Instructor: Adrian Van Young
Genre: Narrative
Number of Sessions: 1
Meets:  1 – 4 PM CT
Dates: Saturday, October 17, 2026
Where: Burnt Canoe Studios (4820 Banks St, New Orleans, LA 70119)
Cost: Two first come discounted spots for BIPOC students at $77.50/ $70 Early Bird until October 5, 2026.

Note: If you’ve taken Adrian’s previous suspense-oriented workshop, “On the Edge of Your Seat,” this workshop is not a repeat.

This hands-on workshop is for any fiction writer–genre or literary–who wants to create visceral, palpable suspense on the page. We’ll take a deep dive into the fragile and powerful craft of suspense, including the narrative mechanics of building tension in-scene, atmosphere and setting as the handmaidens of discomfort, and the importance of withholding on the page. Short excerpts from contemporary writers will offer participants key insights into techniques for building suspense in fiction, before we move on to custom, guided exercises designed to generate material that will keep your readers on the edge of their seats.

As your instructor, I’ve spent decades writing and editing dark, suspenseful stories and novels that subvert genre expectations and leave readers feeling haunted and squirmy, so I’ll also be sharing personal experiences from my own writing process, including choices and challenges I faced in writing my latest novel, Rough Beast, a New Orleans noir psychological thriller. In short, I’ll be offering up to the class what I wish someone had shown me eons ago.

Test your skills: tuition includes written feedback from the instructor on a scene to be submitted via email in the week after the workshop. 2000 words max.”