Author: Sharla Yates

The confusions and contradictions you notice in yourself and the world are your richest source of material.

For essayists and creative nonfiction writers | Included in the Season Pass

As humans, we seek certainty. As writers, diving into the messiness of our own opinions creates our most powerful work. Transcendent, complex works of nonfiction often depend on confusions and contradictions. A writer can intentionally build tension in an essay by identifying and illuminating paradox, contradiction, and incongruity in oneself, one’s subject, one’s culture, and the world. Leaning into and exploring contradiction is often the difference between a simple, underdeveloped draft and a powerful, published essay, article, or memoir. 

In this webinar, we’ll examine works of nonfiction, including Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz (a memoir of grief and joy intertwined), to learn how authors establish and contend with opposite principles, conflicting perspectives, and subjects that seemingly clash. You’ll also generate your own list of contradictions you can return to time and again for inspiration.

Can’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants.

In this webinar, you will:

• EXPLORE the works of master nonfiction essayists and memoirists to see how to utilize contradictions thematically and stylistically
• DISCOVER why paradox and confusion make the richest material
• PRACTICE making your own lists of contradictions for future inspiration

You should take this webinar if…

• You are an intermediate or advanced writer who wants to dig beneath the obvious stories you’ve been telling
• You need help generating material
• You want to add depth, tension, and nuance to your essays and nonfiction
• You are eager to clarify (rather than avoid) the contradictions that shape your voice
• You are writing on grief, loss, or other strong subjects, and it’s difficult to find the tension or dramatic arc beyond one set of powerful feelings

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Lindsey DeLoach Jones is a writer living in Greenville, South Carolina. She writes about the tension between seemingly opposed forces—the spiritual and the practical, the mysterious and the mundane, the Mother and the Artist—in her Substack, Between Two Things.

Lindsey holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction and has served as the Writer-in-Residence at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. She has taught literature and writing at Clemson University and currently teaches writing online and in person at Writeshare, the writers’ network she co-founded in Upstate SC. She previously served as Editor of Emrys Journal and Edible Upcountry. Among other places, Lindsey’s essays have appeared in HuffPost, HuffPost Parenting, Split Lip, Under the Gum Tree, and Motherwell. She is a recipient of the Vandermey Nonfiction Prize, and an essay nominated by Pigeon Pages was a finalist for Best of the Net.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

FULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.

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Tired of feeling guilty about unfinished work? Stop drowning in drafts. You need a mission and a map to cross the finish line.

For All Writers | TO BE SENT ON MONDAY 1/12/26

New year, new plan—what kind of writer do you want to be? What book are you dying to start (or finish!) What’s the mission that will get you going to bring your words into the world? And is FINAL-final-draft-6B.doc the most recent manuscript? (it’s been a few weeks since you sat down!)

Here’s the truth: if you start with “organizing” you’ll never get finished. What you need is a practical, flexible approach that meets your actual life and fits your limited calendar. To cut through the overwhelm and focus on the story you want to tell and the readers you need to reach. And of course, a specific list of the steps to take to get from draft to done.

In this 90-minute webinar with Allison K Williams, get clear on your goals and learn how to
merge linear planning with creative flexibility to organize your files and your projects. You’ll set (doable!) goals that matter and learn patterns to stay focused on your project despite the demands of work, family and home. You’ll get tips and tricks to stay motivated and confident when you’re not getting much feedback, and easy, free ways to connect with other writers.

Can’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• The Brain Dump Method: How to get every project, idea, and obligation out of your head and onto paper—then decide what actually matters (and what you can let go)
• The Lifeboat: A powerful technique to identify which project deserves your focus right now, even when you’re torn between multiple manuscripts
• A 5-minute technique to organize ALL your digital files: find what you need in 30 seconds, not 30 minutes!
• Project planning for creative minds: How to map your manuscript structure using sticky notes, index cards, or digital tools—and why treating each scene as its own accomplishment changes everything
• Understanding your creative energy, bravery, and commitment—and how to stop spending them in the wrong places
• How to balance research and writing: The revolutionary way to store and use your research without getting sucked into rabbit holes 
• Creating habits that stick: The “if-then” formula that gets you writing, and why your tiny, frightened lizard brain needs to hear “I’ll come back, I promise”
• Your platform is your writing: How to build author presence without taking focus off your writing

This webinar is ideal for…

• Fiction, nonfiction and memoir writers with a manuscript at any stage—started, murky middle, revisions, or just a compelling idea demanding your attention
• Those building a writing side hustle—teaching, editing, coaching—and need strategies to balance the paid work with your own creative projects
• Creatives juggling multiple unfinished projects who need clarity on which one to prioritize
• Writers with child/family/caregiver obligations who just can’t see where the time will come from 
• Writers with disabilities or neurodivergence that hinder writing time, focus or stamina
• Writers who want to form and define their writing life through conscious practice
• Creative Writing students and MFA graduates having a hard time writing without external deadlines
• Writers who alternate between prolific writing binges and “hitting a wall” or getting creatively blocked

Not for people who have their lives, their time, and their schedule 100% together and everything is fine! (Please, tell us how!)

You’ll receive:

• Worksheets to plan your time, rank your priorities, and determine which project will be your focus this year
• PDF of the slides from the workshop
• Access to daily FREE co-writing sessions, all year long
• A renewed sense of purpose in your writing.

This isn’t about becoming someone who has it all together. It’s about becoming someone who makes progress despite not having it all together. Because that’s the only way any of us actually finish books.

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Allison K Williams is the author of Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro From Blank Page to Book. She has edited and coached writers to publishing deals with Big Five, independent & literary presses. She’s guided essayists and humorists to publications including the New Yorker, Time, the Guardian, the New York Times, McSweeney’s, Refinery29, Hippocampus, the Belladonna and TED Talks. Her own writing on travel, craft, culture and comedy has appeared in/on National Public Radio, CBC-Canada, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, Writers Digest, Creative Nonfiction, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Kenyon Review Online, Travelers’ Tales and Flash Nonfiction Funny.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

FULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.

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If you’ve ever spent hours on tedious research or business tasks, struggled to come up with marketing plans or marketing copy, or felt intimidated by the rapidly evolving landscape around AI, this session is for you.

For All Writers

Writers and publishing professionals are suddenly awash in AI promises—“Outsource your editing to AI!” or “Use AI to automate your marketing!” —yet most of us are quietly wondering: Can these tools really help without compromising quality or ethics? 

Yes. 

If you apply your critical thinking skills and thoughtfulness to the process, and if you’re willing to pay a monthly fee for the professional versions of today’s AI tools.

In this class, publishing industry expert Jane Friedman demystifies the current AI landscape and shows through examples and live demos how to incorporate AI tools into your workflow so you can reclaim creative time and reduce time sinks. Drawing on other authors’ examples and her use, Jane shows how to use AI responsibly, with human oversight and respect for readers, writers, and the larger community. It is possible to use AI in a way that keeps your voice your own and your copyright intact.

Can’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants.

In this webinar, you will:

• IDENTIFY administrative and business tasks ripe for AI assistance, especially marketing and promotion tasks
• LEARN HOW AI can be used as a research assistant, with citations you can check—and how it can serve as another layer of protection against errors creeping into your work
• DISCOVER HOW AI can be helpful for brainstorming and idea refinement (it’s great at generating common, boring ideas to work against!)
• GET methods of generating of quick first drafts using your own words
• LEARN HOW to prevent AI from training on material you upload
• GAIN a clearer sense of how to use AI with care and transparency

What is not covered:

• Using AI to generate images or video
• Using AI to write longform articles or books from scratch (but short summaries? yes!)
• An explanation of all the AI tools and features available today; instead, Jane will focus on a handful of tools she uses and knows best, primarily ChatGPT

But isn’t AI illegal/unethical? While lawsuits are underway about the legality of how some of these models have been trained, the courts have not yet made any decisions about whether that training was fair use (legal) or infringement. Even if the courts find that the models constitute infringement, the most likely outcome is that financial remedies will be put in place. The AI companies will not suddenly be shut down or go out of business. AI technologies will continue to develop just as they always have and on a global scale.

AI companies now legally license material from established media outlets and publishers, including the largest New York publishers and educational corporations. AI is taught in schools, used by professors, and plays a role in nearly every business around the globe. It’s true that some people use AI in unethical or illegal ways. In fact, Jane was personally affected by such use. But that’s not the same as the tool itself being unethical or illegal. This class will emphasize how to use the technology in an ethical, legal manner.

But isn’t AI bad for the environment? The energy required to use AI is akin to any modern convenience. Here’s a ​big-picture overview​ from a former physics teacher about the environmental costs and a data scientist who cares about sustainability (and has published a book on the topic) who ​agrees​ with his conclusions: Cheat Sheet & Carbon Footprint. 

This webinar is ideal for people who have little or no experience using AI tools and aren’t sure how to use them; those using AI who want to guard their copyrights and learn best practices; and authors in any genre or category.

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

For nearly three decades, Jane Friedman has helped thousands of authors build sustainable careers. She is the author of The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (University of Chicago Press) and a frequent speaker at global industry events. Her expertise has been cited by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Poets & Writers, and her long-running newsletter, The Bottom Line, helps industry professionals stay on top of publishing trends—especially the evolving role of AI. With a background that spans traditional publishing, digital marketing strategy, and entrepreneurial authorship, Jane offers a uniquely balanced perspective on harnessing technology without sacrificing craft or ethics.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

FULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.

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Great memoirs begin with a single, unforgettable moment. In this session, we’ll explore how to write an opening that pulses through your story—anchoring tone, tension, and truth from the first lines.

For Memorists

In this 90-minute webinar, you will dive headfirst into the art of crafting an unforgettable memoir opening. Learn skills that allow you to deploy metaphor with precision in order to create depth for your story, and study how the use of ordinary moments and crystal clear images set up patterns that will linger in the reader’s mind. Examine how sentences can be crafted to establish your singular voice and raise the stakes from the very first line. And gain experience in cueing the thrum of backstory—the invisible pulse of what has already happened, which creates a powerful undertow that pulls your reader through the story.  

By the end of the session, you will have a set of shiny new tools, along with some insights and inspiration to create an opening that will hook your readers, launching your memoir on a wave that will carry them from the first word to the last.

Can’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants.

In this webinar, you will:

• EXAMINE the key elements of a strong memoir opening 
• LEARN to use those elements in your own work
• DISCOVER opening pitfalls—common reasons agents/publishers/readers don’t read on
• BALANCE backstory with the story that launches on page one

This webinar is ideal for writers who:

• Are uncertain how to start writing their memoir.
• Have a memoir in progress, but are stuck.
• Are embarking on a revision of a current project.
• Want to capture the attention of readers—and hold them.
• Are receiving rejections without feedback.

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

One of CRAFT TALKS’ most popular presenters, for her insightful and inspiring webinars, HEATHER SELLERS is the author of 11 books, including four books on craft, a memoir, a children’s book, a collection of short stories, and four volumes of poetry.  She teaches in the MFA program at the University of South Florida, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, The Sun, and The Best American Essays.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

FULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.

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When what used to work no longer works, rather than turn away from your creative practice, turn inward with compassion. 

For All Writers

The physical, emotional, and psychological effects of perimenopause and menopause touch every aspect of the life of the person living through it. For many, this period feels like an unraveling, a time when change is demanded in many different ways, and our writing is not exempt. 

We may have changes in lifestyles, schedules, health, or personal responsibilities that have required us to shift the ways we used to write. We may discover that we want something different than what we’ve been pursuing or that our current values are no longer aligned with our earlier years. Even the ways we use language may change. This can feel at best destabilizing, at worst, terrifying. Who am I becoming? What do I need to say? What do I no longer need to say? What if I have nothing left to say?

In an environment where artists are encouraged to “stay in their lane,” creating similar content (especially if they’re achieving external success), we may be afraid to try something new or lose hope and connection to one thing that has always kept us tethered to ourselves: our writing.

In the natural pause and unspooling that comes with menopause and aging, we can let the changes teach us their secrets and grow in unexpected ways—both with our craft and our content. Our writing voices, interests, and routines will change. Learn to move into those changes with ease and compassion for yourself and for your writing. Using gentle questions and generative prompts, we’ll honor where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going next.

Can’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants.

In this webinar, you will:

• EXAMINE how peri/post-menopausal changes impact your writing
• EXPLORE ways in which you’ve changed as a writer during this season of life
• LEARN ways to be at ease with the natural pauses and changes in a writing life
• IDENTIFY a key shift in your own life story
• CONNECT that shift to your creative work
• REFLECT on questions to imagine new work and new ways of creating

This webinar is ideal for writers…

• feeling the impact of (peri)menopause on the way they relate to writing
• curious about how (peri)menopause can be an invitation to new ways of storytelling
• who feel disconnected from the writer they used to be
• who are moving into a new stage in their work or life
• who feel boxed in to being a certain kind of writer or working in a certain genre

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Laraine Herring’s memoir, A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with Ravens, was released in 2021 from Regal House. She’s the editor of the anthology Becoming Real: Women Reclaim the Power of the Imagined through Speculative Nonfiction (Pact Press, 2024), and a trilogy of writing books from Shambhala, including Writing Begins with the Breath: Embodying Your Authentic Voice. She’s a retired professor of creative writing and psychology, and has worked with writers for thirty years. She’s also an illustrator and a grief counselor, and creator of The Grief Forest: a book about what we don’t talk about. She founded the online ‘zine Hags on Fire, a place for women to share stories about menopause, and co-designed The Imaginal Memoir Cave immersion program with Gayle Brandeis. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Tiferet, The Rumpus, The Manifest-Station, and many more places. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Counseling Psychology, and lives in the mountains of northern Arizona with many cats.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

FULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.

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For Memorists

Great memoirs don’t just stop—they land. Learn how to craft conclusions that feel earned, emotionally true, and satisfying.

Endings are where memoirs earn their meaning. They show us not only what happened, but also what it all added up to—how the writer has changed, what they’ve learned, and where the story leaves them (and us). 

Yet endings are also one of the hardest parts to get right. How do we bring emotional closure without tying things up too neatly? How do we signal growth and understanding without drifting into cliché or sentimentality?.

Can’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants.

In this webinar, you will:

• EXPLORE how endings satisfy readers, with examples from published memoirs.
• EXAMINE three powerful approaches to endings.
• FIND the ending form that best fits your story’s emotional truth.
• LEARN HOW to create resolution, even in the absence of recovery.
• IDENTIFY common pitfalls in memoir endings 
• LEARN THE CRAFT of conclusions that feel resonant, true, and earned.

This webinar is ideal for writers with complete or near-complete memoir drafts…

• Whose endings feel flat, rushed, or too neatly tied up
• Who want to craft endings that echo emotionally without turning sentimental
• Ready to move beyond “summary endings” to endings that feel inevitable, earned, and alive
  

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

KATIE BANNON is a writer, editor, and educator whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, ELLE Magazine, Narratively, and more. Her memoir manuscript, which charts her journey as a compulsive hair puller, was a finalist for the Permafrost Nonfiction Book Prize. A graduate of GrubStreet’s Memoir Incubator, she holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Emerson College. She loves helping memoirists and essayists tell their most vulnerable, taboo stories. She lives in Central Massachusetts with her partner and two cats.
Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

FULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.

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For All Writers

There is no darkness without light. Find the light, and write it.

We can forget, when the world presses hard upon us, that one of our responsibilities is to locate joy. To feel it. And, if we are writers, to make room for it on our pages. In this craft workshop we’ll rediscover the joy in writers like Brian Doyle, Ross Gay, and Mary Oliver, explore how language works to connect ourselves and our readers with joy, and bring our voices to the page with complexity and surprise.

We’ll think of joy in all its manifestations—as happiness, as light, as entertainment, as awareness, as epiphany. We’ll pause to consider simple prompts. We’ll think about the pairing of joyful verbs and the avoidance of cliché. We’ll find joy, together. A workshop for all ages, all genres, and all frames of mind.

Can’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants.

In this webinar, you will:

• REDISCOVER the writers who have mastered joy
• BECOME PROFICIENT in surprising turns of phrase
• LEARN HOW to modulate your voice—soft to loud, loud to exultant

This webinar is ideal for writers who are…

• Seeking to build complexity into their work
• Wishing to sidestep cliche as they write toward joy
• Hoping to more completely access and write their emotional life
  

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Beth Kephart is the award-winning writer of three dozen books in multiple genres, an award-winning teacher of memoir, and a paper artist. She is the author, most recently, of Wife|Daughter|Self: A Memoir in Essays, My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera, and Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News: A Philadelphia Story, as well as a series of craft books. Find her art and her musings on language and life at her Substack, The Hush and the Howl.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

FULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.

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