Fall 2025
Explore Tour
Explore the creative and storytelling pathways Girls Write Now offers through a multimedia, multi-genre experience with mini courses, exploratory studios, and one-on-one pair sessions. Build new skills and deepen existing ones across fiction, journalism, publishing, and formats like video, podcasting, and visual storytelling. Ideal for mentees working across media or focused on specific projects, this Journey offers the flexibility to tailor your learning experience to your goals.
Girls Write Now Collaboratory
This Journey is Closed, but You Can Apply for a Fall 2026 Journey Now!
Learning Objectives
Explore Tour Community Experiences
Mentees and mentors in this Journey are required to attend at least one Girls Write Now Community Experience each month. You can find upcoming events in your portal under the “Events” section.
Below are the Community Studio weeks for the Fall 2025 cycle. Registration for Community Studios opens on the first day of each month throughout the cycle.
- November studio period: 11/10-11/25
- December studio period: 12/8-12/19
- January studio period: 1/12-1/26
Explore Tour Courses
Horror: Becoming an Architect of Terror
This course is designed to provide insight into the genre, how it’s executed across mediums, various icons in the sphere of horror, and prompts to write your own horror story.
Graphic Design Fundamentals
This course is designed to provide budding writers with essential graphic design skills to enhance their storytelling and engage their audience. Through a blend of hands-on projects and discussions, students will learn how to create visually appealing content that complements their writing.
Poetry 101
In this mini course, you will learn about poetic form and poetic devices, explore sharing your writing in multimedia and learn to reimagine your writing through revision.
Magical Realism
In this mini course, you will learn the history of the genre, understand the nuances of the genre, explore transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary and drafting your own original pieces.
Photopoetry: A Synthesis of Photography
In this course you will learn about composition and angles in photography, delve into similarities and differences between poems and photographs, and explore how photopoetry unites poets and photographers.
Podcasting Fundamentals
This course is designed to help develop your overall knowledge of podcast genres and to get you started with basic podcast creation. Specific topics range from writing for an audio format to best recording practices at home.
Romance Fiction
This course is designed to help develop your understanding of the romance genre. Specific topics range from subgenres, tropes, and back cover copy for romance novels.
Social Media Fundamentals. This course is designed to give you the tools you need to create engaging, relevant, and impactful social media for your personal projects, brands, and any kind of professional account. Even for the chronically online, this course will provide new and valuable insights for how to get the most out of social media for yourself or your brand.
Video Fundamentals
This mini-course explores the three key stages of video production—pre-production, production, and post-production—while introducing techniques that help bring compelling content to life.
and more…
Explore Tour Mentoring
Mentees and mentors in the Explore Tour Journey will be matched for one cycle. Each pair will meet two times per month and, as a pair, attend all of the community events listed above.
What Past Participants Have to Say
All Journeys within this Adventure focus on discovering new genres, mediums, and topics to inspire mentees and mentors to create together. Learn more about the other Adventures offered at Girls Write Now below.
Explore Tour is a Journey in the Explore 360 Adventure.
Explore All Journeys
Explore All Journeys
Everything Is a Story: Nonfiction that Reads like Fiction (Fall 2026)
In this Journey, mentees and mentors will explore the ways in which creative storytelling techniques can be applied to nonfiction writing of all kinds, from memoir and personal essay to op-ed and how-to articles. We will dive into what makes a story—from structural archetypes to writing that flows—and learn how to harness the power of story to make nonfiction compelling and transformative.
Wild Ideas: Nature, Science & Creativity (Fall 2026)
Created in honor of Helen Ghiradella, the biologist who uncovered the hidden architecture of butterfly wings, this Journey invites you, mentor and mentee, to explore the natural world through the complementary lenses of scientific inquiry and creative expression. Through close observation, research, and reflection, you'll investigate the forms, patterns, and processes found in nature, then build an original project—writing, visual art, media, performance, music, or a form of your own choosing—that celebrates where these disciplines meet. Along the way, you'll sharpen your powers of observation, stretch your interdisciplinary thinking, and develop the ability to translate scientific understanding into meaningful art.
Hooked on Fiction: Story Structures for Plotters, Pantsers, & Plantsers (Fall 2026)
In this Journey, we’ll tackle one of the most daunting parts of novel writing: the opening chapter. Participants will explore how to hook readers while establishing character, setting, and stakes—asking big questions like where to begin and how to share key details without overload.
Building Buzz: Publicity in the Publishing Industry (Fall 2026)
This Journey explores how social media—especially TikTok’s BookTok community—has transformed the publishing industry.
The Power of Punchlines: Stand-Up Comedy for Change (Fall 2026)
In this Journey, mentors and mentees will explore the power of comedy as a tool for social change, with a special focus on stand-up comedy. From climate change and economic inequality to LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and mental health, participants will learn how to write and perform material that blends humor with meaningful social critique.
Civil Discourse: Connection & Persuasion (Fall 2026)
In this Journey, you—mentor and mentee—will build essential skills in public speaking, argumentation, and critical thinking. Through hands-on activities and lively discussion, you'll learn to craft persuasive speeches, construct well-reasoned arguments, and present your ideas with confidence. You'll explore what makes communication land, sharpen your thinking under pressure, and practice responding to perspectives unlike your own in a structured setting. By the end, you'll be able to make your case clearly, engage in dialogue that goes somewhere, and carry these skills into academic, professional, and civic life.
Independent Study (Fall 2026)
Create your own experience with our Independent Study Journey. Mentors and mentees meet as a pair, attend events of interest, and use coursework to help plan creative projects and meet your goals.
Lead Community Change (Fall 2026)
Lead Community Change is a dynamic two-cycle Journey that harnesses the transformative power of storytelling to drive social impact. Aspiring young leaders and activists will unleash their creativity to develop and implement innovative community-based social activism projects, supported by Girls Write Now’s rich storytelling resources.
Dark Tales: A Horror Book Club (Fall 2026)
Step into the shadows of horror and discover what makes a story truly unsettling. Across three monthly book club meetings, you—mentor and mentee—will dig into close readings and lively discussion of selected works, examining how authors build suspense, conjure atmosphere, evoke fear, and use the genre to probe deeper social, psychological, and cultural questions. Together you'll unpack narrative technique, character development, and the many shapes the genre can take. By summer's end, you'll have a richer appreciation for horror, sharper critical instincts as readers, and a store of inspiration and craft to carry into your own writing. Required books this cycle: Dark Is When the Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce, The Body by Bethany C. Morrow, and I'll Watch Your Baby by Neena Viel.
Explore Tour (Fall 2026)
Explore all of the creative and storytelling pathways Girls Write Now has to offer through a multimedia, multi-genre experience that includes mini courses, exploratory studios, and one-to-one pair sessions.