Workshops for Writers - September 12: Writing the Novella
Join the St. Louis Writers Guild from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. CDT on Saturday, September 12, 2026, for an ONLINE ONLY workshops on novella writing.
Author Kathy L. Brown will join us via ZOOM for this FREE presentation. To attend the meeting online, follow the event link from the St. Louis Writers Guild website. Due to renovations, The Lodge Des Peres is closed for meetings in September.
Does Your Story Want to Be a Novella?
For many writers, novellas as a literary form are an afterthought. However, these stories are hot right now! But this form isn’t new; novella have a long and popular heritage.
In this interactive session, author Kathy L. Brown will invite attendees to:
Learn the basic characteristics of the novella and why it is an effective storytelling format.
Brainstorm their own story ideas that would work well as novellas.
Explore writing-process specifics geared toward novella storytelling.
Come prepared to start building a story and ask lots of questions. Bonus points for your favorite novella recommendations!
Kathy L. Brown writes speculative fiction with a historical twist. Her hometown---St. Louis, Missouri, USA---and its history inspire many of her stories. The haunted 1920s world of the Sean Joye Investigations book series was conceived in a creative writing workshop in 2004. The idea wouldn’t go away, and Kathy published two Sean Joye novellas (The Resurrectionist and Water of Life) while working on her first novel, The Big Cinch, which won the 2022 Imadjinn award for best urban fantasy novel. Montag Press published her second novel, The Talking Cure, in 2025. Kathy is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFFWA) and the St. Louis Writers Guild. Find her online at kathylbrown.com.