Writing Workshops

300 Words a Day: Crush Writer’s Block and Build a Habit with Pablo Ottonello (March 2025)

$295

4 Sessions

Out of stock

Once a week Thursdays, 7:00 pm EDT - 9:00 pm EDT March 20 to April 10, 2025

Online via Zoom

The idea of the “perfect” piece may be overwhelming. What if I told you there’s a way to keep your writing flowing, even when life gets chaotic? In this workshop, we’ll explore the literary diary—your secret weapon for consistent creativity.

Diaries are open and free. There are no rules, just the possibility of expression. By definition, diaries are unfinished: no need to worry about deadlines. We all know the struggle of carving out large blocks of time for writing, but what if you could tap into your creativity in just ten minutes a day? The literary diary makes it possible. It’s a lifeline for writers, a place where you can always find time to connect with your craft, even if it’s just to lament the lack of time!

When does voice appear? What makes a diary readable and interesting? Why would one’s random thoughts be appealing to a reader? We’ll uncover the secrets that turn seemingly random thoughts into compelling narratives that resonate with readers. We will explore Kafka’s musings and complaints about feeling “unfit” for life; we will delve into John Cheever’s keen observations of American life; we will take a look at Sei Shōnagon’s poetic reflection on court life (in her famous diary from the Heian period); we will explore Susan Sontag’s and Roland Barthes’s intellectual approaches to diaries; we will explore May Sarton and Sarah Manguso’s hybrid use of the diary form. But above all, we will build muscle by writing our own entries on a daily basis. After a month, we will be surprised by the results.

Course Outline:

This course is structured into four sessions, presenting a straightforward challenge: to produce a minimum of one written entry each day. How long? 300 hundred words. This commitment remains regardless of immediate inspiration, even if the content expresses a lack of ideas.

During each session, participants will share their writing from the preceding week and comment on the week’s assigned readings. While establishing new habits can be demanding, cultivating a daily writing practice is highly beneficial for a writer’s overall development and productivity.

Session one: Introduction to the diary.
- Critical Introduction to the readings: What is a diary?
- Description of the course methodology: writing every day for 30 days.
- Finding our “model” diary: excerpts from famous literary diaries.
Session two: Sharing experiences after one week of daily writing.
- Participants read selected excerpts.
- Discussion: Kafka, Diaries. Blanchot, “The Diary and the Story”.
- Prompts for the following session:
  - Writing about Reading: how does literature appear in our diaries.
  - Writing about Unfinished Projects.
  - Writing about People: family, partners, lovers, coleagues.
  - Writing about Writing.
Session three: Habit kicks in. What has changed?
- Participants read selected excerpts.
- Discussion: Katherine Mansfield, Diaries. Barthes, Deliberation. Susan Sontag (on making lists)
- Prompts: Making lists (inspired in Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book)
  - Things I find irritating.
  - Things I dislike.
  - Things I find delightful.
Session four: How to keep going and why. Bridging Genres: The Diary’s Evolution as a Hybrid Form.
- Participants read selected excerpts.
- Discussion: May Sarton, Diary of a Solitude. Sarah Manguso, Ongoingness. The End of a Diary. John Cheever, Diaries.
Wrapping up: Writing plans for the future.

This course is held online via Zoom.

Led by

Pablo Ottonello

Pablo Ottonello

Pablo Ottonello (Buenos Aires, 1983) is a writer, screenwriter, and literary critic. He graduated from Torcuato Di Tella University and from Universidad del Cine, holds an MFA in Spanish Creative Writing from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in Hispanic and Luso- Brazilian Literature from the University of Chicago. He was awarded the Humanities Teaching Fellowship at the University of Chicago (2023-2025). Celebrated as a prolific figure in Argentinian literature, his published works include Quiero ser artista (2015), El verano de los peces muertos (2017), Veteranos de la Guerra del día (2018), El vello álmico (2019), La breve luz de nuestros días (2020), Satisfaction (2021), Match (2023) and Defensa de la compulsión (in print, 2025).

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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