Writer's Detention

WRITER'S DETENTION

THURSDAYS | 5:30-7:30PM

Weekly writers workshops for adults of all skill and experience levels. For anyone who has a story to tell, but needs to be pushed to do it. Drop-in.

COST: FREE

AGES: AGES: 18+ or 13+ with an accompanying adult

LOCATION: PLAY Studio

Detention for Writers is a two hour weekly commitment to whatever project you’ve been promising yourself you’ll get to "someday."

Here’s How it Works:

No need to sign-up. Writer's Detention is a weekly drop in event. Typical detentions have between 5 and 15 participants. Bring your preferred writing device. Laptops and notebooks are equally welcome. 

Phones should be turned off and physically distanced from your body in order to prevent   habitual phone checks. 

These types of phone checks do not just break your own concentration, they also cause the others around you to want to reach for their own devices. Since this is what Detention is intended to prevent, if you cannot be "out of touch" for 90 minutes, Writer's Detention is not for you. 

Active writing time is 90 minutes. At 6:55 pm the administrator will call for "detainees" to find a place to close their work for the evening. 

At 7pm, writers meet to discuss the challenges of the practice of writing. This discussion is optional but for many people it is the most rewarding part of detention. 

The discussion is kept to process not project. Often a writer will express a frustration with a particular aspect of writing and other writers will offer how they addressed that challenge on their own. Milestones are celebrated and set backs are commiserated. Discussion ends at 7:30 sharp. 

Evidence it Works: 

Since Writer's Detention began in February of 2026, attendees have used their time in detention to finish novels, screenplays, songs, short stories, lesson plans, graphic novels, plays and even role playing games. Books have been finished. Collections of poetry have been published. There's even a social media post written in Writer's Detention (as a writing warm up) that has been viewed over 20 million times. 

Here's Why It Works: 

Writing requires uninterrupted thought. Digital connection makes spaces where that kind of thinking is possible harder and harder to find. People now take zoom meetings in coffee shops. We are expected to keep slack channels open constantly. We are made to feel as if we must be always available to others, even when that availability prevents good work. 

Writer's Detention uses social enforcement to give you the space to force yourself to disconnect from the world and connect to your work. In detention if you check your phone or go online, it's not just your concentration you are breaking, but the concentration of every other person present. 

Detainees have said that simply being in a room in which the only sound was the sound of keyboards clacking has caused them to concentrate more. 

You will write for or you will face the blank page.

Prompts will be available for people who need a jump start. Whether you write one word or a thousand words, at the end of the session you will spend the timing working and getting closer to your goal!

When the 90 minutes is up, detention is over. 

You can chose to hang out for another 30 minutes  and get to know the other people who also put themselves into detention… kind of like The Breakfast Club. There will be a place for grabbing beverages and getting to know your fellow detainees/ writers. 

INSTRUCTOR: Bridget Foley

PARTICIPANTS WILL LEARN:

• To give themselves a dedicated space to work on their "someday" project. Perfect for writing outlines, novels, screenplays, business plans, course work, etc.

TAKEAWAYS:

• Finally getting started on that project you've been putting off.

MATERIALS TO BRING:

• Whatever you use to write (laptop, notebook, pens)

BRIDGET'S INSPIRATION FOR THIS WORKSHOP:

The inspiration for Writer’s Detention was my friend’s teenage son.

The high school had been calling him every day about his son being late to his first class. The kid is a straight-A student, but this had been going on for months.

So finally, my friend asks his son what the deal was… and this kid, dare I say this genius, tell his dad “When I’m late to class I don’t really miss anything important and the punishment for being late is that I have to do detention.”

So, his dad asks, “Don’t you hate detention?” 

And his son says, “Why would I? I get my best work done there.” 

Now I’m a professional novelist, but when I heard that story, I was jealous that I don’t have a class I can be late to so that I can be put in detention… and get my best work done.

Most creative people struggle to carve out time to actually make the thing that exists in their head...and when they do, a lot of us get distracted and wind up spending time on our phones. Or answering emails. Or editing older work.

But what if there was a weekly detention you could go to? Where would someone monitor you and make sure you’re facing the blank page? Not a coffee shop with screeching machines and chatty customers. And not a writer’s group with a bunch of people asking for feedback. But an actual, non-internet connected, check your phone at the door, sit down and "do your time" detention? 

Welcome to Writer's Detention.