Startling Your Book...Finally!
Sept. 16, 24 and Oct. 21 from 7-9 p.m.
 

The experience of having a “eureka moment” for a new novel project or story collection can be profoundly exhilarating. But harnessing this passion and turning your electrifying idea into a fully formed manuscript is no small feat, especially if you’re trying to tackle the project on your own. “Starting Your Book…Finally!” is a workshop designed to help you complete a manuscript draft you can then revise, share with trusted readers, and (ideally) send to agents, editors, and publishers.

Join Cassidy McCants (published author, former Nimrod fiction editor, and founder of Tulsa’s Apple in the Dark literary journal) for a unique workshop that combines professional mentorship, creative critique, and storytelling scaffolding to help you get your manuscript concept on the page.

In this course, you’ll gain insight about the importance of establishing a regular writing routine, developing your plot and central conflict, and deepening your characters and themes so your manuscript is poised to reach the finish line. Learn to bottle the magic of your creative impulse before it slips away.

This workshop includes:

• Three 2-hour, in person group meetings in September and October 2026
  • Meeting 1 (Wednesday, Sept. 16.): Introductions; sharing your manuscript idea; how to develop a hook and maintain tension; professional advice for starting your manuscript and seeing it through to the end.
  • Meeting 2 (Wednesday, Sept. 23): Troubleshooting early problems and obstacles; sharing preliminary work (a.k.a., your manuscript's opening pages); receiving audience/instructor feedback.
  • Meeting 3 (Wednesday, October 21): Tracking progress; workshopping 10 pages of your manuscript with the group; receiving audience/instructor feedback
• A 30-minute, one-on-one Zoom session with Cassidy McCants to review your work (up to 75 pages), scheduled at a time of your choosing in November or December 2026

Registration for this workshop will close at 5pm on Monday, Sept. 14. Register at our online marketplace.

About the instructor:

Cassidy McCants is a writer and editor from Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose first collection of short stories, Notes on Drifting, is forthcoming from Whiskey Tit (fall 2026). Cassidy received her B.A. in creative writing from University of Arkansas and her M.F.A. in fiction writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She’s the former managing editor of Nimrod Journal and is creator/editor of Apple in the Dark. Her prose has appeared in The Lascaux Review, Grist, Clackamas Literary Review, The Plentitudes, The Creative Field Guide to Northeastern Oklahoma, and other publications. She won the 2020 Innovative Short Fiction Contest from The Conium Review, and her stories have received honorable mentions from Glimmer Train Press.