Writing Between Inheritance and Identity: 1:1 Workshop for First-Generation Creatives

Some of us were loved in translation.

There’s the story you were raised in — and the one you’re beginning to write.

This workshop is a space to shape both.

You’ve been told your story is powerful.

But when you try to write it, it feels:

  • Too heavy

  • Too simplified

  • Too much to hold

You don’t want to reduce your parents to trauma.
You don’t want to romanticize struggle.
You don’t want to perform identity.

But you want to write as yourself. You want to write something honest.

This is a space to do that.

You will leave with pages and a clearer sense of how to turn lived experience into creative work.

Reserve your spot

A 90-minute, one-on-one writing session designed for first-generation American creatives who want hands-on collaboration.

We’ll move through guided writing sprints and narrative prompts designed to help you:

  • Draft new personal narrative work

  • Work through narrative blocks

  • Refine existing pieces

  • Explore inherited beliefs about love and identity

  • Shape lived experience into written material

We’ll screen share and line edit. We’ll strengthen voice. We’ll shape and strengthen structure in real time.

It’s an editorial collaboration rooted in care and craft.

What is this workshop about?

Book a Writing Workshop

If this resonates, you’re invited to step into the work below:

Additional details:

  • This focused writing-intensive experience is shaped around your work. The structure adapts to where you are in your writing process.

  • Availability is intentionally limited to maintain depth and care.

  • For this spring series, five private sessions are available at a Founding Edition rate. Future sessions will be offered at an adjusted rate.

What to Expect

  • This is a private, 90-minute writing-intensive. We’ll work directly on your writing — drafting, revising, and shaping language in real time.

  • We’ll screen share and move through your draft together. Expect thoughtful questions, line-level suggestions, and editorial insight that helps clarify voice, structure, and more.

  • Each session adapts to where you are in the writing process — whether you’re starting a new piece, working through a block, or refining something already written.

  • My role isn’t to rewrite your story, but to help you hear it more clearly. We’ll focus on scene, specificity, and precision while protecting your voice on the page.

  • This is about shaping your story, not producing something perfect. You’re invited to experiment, revise, and explore without needing to arrive with a concrete idea.

  • You’ll leave with revised pages, clear editorial direction, and a stronger sense of how to move your piece forward.

Meet Our Host & Facilitator

Erika Ramirez

Erika Ramirez is a writer and founder of ILY, an interdisciplinary studio and brand exploring love across cultures and generations. With 15-plus years shaping narratives at the intersection of media and identity, she brings both creative rigor and lived understanding to the page.

What does life look like before and after this writing workshop?

Before, you might have:

  • Notes app fragments you don’t know how to shape

  • Half-written essays you keep abandoning

  • A sense that your story is important, but unclear

  • A lot of lived experience with no container

  • The feeling of being between cultures with no language for it

  • A desire to write, but no structure or time carved out

After, you’ll have:

  • 2-3 new or revised, drafted pieces rooted in your lived experience — shaped through narrative lenses drawn from our Love In Translation universe

  • A repeatable way to approach personal narrative

  • Language for experiences that felt hard to name

  • Clear structural direction and momentum

You are first-generation and …

  • Are navigating dual identities or feel caught between cultures

  • Want to write personal narrative or creative nonfiction

  • Want to write about your family or upbringing

  • Are called to write, but don’t need to be a writer

  • Want structure without rigidity

  • Want craft without pressure

  • Want to explore identity, family, and love through language

This writing workshop is for you if:

  • "What I love most is the flexibility. I can go at my own pace, revisit lessons, and keep learning whenever it works for me."

    Former Customer

  • "Even as a total beginner, I never felt lost. The step-by-step structure and encouragement along the way made all the difference."

    Former Customer

  • "This has been such a worthwhile investment in myself."

    Former Customer

Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime.

If you’re feeling ready, register for the workshop.

FAQ
Register

  • If you’re curious about writing and drawn to exploring identity, family, and belonging through language, this is for you.

    You don’t need experience.

  • You don’t need to identify as one. This is about writing pages, not being polished.

  • You’ll receive a support email in your confirmation message.

  • Full refunds are available if canceled within 48 hours of registration.