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 Pre-Enroll in a Spring 2027 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
Lead Community Change (Fall 2024-Spring 2025)
Lead Community Change is a dynamic two-cycle journey that harnesses the transformative power of storytelling to drive social impact. Mentees in this initiative will unleash their creativity to develop innovative projects that make a meaningful difference in their local communities, all while being supported by Girls Write Now’s rich storytelling resources. This journey is designed for aspiring young leaders and activists who are eager to create and implement impactful community-based social activism projects. With a personalized approach, we tailor our support to meet the unique needs of each initiative, empowering participants to bring their visions to life and inspire change in their communities.
The Lead Incubator (Fall 2024-Spring 2025)
The Lead Incubator is a crucial extension of the Lead Community Change journey, offering mentees the space, resources, and support needed to implement their project plans and drive meaningful change in their communities. It acts as a dynamic platform where they can turn their ideas into action. Mentees participating in the Lead Incubator focus on advancing their community-based social activism projects with the support of their mentors and Girls Write Now’s resources. They will take on leadership roles, facilitate a community studio, and develop an episode of the Lead Podcast, interviewing an expert relevant to their project’s cause.
Screenwriting (Spring 2025)
The Screenwriting Journey is an immersive program designed for aspiring screenwriters eager to master the art and craft of storytelling for the screen. Whether one dreams of writing for Hollywood blockbusters, indie films, or television series, this program provides a comprehensive exploration of the essential elements and techniques of screenwriting. By the end of the Journey, participants will have developed a solid foundation in screenwriting, equipped with the tools and knowledge to start crafting their own compelling stories for film. Whether you're new to screenwriting or looking to enhance your existing skills, join us on this creative exploration and bring their cinematic visions to life.
Poetry (Spring 2025)
Join us for an immersive journey into the art and craft of poetry through the lens of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, renowned for its dedication to celebrating African American poetic traditions. The curriculum draws inspiration from the rich legacy of African American poetry, reflecting on themes of history, identity, social justice, and personal narrative. Mentees will have the chance to interact with guest poets, participate in workshops, and collaborate on creative projects that challenge and inspire their own poetic expression.
Advocacy Journalism (Spring 2025)
Leverage creativity and interest in world events, storytelling, and media technology to help shape society. You’ll learn how journalists pitch stories, interview subjects, write news articles and maintain high ethical standards. Great for mentees who would like to be journalists.
Love Well (Spring 2025)
The Love Well Journey focuses on building self-esteem and confidence through increased self-awareness and empowerment within the Girls Write Now community. Using guided prompts to elicit metacognitive writing, journal entries to encourage self-reflection, and specially tailored courses to promote further learning, this journey will guide you to explore your feelings in a structured and safe way.
Perspectives on Publishing & Marketing (Spring 2025)
Learn about the different ways to publish creative work and the fundamentals of marketing yourself and your creations. This Journey will take mentees and mentors through the process of publishing from beginning to end. This is a great opportunity to learn about the publishing industry from employees who work in in the field. Perfect for mentees who would like to be published or work in publishing. With the information gained in this Journey, you will be ready to enter the publishing industry as employees and writers. You will have the knowledge you need to create change in an industry that needs your fresh perspectives.
Perspectives on Editorial (Spring 2025)
Embrace editing as an essential aspect of writing in this journey that leads you through lessons and experiences that explore everything from line edits and grammar to the psychology of revision. Great for individuals who are interested in honing their skills for editing their own creative work (and the work of others!)
Audio Storytelling (Spring 2025)
The Audio Storytelling Journey is for mentees and mentors who want to learn about the ways publishing companies create audio books and other audible content for publication.
Perspectives on Public Policy (Fall 2024-Spring 2025)
The Perspectives on Public Policy Journey offers a comprehensive overview of public policy and its role in addressing societal challenges with a focus on inequalities, public policy frameworks, design, analysis, and justification.
