WEIRDO SCHOOL: HOW TO WRITE LIKE YOU

WEIRDO SCHOOL: HOW TO WRITE LIKE YOU

~ Charisma, Stamina & Style ~

Length: 3x2 hour workshops (6 hours total)

Workshop Recording Date: May 2026

Facilitator: Sophie Robinson 

WEIRDO SCHOOL is a set of 3 two hour workshops (6 hours total) designed to help you create charismatic, original and vital writing in an age of AI slop, mimetic “content”. Taking inspiration from the writers and artists who knew how to cut through the noise and make it the world seem new, we’ll explore how to make your writing sound as vital and weird as you.

The usual Devotion rules apply: no homework, no prep, and no prior experience needed; just bring yourself and a pen and we’ll do the rest together.

Our Muses:

Alice Notley, Bernadette Mayer, Lucille Clifton, Warsan Shire, Gertrude Stein, Yoko Ono, John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Madeline Cash, Samuel Delany, Lucy Ellmann, Dodie Bellamy, Nicole Eisenmann, Tracey Emin, Carolee Schneemann, John Waters, Wong Kar-Wai, Chantal Ackerman, David Lynch

We’ll practice:

how to sound exactly like ourselves

how to describe the world with preciseness and vitality

how to write urgent and vital sentences

how to use aphorisms and anachronisms like an esoteric baddie

how to love verbs and treat them well

how to be sentimental and get away with it

how to be weirder! than! necessary! about punctuation

how to write in a way that makes you want to keep writing, a way that makes the language a mirror for the world, a way that makes others want to keep reading, a way that makes you remember why you used to love this, all of it; a way that makes it seem less like the end of everything —

REDUX//RECORDINGS FROM THE DEVOTION WORKSHOP ARCHIVES

REDUX is your chance to dip into our archive of workshop recordings and purchase past courses at a lower rate to take in your own time.

Each workshop will take you through a series of writing prompts and allow you to write in “real” time along with live participants.

Upon purchase you will receive an email with a link to all course materials, and a password. Purchase of the course grants you 12 months access to all the video recordings of the workshop, as well as extensive written and audio materials, prompts, and further reading.

SOPHIE ROBINSON is a poet, novelist, nonfiction writer and teacher. She is the author of Prairie Oyster (2026) and Rabbit (2018). Her writing has been published in Granta, The Guardian, Stylist, BOMB Magazine, The Believer, N+1, The Poetry Review and The White Review. 

Sophie founded Devotion in 2020 as a radical, inclusive and accessible creative writing workshop space. She was previously a full time assistant professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia for ten years, and has facilitated public creative writing workshops at the Tate, the V&A, the ICA, the British Library, Arvon, The Poetry Society, and The National Poetry Library.

Devotion workshop testimonials

‘Despite years of formal education, I never had as meaningful an opportunity to develop my craft. Devotion fosters and nurtures a thoughtful, inclusive space for people to grow in their writing and their practice.’

‘I have attended every Devotion workshop so far & every time has been incredible. T he mix of poetry, music, film & art as inspiration makes it so stimulating & like a little party for the heart - because that's what Devotion seems to access, subtle connections to feeling.

‘Devotion has become a must in my life now & I would probably cancel most other things to be there because it does something that nothing else has ever done for me in my writing & has changed me in other more spiritual senses too. The space is nurturing & allows for everybody to be who they need to be on any given day.’

Refund Policy

Please note: This is an archival recording of a previously live Devotion workshop.
Your purchase includes access to the workshop recording and any accompanying materials listed on this page. Due to the digital nature of the product and immediate access being provided after purchase, archival workshop recordings are non-refundable.

Recordings and materials are for personal use only and must not be shared, copied, redistributed or reproduced without permission.