Storyboard Seminar

What is the program structure? 

The Storyboard Seminar is a ten month remote writing program (August 2026-June 2027) of intensive mentorship, guidance, feedback and craft instruction. The program will include: a two hour remote class every-other week (with a short break in December) that focuses on issues of craft and features occasional guests; a monthly one-on-one meeting with the program instructor; an opportunity to have up to fifty pages of your work workshopped by fellow participants; and a close read of a manuscript of up to 200 pages by the instructor. 

When does the program begin and end? 

The Storyboard Seminar is a ten month remote program that will begin in late August, 2026 and end in late June 2027. Bi-weekly online classes will be held on Wednesday evenings (5:00-7:00 PST / 6:00 - 8:00 MST / 7:00-9:00 CT / 8:00-10:00 EST)  Participants schedule the monthly meetings at a time convenient to their schedules. 

How many people will be in the class? 

The Storyboard Seminar is designed to be a small group of committed writers. To this end, we’ll cap participation at 12. 

What is the focus of the bi-weekly classes? 

The Storyboard Seminar is focused on supporting people to make significant progress on long, ambitious, fact-based prose projects in fiction and nonfiction. To this end, for the first 6 months, our weekly classes will focus on the ethics and craft of bringing fact-based stories to life on the page through close reading exercises, small- and large-group discussions, in-class writing activities, craft lectures, and process/tool sharing. The classes will follow the following sequence: project mapping, planning and structure formation; the ethics and craft of research and reporting (whether we’re researching our own lives/our families, or reporting on political events, or bringing history or science to life through fiction or journalism); scene writing & scene recreation; writing dialogue; writing exposition; rendering people on the page; rendering place on the page; making meaning through prose; moving through the murky middle; constructing beginnings; constructing endings; radical revision; and adjusting course. 

The final four months of class will be devoted to workshopping participants’ work and discussing bringing one’s work to market (including discussions of agents, pitching/writing proposals, the editorial process, and marketing one’s work once it’s out in the world.) 

What is the focus of the monthly one-on-one checkins? 

The purpose of the monthly one-on-one meetings is to offer a more individualized experience for each participant. Before the Seminar classes begin, participants will meet with the instructor to discuss their goals for the year and to develop a workplan and focus of future meetings, including when they want to workshop their work and have their manuscript read. This time can be used to discuss workplan progress, manuscript feedback, lingering questions from class, questions about publishing, works they are reading, or craft questions they would like to have answered. The instructor will come with an agenda, but the time belongs to the participant to make what they want of their hour. 

When does my manuscript get read by the instructor? 

This is up to you. Some folks will have a manuscript ready to be read in the Fall; other people will be making progress on their manuscript over the course of the year, and wont be ready for feedback until Spring. This is something you’ll discuss with the instructor at your first meeting. 

Is the Storyboard Seminar only for journalists? 

Not at all. This program might be a great fit for journalists working on ambitious long form work, but it is also designed for memoirists hoping to research their own lives, writers of hybrid work, fiction writers working on historical novels or other projects propelled by research, and for academics hoping to write for a more general audience. We think of such works as fact-based creative writing—not in the sense that they are based entirely on true events or that they’d stand up to the rigorous fact-checking of the magazines we most love to write for, but in the sense that they look to real events and face the conditions of social and political experience head-on. The animating principal of Storyboard programs are based in the idea that literary texts–where language, fact, art and meaning comingle–can do the important work of tending to the socio-political circumstances in which we’re living (either head-on or through the side door, through documenting the present or the past), tracing how we got to this point in history, and presaging how we might emerge somewhere else. (To read more about our philosophy, check our our program manifesto, published in Lithub. ) 

More specifically, this program is for: anyone working in isolation on an ambitious, fact-based prose project who is seeking community, connection and accountability; Journalists, fiction writers, essayists, memoirists or academics hoping to make significant headway on a book or magazine project; Writers struggling to wayfind through their work, and in search of structured support; Writers in search of community, accountability and and expanded toolbox for both research and writing; Fiction writers and memoirists looking to infuse their art with reporting or research methods; Academics looking to broader their research and writing to a more general audience; Writers at the early stages of a  project who need support figuring out how to chart a path forward; Writers who didn’t attend an MFA or journalism program and who are looking for structure and support for their project. 

Can poets join? 

Poets are welcome to join if they believe this program will be a fit for their needs. However, the Storyboard Seminar will focus on prose writing. The Storyboard Residency, however, is an excellent opportunity for writers working on fact-based creative projects in any genre, from fiction to poetry to screenwriting, etc. 

How far along in my project do I have to be to apply to Storyboard? 

We expect–and hope–for participants to come at various stages of their project. Some will have books under contract, while others will just be starting out. (We see this range as an asset; folks neck-deep in a book benefit from the beginner’s mind of folks just starting out, while folks just starting out benefit from the wisdom of those further down the line.) What’s most important to use when reviewing applications is that the applicant is committed to what they are working on and serious about bringing it to life. 

What does the payment cover and when is payment due?

If an applicant accepts an offer of admission, they will need to pay a $500 non refundable deposit to reserve their spot. The rest ($7400) will be divided into two payments: one in June and one in December.

Are there scholarships? 

Yes, we have a limited number of partial scholarships available. You can request a scholarship through the main application. 

What happens if I miss a class? 

All the classes will be recorded. The expectation is that participants actively attend the vast majority of classes, but the recordings will help you catch up if you have to miss a class or two here or there. 

How is this program different from the Storyboard Residency? Do you have to do both? Can you? 

The Storyboard Seminar is a ten month virtual program; the Storyboard Residency is a week-long in person engagement each June. We have designed the Seminar and Residencies to compliment one another–and to work in tandem (such that one could sign up for an in person residency to kick off their intensive seminar year, and/or to end it). But it is not a requirement to attend both. 

When are applications due? 

Applications are due by February 1st. 

More questions? Reach out to storyboard@stmarys-ca.edu