100% free Applications open
Five courses on magic systems, characters, plot and dialogue, taught live by two writers who have done the work themselves. We brainstorm with you and read your pages with you, in the call, while you're there to argue back. There's an application first so we know what you're working on before we start.
Each course has its own application. Answer like you mean it.
The courses
Apply for the one your draft needs most, or for all of it. Every course is free. Places are limited because of how the sessions run: the four craft courses put both of us in the room with one student, and the Codex runs one to one.
How to create a good magic system
Every system needs a price. Work out what your magic costs before you work out what it does, and most of the other decisions get easier. Readers remember the limits far longer than they remember the powers.
How to create a good character
Why would anyone follow this person into the dark? Want against need, flaws that cost them something, change that hurts.
How to create a good plot
Where the acts turn, why middles sag, and how to plant a twist early enough that it's fair when it arrives. Endings get their own attention, because they're the part most drafts run out of energy before reaching.
How to create good dialogue
People rarely say what they mean, and dialogue that states feelings outright reads flat for that reason. We work on the gap between what gets said and what's meant.
The complete program Start to finish
Everything
The whole road, built around one book. Yours. All four craft courses run end to end, plus the parts that don't fit in a single lesson: worldbuilding, prose and voice, revision, and getting the finished thing in front of readers.
It's the longest commitment we offer and the one we take fewest people onto, because every lesson is aimed at the manuscript on your desk rather than at writing in general. You leave with a draft in hand.
Only available if you have a novel or similar project in progress.
How we teach
Video lectures on craft are not in short supply. Someone reading your pages with you is harder to come by, and it is the part that changes a draft.
Stuck on a magic system, or a second act that won't hold? We work it out live, in the call.
We write at the same time, on the same call, so there's someone to ask when a sentence refuses to come.
Line by line, out loud, while you're there to ask why.
Who teaches
Between us, we've drafted, rewritten, and published enough to know which advice survives contact with a real manuscript.
Writes serial fantasy, currently deep in a novel. Takes the Codex solo, and shares the other four with Grace.
Fantasy writer. Specializes in romantasy and relationship tropes. Runs the four craft courses alongside Prime Quill.
How it works
Pick the course you want and apply to that one. Everything after it is teaching.
Every course has its own application: who you are, what you're working on, and a handful of writing prompts. The prompts are the real part. We're reading how you think about a story. Polish and prior knowledge matter far less here than you'd expect.
Accepted or not, you get a reply and a reason. If it's a no, it's usually timing or fit. Applications never close, so you're welcome to try again whenever you're ready.
An orientation call before the first lesson: what you want out of the course, what you're bringing to it, and how often you'll meet.
Live sessions on whatever the draft needs that week. Between them: targeted exercises, a deadline you have to answer to, and feedback that tells you what isn't working and why. More on how we teach.
Questions before you start? Email us at primequill981@gmail.com – use it for anything you want to ask. Applications themselves go through each course's own form.
Why it's free
“Nobody charged us when we were starting out.”
We learned from writers who read our terrible early drafts for nothing. This is how we pay it back. There's no premium tier, no upsell at the end, and nothing to buy. We just want more good fantasy in the world.
This is a nonprofit program. That doesn't mean we take everyone. What we spend on this is hours rather than money, and there are only so many of those between the two of us. They go to the writers who will use them.
Why we use pen names
This is a side project rather than a shop window for our own books, and we'd rather be judged on whether we improve your manuscript than on whether our writing happens to suit you. It is also why there are no follower counts on this page. Pointing at the numbers would point at us.
Applications open
Every application gets read, and every one gets a reply.
Expect a reply within a week. No fee at any stage. If anyone asks you for money in Inkwright's name, it isn't us.