WORKSHOPS AND CREATIVE COMMUNITY FOR WRITERS

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Past Events

UNSTUCK: 6 WEEKS TO REVIVE A PROJECT / Remote on Zoom / Apr-May 2025

You want to finish this book, this essay collection, this proposal, this screenplay… but you can’t seem to force yourself to open the document. The Midwives are here to help, as long as you’re ready to get intense. How? With six weeks of constructive confrontations designed to help you reconnect to your internal creative drive and understand how you work most effectively. Featuring Guest Writer Jami Attenberg!

IDEAS INTENSIVE / Remote on Zoom / Apr 2025

Where do you get your ideas? It’s a question writers hear all the time. But we should all be asking: How do you develop your ideas? We have a clear-cut, proven strategy for evolving your writing ideas so that they are more urgent, more actionable, more exciting. In this three-hour workshop, our focus is on getting to the heart of your project so you can write with a sense of purpose and follow through to the end.

UNFURL: 12 WEEKS TO YOUR FIRST DRAFT / Remote on Zoom / Jan-Apr 2025

A workshop designed for anyone who has a story to tell, but isn't sure the world wants to listen. Over the course of three months, we'll show you how to find the core of your idea and make it so resonant and relevant that you'll stop wondering whether anyone cares what you have to say. Because you'll know that your story matters. You’ll leave with a complete draft of a short story or personal essay. Everything you need to not just call yourself a writer, but to be a writer. This is the year. Featuring Guest Writers Ed Yong and Jacqueline Woodson!

PEN TO POWER: A CO-WRITING FUNDRAISER / Remote on Zoom / Jan 2025

Instead of crying alone on Inauguration Day, spend some time in (online) community with a group of fellow writers and turn your rage into words on the page! 100% of proceeds will be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds. Think of it as a walkathon for bookish types who hate fascism.

BIG IDEA WEEKEND / In person in Los Angeles, CA / Oct 2023

An intimate, two-day retreat focused on the concept at the heart of your project. We have a clear-cut, proven strategy for evolving your writing ideas so that they are more urgent, more actionable, more exciting. Day 1 was all about generating and developing writing projects, with a portfolio of actionable techniques (and clear examples!). Day 2 concentrated on the Why and the How — essential for any good project.

UNSTUCK RETREAT / In person in Taos, NM / May 2023

A reset. A springboard. A week on a gorgeous, century-old adobe ranch surrounded by fruit trees under the Taos Mountains. We gathered 34 writers to share our vetted strategies and surprising techniques for strengthening their writing ideas. They got the behind-the-scenes dirt on our own processes and pitfalls. And they clocked some serious word-counts on their individual projects.

Taos 2023

About the Midwives

We’re Jade Chang and Ann Friedman, two best-selling authors and national magazine writers who have been leading workshops as the Midwives of Invention since 2018. Between us we have written best-selling fiction and non-fiction books, published pioneering newsletters, edited magazines, written for beloved television shows, and created podcasts and audio essays. We are also friends who live in Los Angeles.

We’ve had countless conversations about deepening an idea, shaping a concept so that it feels vital and rich, and knowing when a project is worth the time and effort. Our workshops are about sharing those conversations with you. For us, coming up with ideas, crafting sentences, and revising drafts is actually fun, and doing it in community is the best part.

Jade Chang

Jade’s debut novel, The Wangs vs. the World was named one of the best books of the year by NPR, Elle, and Amazon. The bestselling novel was optioned by Hulu and has been published in twelve countries. She is also a film and TV writer (The Baby-Sitters Club, Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld) and has written and voiced two non-fiction audio projects: The List (Amazon Originals) and You’ve Already Changed Your Life (Audible). Her journalism and essays have appeared in LA Times Image Magazine, The NY Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Best American Food Writing, and others. Jade’s new novel, What a Time to Be Alive, will be published by Ecco Books in 2025.

Ann Friedman

Ann is the co-author of the New York Times best-seller Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close. She is a newsletter innovator whose long-running Ann Friedman Weekly has more than 50,000 devoted readers. She co-created the beloved Call Your Girlfriend podcast, and for many years she was a columnist for both The Cut and The Los Angeles Times. Her essays and reported features have been published in The New Yorker, ELLE, The Guardian, Bon Appétit, and more. She is a contributing editor to The Gentlewoman, where she writes short essays and cover profiles of fascinating women. And she’s working on a new book about modern adulthood, to be published by Viking Books in 2026.

 Testimonials

Here are some nice things that attendees have said about our workshops and retreats:

  • “It's hard to distill something as broad as ‘coming up with an idea’ into clear points and actionable items, but you both did amazing at this.”

  • “A game changer for me.”

  • “I’m leaving with what feels like a very full toolbox for approaching something new.”

  • “Both of you have been very generous with what you’ve shared about your own work and processes, and I really appreciate the inclusive, encouraging environment you’ve created.”

  • “I was genuinely riveted.”

  • “Everything, from the ability to work on my own ideas, to the advice and information we were given from two successful writers/editors, to how much thought and planning went into making sure we stayed on task and covered a lot of ground, make this the best professional workshop I've ever attended.”

  • “I feel unstuck and my project feels… midwifed.”

  • “You loosened my grip and allowed me to fall in love with being an artist again.”

  • “A huge THANK YOU for facilitating what was honestly a transformative experience for me.”

  • “I wrote 5,000 words!”

  • “It’s possible this ruined me for all other writing retreats. Obsessed with this entire week—and beyond grateful.”