![The template open in Strokes: a banner picture of an empty workshop room with round tables in morning light, above the title “Workshop: [Workshop title]”.](/_next/image?url=%2F_next%2Fstatic%2Fmedia%2Fhero-light.32263725.webp&w=3840&q=75)
![The template open in Strokes: a banner picture of an empty workshop room with round tables in morning light, above the title “Workshop: [Workshop title]”.](/_next/image?url=%2F_next%2Fstatic%2Fmedia%2Fhero-dark.43e73906.webp&w=3840&q=75)
When to use it
- Writing workshops at libraries, bookstores, conferences and schools
- Half-day and full-day trainings that mix short talks, exercises and breaks
- Team workshops that have to end with a decision, a draft or a plan
- Online sessions with breakout rooms, where the timing has to be exact
- Guest sessions where the host needs your agenda and room setup in advance
How to use this template
- Write the outcomes before the agenda
A workshop differs from a talk in one way: people leave with something they made. Decide what that is first (a revised page, a draft plan, a ranked list), then the skill they will practice to make it and the decision each person takes home. Every segment on the agenda should feed one of those outcomes. A segment that feeds none is the first one to cut.
- Fill in the Time column first
Write clock times, not durations. "7:10–7:40" tells you at a glance whether you are behind; "30 min" doesn't. Budget the minutes before you pick activities, and keep about a tenth of the session unassigned. Put that buffer just before the close, so an overrun eats the buffer instead of the ending.
- Script every instruction
Most lost minutes disappear in the handover between segments. "Get into groups and discuss" produces a room full of questions. "Groups of four, the people at your table. Seven minutes each, and I'll ring a bell at every change" produces groups. Write the instructions word for word under Activity details, read them aloud once with a timer running, and put the same words on the slide.
- Keep score on the day
Pencil the actual time beside each segment as you go. Afterward, fill in "After the workshop" while you still remember which instruction confused people. Those notes turn a one-off session into one you can run again, a little better each time.
How to budget the time
Split the length by kind of activity, not by topic. The table below is a first draft for four common lengths. In every column, participants spend more time working and discussing than listening, which is the difference between a workshop and a lecture with exercises.
| Segment | 90 min | 2 hours | Half day | Full day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SegmentOpening | 90 min10 | 2 hours10 | Half day15 | Full day20 |
| SegmentInput (you talk) | 90 min15 | 2 hours20 | Half day40 | Full day70 |
| SegmentActivities | 90 min40 | 2 hours50 | Half day85 | Full day175 |
| SegmentDebriefs | 90 min12 | 2 hours15 | Half day25 | Full day55 |
| SegmentBreaks | 90 min— | 2 hours10 | Half day20 | Full day30, plus 60 for lunch |
| SegmentClose | 90 min8 | 2 hours10 | Half day15 | Full day20 |
| SegmentBuffer | 90 min5 | 2 hours5 | Half day10 | Full day20 |
Three costs hide between the rows. Moving people into new groups takes two or three minutes every time, more if chairs move. A debrief with 20 people runs long unless you ask for two or three voices rather than everyone. And the first segment after a break starts late, so put an activity there, not your densest stretch of talking. Keep any single input under about 15 or 20 minutes; if the material needs more, split it in two with an activity between.
Activities that fit a timed agenda
Choose activities by what they produce, then check that they fit the minutes you have. These are planning estimates for a group of 12 to 20. Larger groups need more time for every share-out.
| Activity | Minutes | Format | Use it to |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActivityOpening round: one question, one sentence each | MinutesAbout 1 per person | FormatWhole group | Use it toGet every voice into the room early |
| ActivityThink, pair, share | Minutes5–10 | FormatSolo, pairs, all | Use it toWarm up a question before an open discussion |
| Activity1-2-4-All | MinutesAbout 15 | FormatSolo, pairs, fours, all | Use it toCollect ideas before the loudest person sets the agenda |
| ActivityWriting sprint | Minutes10–20 | FormatSolo | Use it toProduce a draft, a list or a plan on the spot |
| ActivitySmall-group critique | Minutes7–10 per person | FormatGroups of 3–4 | Use it toGive feedback on each participant's own work |
| ActivityGallery walk | Minutes15–20 | FormatSmall groups, moving | Use it toReview every group's output without a long report-back |
| ActivityDot voting | Minutes5–10 | FormatEveryone | Use it toNarrow a long list to a few choices |
| ActivityNext-step card | Minutes5 | FormatSolo | Use it toTurn the session into one action |
1-2-4-All comes from Liberating Structures, a collection of facilitation methods developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless: a minute alone, two in pairs, five in fours, then the whole room. In a timed agenda its value is that every person has written an idea down before the group starts talking. Vary the formats as you go down the agenda, too. Three whole-group discussions in a row lose the quiet half of the room; a solo writing sprint between them brings it back.
Workshop outline example: two hours on first pages
Here is the template filled in for an evening workshop at a public library: twelve writers, each with a novel or memoir in progress, working on their opening page. The workshop, the people and the night are invented. The shape works for any two-hour session where participants bring their own material.
- When and where: Thursday, 6:30–8:30 pm, library community room, three tables of four.
- Participants: 12 adult writers with a draft in progress; most have shared their work before.
- Bring: the first page of your manuscript, double-spaced, four printed copies.
- Purpose: leave with a stronger first paragraph and a clear sense of what your opening page promises a reader.
- By the end, participants will have: heard three readers react to their page, written the question their opening raises in one sentence, and revised their first paragraph.
| Time | Segment | What happens | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time6:30–6:40 | SegmentWelcome | What happensPurpose and timings; each writer gives their name and their book in one sentence | FormatWhole group |
| Time6:40–6:55 | SegmentWhat a first page does | What happensThree jobs: a person to follow, a question, a voice. The openings of Great Expectations and Pride and Prejudice, read aloud and taken apart | FormatTalk |
| Time6:55–7:10 | SegmentMark up your page | What happensMark where your page does each job; write its question in one sentence | FormatSolo |
| Time7:10–7:40 | SegmentRead and respond | What happensEach writer reads aloud; the group responds in four steps, 7 minutes per writer | FormatGroups of 4 |
| Time7:40–7:50 | SegmentBreak | What happensCoffee; each table posts one sticky note with its most common problem | Format— |
| Time7:50–8:10 | SegmentRevision sprint | What happensRewrite the first paragraph using one reaction from your group | FormatSolo |
| Time8:10–8:20 | SegmentBefore and after | What happensRead both versions to someone from another table, who says which raises the sharper question | FormatPairs |
| Time8:20–8:25 | SegmentBuffer | What happensUnassigned | Format— |
| Time8:25–8:30 | SegmentClose | What happensOne next step on an index card; feedback form on the way out | FormatSolo |
The welcome round asks for each book in one sentence, a rough logline, so the groups know what they are about to hear before the first page is read. Only 15 of the 120 minutes are the facilitator talking. The activity that matters most gets its own details section, with the instructions written out.
Instructions, as said aloud: "Stay at your table; that's your group. Decide who reads first. You have seven minutes each, and I'll ring the bell at every change. Reader, read your page once, without apologizing for it first. Then the group goes through four steps."
- Each listener says, in one sentence, what stayed with them.
- The writer asks the group one question about the page.
- Listeners ask neutral questions, with no opinion hidden inside. "What time of year is it?" is neutral. "Why open with the weather?" is not.
- Listeners give an opinion only if the writer agrees to hear it.
If it runs long: skip step 4 for the last writer at the table and take the minutes from the buffer.
On the night, two tables ran six minutes over because a writer was asked to read a second time. The buffer absorbed five minutes and the before-and-after swap gave up one, so the close still started at 8:25. Under "After the workshop" the facilitator wrote two changes: allow eight minutes per writer, and send the reminder about printed copies two days earlier, because three people arrived with only one.
Running a workshop online
- Shorter sittings. Plan 90 minutes or less at a time, and split a full-day workshop into two or three sessions on different days.
- Instructions people can reread. Paste every instruction into the chat or a shared document before you open breakout rooms, so people inside the rooms can still check what they are meant to do.
- A minute for every move. Add time each time people go into or come back from breakout rooms, and give a one-minute warning before the rooms close.
- Shared pages instead of flip charts. Use a shared document or whiteboard for sticky notes and group output, and test everyone's edit access before the session, not during it.
- A chat waterfall to open. Everyone types an answer to the opening question and presses send at the same moment, which is faster than a spoken round and keeps the first answer from steering the rest.
Where workshop outlines go wrong
- Too much input. If the Talk rows add up to more than the activity rows, the session is a lecture. Move the extra material into a handout.
- No Output column. Without it, an activity can end in a pleasant conversation that leaves nothing on paper for the next segment to build on.
- Instructions left to the moment. Improvised instructions are longer and vaguer than written ones, and the questions they produce cost more time than writing them would have.
- The close is the buffer. With no buffer in the plan, the ending becomes one, and people leave without writing down the next step that was the point of the session.
- One format all the way down. Two hours of small-group discussion tires a room as surely as two hours of slides. Mix solo, pair, group and whole-room work.
For a series of sessions, the course outline template maps the weeks around each workshop, and for a single class period the lesson plan template adds standards and differentiation. If the input segments are the hard part, see how to start a presentation. Writers who leave a workshop like the one above wanting regular feedback can look for a critique partner or beta readers.
Frequently asked questions
What should a workshop outline include?
The purpose and two or three outcomes, the logistics, a preparation checklist, an agenda with clock times, formats and outputs, word-for-word instructions for each activity, a plan for running late, and the follow-up. Participants see the agenda; the rest is for the facilitator.
What is the difference between a workshop outline and a workshop agenda?
The agenda is the timed list of segments, the part you share with participants or put on the wall. The outline is the facilitator's full plan around it: outcomes, instructions, materials, what to cut if time runs short, and the follow-up.
How many activities fit into an hour?
Usually two, each with a short input before it and a debrief after. Every activity needs time to explain, time to do and time to share, and the explaining and sharing take longer than most first drafts allow.
How long should a workshop be?
Long enough for participants to practice the main skill at least twice. Ninety minutes to two hours suits one skill, a half day fits two or three related skills, and a full day needs real breaks and a lunch. Online, consider splitting anything longer than 90 minutes into separate sessions.
