Prison Writing Programs

Writers Guild Advanced

In May 2024, Crime & Compassion Inc. launched the Writers Guild,
an advanced fiction writing class for female offenders at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud, OK.

The Proof Is in the Pages!

The Writers Guild started off with 15 students, and we’re already finishing up cover design for our first self-published novel in the class.

Our student on the inside will get to hold her novel for the first time!
And she is just one of many.

Writers Guild Beginners

In June 2025, we launched Writers Guild Beginners, a class that teaches students how to write their first short story. We have 12 students in our 6-month program.
By December 2025, they will get to hold our group anthology in their hands!

What Our Students Have Learned So Far

  • Overcoming Writer’s Block & Procrastination

  • Character Sketches

  • What’s My Genre?

  • Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: A Novel Outlining Method

  • Captivating Dialogue: How to Create Realistic Conversations

  • Active Setting: How to Bring Your World to Life

  • The 4 Cs of Storytelling

  • Navigating Novel Tropes with Intention

  • Fueling Motivation for the Finish Line

  • Syntax: How to Write Pretty Words

  • Wickedly Good Villains: Finding Your Antagonist’s Saving Grace

  • Using Colors to Write Vivid Prose

  • Page-Turning Tension: How to Keep Readers in Suspense

  • The Sounds of Fiction

  • Scene vs. Summary

  • Enter the World of Self-Publishing

  • Breaking Bread: Using Food to Strengthen Setting, Culture & Character Relationships

Support writing

on the inside

One donation makes a BIG difference for our writing class!

Crime & Compassion Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. No goods or services were provided by Crime & Compassion Inc. in return for this contribution.