Drafting as Play/Revision as Experimentation with Corinne Cordasco-Pak and Marguerite Sheffer — August 20 & 27

"Drafting as Play" and "Revision as Experimentation" are two ninety-minute workshops designed to help writers reimagine parts of the writing process that are generally thought of as difficult or sticky. Each workshop includes practical, generative strategies for getting words on the page and moving writing projects—big or small—forward.

Session Breakdown

"Drafting as Play" is a ninety-minute workshop for getting unstuck, letting ideas flow, and putting actual words on the page. You’ll leave with practical strategies that you can use on a daily basis (which we will practice in class) and that you can return to whenever writing feels hard.

"Revision as Experimentation" is a ninety-minute workshop that focuses on revision techniques that are accessible, fun, and generative. We’ll share (and practice) ways to keep the spark alive and possibilities open as you self-revise and give and receive feedback with trusted writing partners.

What you will learn

Throughout the entire series, you will learn how design thinking relates to (and can support) drafting and revision

Drafting as Play

• Ways to stay loose, creative in the early stages of the writing process

• Tips for combating perfectionism and getting unstuck

• Exercises and techniques for getting words on the page

  Revision as Experimentation

• The difference between generative feedback and critique

• Practical tips for giving and receiving useful, generative feedback)

• Concrete strategies for using revision to experiment and figure out what the work wants to be and how to help it become "more itself"

Course Takeaways

Drafting as Play: Students will practice letting ideas flow, letting go of perfectionism, and rediscovering the fun in writing; they'll leave with 5 practical strategies to use on a daily basis to return to writing when it feels murkiest (hardest, most frustrating).

Revision as Experimentation: Students will practice redefining how they approach revision, learning how to navigate the decision-making of revision with more flexibility and curiosity, as well as how to give and receive generative feedback instead of just critique.

Additional info

If you can't attend this class live, it will be recorded! Students will receive a recording the day after the class, and it will be available for 30 days.

About the Instructors

Corinne Cordasco-Pak (she/her) holds an MFA from Randolph College. Her work has recently appeared in The Kenyon Review, BULL, Quarter Notes, Amethyst Review, Oyster River Pages, and Identity Theory, among others, and she has received support from the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Corinne is a former fiction editor of Revolute and a member of the Wildcat Writing Group, as well as an interview contributor to Write or Die. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, toddler, and their two rescue dogs. You can find her online @CECordasco.

Marguerite Sheffer is the author of the collection The Man in the Banana Trees (University of Iowa Press, 2024) which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a Finalist for the 2025 PEN America Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. The collection was also named a “Best Debut Book” by Debutiful and a “Most Exciting Debut Story Collection” by Electric Literature. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Cosmic Background, Cast of Wonders, BOMB, Literary Hub and other magazines. At Tulane University Marguerite teaches courses in design thinking and speculative fiction as tools for social change. She is a founding member of Third Lantern Lit, a New Orleans writing collective, and the Wildcat Writing Group