Middle Grade Workshop with Julie Scheina, Summer 2025
May 29th, 2025 - September 3rd, 2025
with Julie Scheina
A three-month workshop for writers seeking story-level feedback on their Middle Grade projects to take their work to the next level.
In this workshop, you will work with senior development editor, Julie Scheina, and a small group of writers (up to 4 others) on the first 15,000 words of your novels in process, over two rounds. The workshop includes written feedback from Julie and your peers, live calls to debrief each round, and a group discussion board.
The workshop begins with an introductory group call to meet the other members and discuss workshop expectations. Then you will submit the first 7,500 words of your project for feedback, plus a short synopsis (this is for your readers and will not be critiqued). You have three weeks to read and post your written critiques of participants work. Round 1 critiques are followed by a group debrief call where you can dig into questions about the notes and/or brainstorm with Julie about revisions. You will then submit your next 7,500 words for peer and professional feedback (either a revision of round 1, or the next section of your book). The group concludes with a second group debrief call.
What to expect from your written critiques: Julie will provide a detailed critique on your pages addressing character development, plot development, pacing, and sentence-level writing tips to take your pages to the next level. It will not include full line-edits.
*This workshop has a zero tolerance policy against racist, sexist, harassing, or otherwise offensive behavior. Writers who engage in this behavior against the instructor or fellow writers, or present material that promotes this behavior, will be removed from the workshop without a refund.
<p>This is an application based workshop. Please click above to apply. Writers may take one MG workshop per season. The spring/summer season runs from April 15th - Aug 14th. If spaces are available one month prior to a workshop starting, writers will be able to register for a second workshop. Writers will be accepted on a rolling basis.</p>
Notes
Who this workshop is for: <p>This workshop welcomes writers working on MG fiction stories. Julie is excited to read submissions in prose across genres.</p><p>Writers are expected to be at an intermediate level of writing craft, or above. Writers may have achieved this through self-study of books and exercises, or organized instruction such as classes, workshops, or webinars. Writers should be familiar with elements of craft such as characterization, plot, internal arc, pacing and voice in order to offer craft-rooted feedback to their peers.</p>
Focus: Children's - Middle Grade - Contemporary fiction - Children'…
Group size: 5 writers
Submissions: Round 1: first 7500 words plus a synopsis; Round 2: 7500 words.
Fee
Members: $415; Non-members: $465