the opportunity to complete related exercises while also applying what we’re covering to your own work.
Week 1: Reviewing Your Opening
Week 2: The Inciting Incident
Week 3: The Ending You Envision
Week 4: Rising Action
Week 5: The Climax
Week 6: Falling Action
This is an email class. You’ll receive the lesson and assignment for the week each Monday morning, with assignments due on Sunday. Each assignment will receive written feedback, and student questions are encouraged.
Nonfiction
Write Your Own Obituary – Rae Tyson (2 sessions)
When: Saturdays, 10:30-11:30 a.m., April 11, 18,
Where: Zoom
Cost: RBWG Members $40, Non-Members $50
Obituaries were among my favorite to write because they have elements no other news stories have - a story from start to finish with a proper conclusion.
— Tom Rachman
You see it every time you read the paper: Those impersonal boilerplate obituaries really don’t paint an accurate picture of the dearly departed. And that may be the reason why my obituary writing workshops are so popular. Indeed, the best solution is: write your own — one that is both personal and creative. There is no better person to summarize your life than you. This workshop, in two parts, will help guide that writing journey. The sessions also will help you understand what to include — and what to leave out.
The Container Essay. Everyone has a story. What container holds yours? - Kim Burnett (4 sessions)
When: Thursdays, 2-4 p.m., Apr 9, 16, 23, 30
Where: Lutheran Church of Our Savior, (behind Big Fish Grille, Bay Vista Road, Rehoboth)
Cost: RBWG Members $200, Non-Members $240
Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.
— Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
Some stories feel too huge, too heavy, or too hard to tell. In a container essay we can take our tender loss, terrible grief, or unspoken fear, and house it in a structure that provides boundaries that allow the story to unfold creatively, as if in conversation between the narrative and the container.
In four weeks, we’ll read essays that use this form — perhaps a recipe, an ad to sell a kitchen table, an instruction manual, a menu — to tell a bigger story. Each week participants will be given a short assignment that they will workshop in class. Our goal is to use the form to tell our important stories in new and perhaps surprising ways.
100-Word Dash: Nonfiction Mini-Essays in a Flash — Elise Seyfried (4 sessions)
When: Mondays, Apr 6, 13, 20, 27
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $240
We Guild members well know the 300-word limit on essays read at Night of Songs and Stories and Art in the A.M. It’s a definite challenge to boil your reading down to only 300 words, right? Well — how about 100 words? That’s the limit for a New York Times "Tiny Love Story.” These brief tales pack quite an emotional punch, every word precisely chosen (because there isn’t a single one to waste). Join Elise for a four-week online adventure in (very short) prose! You’ll receive weekly prompts, and write four slices of distilled life. Is less really more? You’re about to find out!
Writing the Ordinary II: Nonfiction: The Language of Daily Life - Maribeth Fischer (6 sessions)
When: Mondays, 12-2 p.m. Apr 6, 13 (no class 20) 27; May 4 ,11, (no class 18 & 25), Jun 1
Where: Lutheran Church of Our Savior (behind Big Fish Grille, Bay Vista Rd. Rehoboth)
Cost: RBWG Members $300; Non-members $350
It wasn’t the twists and turns that kept me reading. It was the language of daily life.
Good literature examines the way the biggest moments of life happen in the quiet moments.
Leesa Cross-Smith, “Some Room to Breathe” Poets &Writers Magazine
We’ve all had plenty of twists and turns in our lives and these are often the focus in memoir classes: deaths and illnesses and marriages, the things we survive and endure and learn from. But we’ve also had numerous opportunities (I hope!) to find joy in the small, quiet moments. These moments, lacking the urgency of drama, the high emotion of both tragedy and celebration, are challenging to write about. What in the story of an ordinary day, the description of an ordinary object, a list of unremarkable moments will interest a reader who knows nothing about us? In this class, we’ll discover together how to pay close attention to the world and write about it in beautiful, funny, compelling ways! We’ll look at the use of journals, which Anthony Doerr said should be “a love letter to the world,” and look at the literary journal River Teeth’s “Beautiful Things” column. We’ll write about the ordinary views outside our ordinary windows, and capture an ordinary day in our extraordinary lives. Each week participants will be given a short assignment that they will then workshop in the class. Our goal will be to write beautiful compelling (perhaps publishable) essays the explore subjects we too often deem unimportant.
When: Saturdays, 10:30-11:30 a.m., April 11, 18,
Where: Zoom
Cost: RBWG Members $40, Non-Members $50
Obituaries were among my favorite to write because they have elements no other news stories have - a story from start to finish with a proper conclusion.
— Tom Rachman
You see it every time you read the paper: Those impersonal boilerplate obituaries really don’t paint an accurate picture of the dearly departed. And that may be the reason why my obituary writing workshops are so popular. Indeed, the best solution is: write your own — one that is both personal and creative. There is no better person to summarize your life than you. This workshop, in two parts, will help guide that writing journey. The sessions also will help you understand what to include — and what to leave out.
The Container Essay. Everyone has a story. What container holds yours? - Kim Burnett (4 sessions)
When: Thursdays, 2-4 p.m., Apr 9, 16, 23, 30
Where: Lutheran Church of Our Savior, (behind Big Fish Grille, Bay Vista Road, Rehoboth)
Cost: RBWG Members $200, Non-Members $240
Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.
— Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
Some stories feel too huge, too heavy, or too hard to tell. In a container essay we can take our tender loss, terrible grief, or unspoken fear, and house it in a structure that provides boundaries that allow the story to unfold creatively, as if in conversation between the narrative and the container.
In four weeks, we’ll read essays that use this form — perhaps a recipe, an ad to sell a kitchen table, an instruction manual, a menu — to tell a bigger story. Each week participants will be given a short assignment that they will workshop in class. Our goal is to use the form to tell our important stories in new and perhaps surprising ways.
100-Word Dash: Nonfiction Mini-Essays in a Flash — Elise Seyfried (4 sessions)
When: Mondays, Apr 6, 13, 20, 27
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $240
We Guild members well know the 300-word limit on essays read at Night of Songs and Stories and Art in the A.M. It’s a definite challenge to boil your reading down to only 300 words, right? Well — how about 100 words? That’s the limit for a New York Times "Tiny Love Story.” These brief tales pack quite an emotional punch, every word precisely chosen (because there isn’t a single one to waste). Join Elise for a four-week online adventure in (very short) prose! You’ll receive weekly prompts, and write four slices of distilled life. Is less really more? You’re about to find out!
Writing the Ordinary II: Nonfiction: The Language of Daily Life - Maribeth Fischer (6 sessions)
When: Mondays, 12-2 p.m. Apr 6, 13 (no class 20) 27; May 4 ,11, (no class 18 & 25), Jun 1
Where: Lutheran Church of Our Savior (behind Big Fish Grille, Bay Vista Rd. Rehoboth)
Cost: RBWG Members $300; Non-members $350
It wasn’t the twists and turns that kept me reading. It was the language of daily life.
Good literature examines the way the biggest moments of life happen in the quiet moments.
Leesa Cross-Smith, “Some Room to Breathe” Poets &Writers Magazine
We’ve all had plenty of twists and turns in our lives and these are often the focus in memoir classes: deaths and illnesses and marriages, the things we survive and endure and learn from. But we’ve also had numerous opportunities (I hope!) to find joy in the small, quiet moments. These moments, lacking the urgency of drama, the high emotion of both tragedy and celebration, are challenging to write about. What in the story of an ordinary day, the description of an ordinary object, a list of unremarkable moments will interest a reader who knows nothing about us? In this class, we’ll discover together how to pay close attention to the world and write about it in beautiful, funny, compelling ways! We’ll look at the use of journals, which Anthony Doerr said should be “a love letter to the world,” and look at the literary journal River Teeth’s “Beautiful Things” column. We’ll write about the ordinary views outside our ordinary windows, and capture an ordinary day in our extraordinary lives. Each week participants will be given a short assignment that they will then workshop in the class. Our goal will be to write beautiful compelling (perhaps publishable) essays the explore subjects we too often deem unimportant.
Poetry
Stories with Heart – Excursions into Narrative Poetry - Ellen Collins (4 sessions)
When: Thursdays, Apr 30, May 7, 14, 21
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $240
Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Write about it.
— Mary Oliver
The earliest poetry was in the form of stories told to recount the deeds of warriors or adventurers. In time, poems evolved into songs that conveyed personal emotions and were built on qualities of sound. In our time, some of the strongest poems combine the best of narration and lyric expression.
In this class, we will explore writing poetry that is both narrative and lyric, including writing about a person, a place, an event, and an object. The goal is to take Mary Oliver’s advice and to pay close attention, experience astonishment, and put that in words.
When: Thursdays, Apr 30, May 7, 14, 21
Where: Online via Email
Cost: RBWG Members $200; Non-Members $240
Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Write about it.
— Mary Oliver
The earliest poetry was in the form of stories told to recount the deeds of warriors or adventurers. In time, poems evolved into songs that conveyed personal emotions and were built on qualities of sound. In our time, some of the strongest poems combine the best of narration and lyric expression.
In this class, we will explore writing poetry that is both narrative and lyric, including writing about a person, a place, an event, and an object. The goal is to take Mary Oliver’s advice and to pay close attention, experience astonishment, and put that in words.
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