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SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Writing the Synopsis: Solve Your Plot and Sell Your Book
DESCRIPTION:You need a synopsis to sell your book to agents and publishers. Writing it now can solve plot and structure problems\, determine which characters belong\, and create a map to finish your book.\n\n\n\nfor Creative Nonfiction\, Nonfiction and Fiction \n\n\n\nWriters often dread distilling their beautiful story into a dry synopsis—and they’re right! It’s not creative and fun. But the synopsis is not only a requirement for querying and publishing\, it’s also a valuable tool to shape your story and get closer to “The End.” A good synopsis gives an overview of your whole book\, in an easy-to-process form. By examining turning-point scenes\, character objectives\, and the underlying dramatic question that propels your book\, you’ll know where you’re going and how to get there.  \n\n\n\nYou’ll be able to send a draft of your working synopsis in advance. Allison will use volunteer examples to show what makes a synopsis work (and what doesn’t!). Then she’ll live-edit participant synopses to show how to reverse-engineer your manuscript from your synopsis to create more tension\, power\, and literary might. (Please note\, she won’t get to everyone: examples will be chosen to benefit the whole group!) \n\n\n\nSuitable for writers with a manuscript in any stage from messy early draft to ready-to-query. \n\n\n\nThis is a TWO HOUR class\, with 20 minutes of writing time in the middle. \n\n\n\n\n40 minutes – Learn how to write a synopsis\, using images\, turning points\, and character objectives. Allison will use submitted examples and synopses of already-published books to show what works and what doesn’t.\n\n\n\n10 minutes – Q&A to fully understand and apply the information.\n\n\n\n20 minutes – Revise your synopsis with new tools and knowledge. Allison will continue taking questions in the chat. OPTIONAL: volunteer for live-editing and upload your scene as a Word doc or docx.\n\n\n\n40 minutes – Allison will live-edit some of the shared synopses\, showing where the writer is succeeding\, and what revisions she suggests. During live edits\, she’ll call out specific techniques and tips for everyone to apply to their own work\, right away. \n\n\n\n10 minutes – more Q&A and planning your writing from here.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nUNDERSTAND why agents and publishers need a synopsis—and how they use it to assess your manuscript\n\n\n\nLEARN how opening and closing images anchor your synopsis and your book\n\n\n\nDISCOVER how “Chekhov’s Gun” makes your synopsis actually interesting!\n\n\n\nUSE “but\, because\, therefore” to write a rough synopsis\n\n\n\nDEVELOP a working synopsis to guide your writing process\n\n\n\nREFINE your synopsis for querying your book\n\n\n\n\nThis workshop suits …\n\n\n\n\nWriters of fiction and nonfiction who intend to traditionally publish\n\n\n\nNovelists stuck in the “messy middle”\n\n\n\nMemoirists whose draft has “gotten away from them” and needs shape and focus\n\n\n\nWriters working on a second book… who’d like the process to move faster this time!\n\n\n\nWriters hearing feedback that their book lacks tension\, needs a stronger hook\, or the story is “hard to follow” or “didn’t grab the reader”\n\n\n\nDevelopmental editors who want to understand synopses and better communicate that knowledge to their author clients.\n\n\n\n\nYou’ll receive the slides and prompts to take this work into your manuscript \n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAllison K Williams is the author of Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro From Blank Page to Book. She’s helped writers sell to Big Five and literary publishers\, hit the NYT Bestseller list\, and sign multi-book deals. She’s guided essayists and humorists to publication in media including the New Yorker\, Time\, the Guardian\, the New York Times\, McSweeney’s\, Refinery29\, Hippocampus\, the Belladonna and TED Talks. As Social Media Editor for Brevity\, she inspires thousands of writers with weekly blogs on craft and the writing life. \n\n\n\nAllison works with literary and commercial fiction and nonfiction\, and is familiar with the conventions of most genres. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University and spent 20 years as a circus aerialist and acrobat before writing and editing full-time. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/writing-the-synopsis/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250723T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250723T163000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250617T174842Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250722T185653Z
UID:10000037-1753282800-1753288200@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | The Art of the Scene: Craft Riveting Narrative Moments in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction
DESCRIPTION:Learn to make scenes sizzle with specifics\, stakes\, characterization\, and drama—while staying grounded in your story’s truth.\n\n\n\nfor Creative Nonfiction and Fiction \n\n\n\nFilmmaker Howard Hawks said\, “A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes.” Substitute “movie” with “short story\,” “novel\,” “essay\,” or “memoir\,” and we have a prescription for how to inject your story with dramatic\, cinematic flair. In this seminar\, we’ll look at great examples of scenes—or “live moments”—where things are happening\, characters are interacting\, stuff is being said\, action is going on\, and big things change\, with clear dramatic beats and an arc.  \n\n\n\nWhether you’re working on novels and short stories or narrative nonfiction and memoir\, we will look at tools that fiction writers use to create gripping moments on the page. Scenes include dramatic beats and an arc\, and both fiction and creative nonfiction writers need the same tools screenwriters use to create gripping moments on the page.  \n\n\n\nLearning from master writers like Jaquira Diaz\, Michelle Kuo\, Stephen King\, Steve Brusatte\, Bill Bryson\, Cheryl Strayed\, and others\, you’ll discover powerful tools to craft your own scenes. You’ll learn to gradually build tension; create structures for your scenes with a beginning\, middle\, and end; build in clear conflict\, stakes\, and interiority; and make the world of the scene real via description. \n\n\n\nIn-class exercises will allow you to practice your new scene-writing techniques and begin to write a new\, scintillating scene you can apply to a current writing project. \n\n\n\nCan’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE the key elements of scene writing via examples from masters in the craft\n\n\n\nDISCOVER how to tap into your perhaps-unrealized scene writing skills\n\n\n\nENHANCE your narratives with new scene-writing tools\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers at any level who:\n\n\n\n\nWorry their scenes lack drama\n\n\n\nWant to harness the craft of fiction for their personal narratives—and find powerful truth in their fiction \n\n\n\nStruggle with punchy dialogue and concrete setting\n\n\n\nAren’t sure how to write a scene they can’t fully remember\n\n\n\nWant to understand how a scene contains dramatic beats and an arc\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nETHAN GILSDORF is a writer\, teacher\, performer\, and the author of the Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. His work has appeared in the New York Times\, Washington Post\, Esquire\, Wired\, Salon\, O the Oprah Magazine\, Brevity\, Electric Literature\, Poetry\, The Southern Review\, among other publications\, and named “Notable” by The Best American Essays. He teaches workshops in essay\, creative nonfiction and memoir at GrubStreet in Boston\, where he leads the Essay Incubator program\,  and at LitArts RI. He is also on the faculty of the Solstice MFA Program at Lasell University. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/art-of-the-scene/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250716T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250716T163000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250616T160624Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250710T131049Z
UID:10000038-1752678000-1752683400@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Your Body\, Your Stories: Diving into Your Exclusive Archive
DESCRIPTION:Deepen your writing and discover stories your body knew all along.\n\n\n\nfor Creative Nonfiction  \n\n\n\nOur body is the most reliable record-keeper of life experiences\, much more so than our brain and what we like to call “memory.” For writers\, our embodied experience is a vast and often-overlooked treasure chest of powerful stories. \n\n\n\nLearn the importance of tapping into the treasure chest that is your body and how useful it can be to mine your body parts to re-member\, or make whole\, past experiences that have brought you to this point in your life. Together\, we will consider excerpts from authors whose bodies feed remembering\, and whose beautiful\, memorable writing inspires us by its sheer physicality. \n\n\n\nBecome energized to dig into your own exclusive story archive with body-focused writing prompt ideas to explore in your own writing practice after the webinar. Gain a new set of tools for accessing your stories by collaborating with your eyes\, belly\, hips\, or feet\, etc.\, and discover the wonder of your body’s evocative abilities to turn forgotten incidents into vividly remembered scenes for richer\, more visceral essays and memoir. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nLEARN the body’s ability to “keep the score” of our experiences\n\n\n\nACQUIRE tools to collaborate with your body in finding stories\n\n\n\nDISCOVER the generative wealth of materials for your story\n\n\n\nBECOME empowered to start your own body-writing journey\n\n\n\nHEAR inspirational examples of embodied writing\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for…\n\n\n\n\nWant to explore new ways to access memory and story\n\n\n\nSeek to deepen their stories\n\n\n\nAre curious about what “writing the body” or “embodied writing” is about\n\n\n\nHave been reluctant to consider their bodies a valuable collaborator\n\n\n\nWant to get out of their head!\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNina B. Lichtenstein (PhD. MFA) is a recovering academic and the founder and director of Maine Writers Studio\, offering workshops\, retreats\, and book doula services. A native of Oslo\, Norway\, she is an award-winning teacher who has taught literature\, languages\, and writing on three continents. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies\, and her memoir\, Body: My Life in Parts is a memoir-in-essays published by Vine Leaves Press in May 2025.  \n\n\n\nNina also runs a monthly literary salon and open mic in Brunswick\, Maine\, and enjoys connecting folks in a warm and welcoming literary community. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/webinar-your-body/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250709T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250709T160000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250611T181412Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250703T134603Z
UID:10000035-1752073200-1752076800@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | It’s Complicated: Finding Your Way Back to Writing
DESCRIPTION:Maintain and nurture your relationship with your writing to strengthen your stories and ease your creative process.\n\n\n\nThis webinar is part of the season pass. Interested in joining the subscription? Read more here.  \n\n\n\nFor all writers \n\n\n\nEvery relationship has its ups and downs\, and your relationship with your writing is no exception. We sometimes grow apart through life’s changes\, schedule shifts\, or that nagging feeling that there must be something more out there.  \n\n\n\nIt’s normal to find that what worked in our creative process ten years ago no longer feels right and to experience cycles of connection and disconnection. It’s what we do next that makes all the difference. It’s time to check in and honestly assess what’s working in our creative relationship and what’s not. To clarify what helps us write—and why—and establish a healthy and rewarding relationship with our creation.  \n\n\n\nWriters know that we need our writing to be at its best\, but what we often don’t acknowledge is that our writing also needs us. Explore what it means to be in the right relationship with our writing\, why it matters\, and how to chart a flexible path forward together with communication\, clarity and commitment. This experiential\, process-based workshop includes generative writing exercises to help you reconnect with your writing\, honoring the changes both of you have gone through over the course of your life together. \n\n\n\nCan’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants. \n\n\n\nWe will be writing during this webinar! Come with an open mind\, an active imagination\, and writing tools. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE your relationship with writing\n\n\n\nDISCOVER key techniques to maintain a flexible\, committed writing practice\n\n\n\nINQUIRE into your changing writing relationship through generative prompts and invitations\n\n\n\nRECOMMIT to yourself and your writing\n\n\n\n\nYou should take this webinar if:\n\n\n\n\nYou feel disconnected from your writing or unmotivated\n\n\n\nYou used to have a writing process that worked\, but now you’re struggling to connect with your words\n\n\n\nYou value writing as a means of self-inquiry and discovery.\n\n\n\nYou’re looking for ways to invigorate a lackluster writing practice\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLaraine Herring’s memoir\, A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with Ravens\, was released in 2021 from Regal House. Her work has appeared in The New York Times\, Tiferet\, The Rumpus\, The Manifest-Station\, and many more. 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. A retired professor of creative writing and psychology\, Laraine 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. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Counseling Psychology\, and lives in the mountains of northern Arizona with many cats. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/its-complicated/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250702T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250702T160000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250604T175542Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250701T154641Z
UID:10000034-1751468400-1751472000@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Essential Questions: Unlock Your Writing’s Power
DESCRIPTION:Enhance your writing and engage your audience with the power of essential questions that captivate and connect with readers. \n\n\n\nThis webinar is part of the season pass. Interested in joining the subscription? Read more here.  \n\n\n\nMemoir\, Fiction and Screenplays \n\n\n\nElizabeth Gilbert credits the runaway success of “Eat\, Pray\, Love” to her essential question—“What if my life belonged to me?” It worked for her—let’s make it work for you. To capture the attention of a broader audience and make your writing resonate more deeply with readers\, discover the transformative power of essential questions to elevate your storytelling and expand your readership.  \n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, we’ll examine essential questions in bestselling works\, primarily focusing on memoir\, with a sprinkling of fiction and film. We’ll discuss the difference between implicit and explicit questions and explore techniques for placing these questions in your scenes and narrative.  \n\n\n\nYou’ll finish this webinar equipped with an expansive list of essential questions and the motivation and inspiration to use them to elevate your writing today! \n\n\n\nCan’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nDISCOVER why essential questions lead to increased engagement for readers (and appeal to publishers)\n\n\n\nLEARN the difference between implicit and explicit questions\n\n\n\nANALYZE how bestselling books effectively use essential questions\n\n\n\nRECEIVE an expansive list of essential questions to apply to any and all writing projects\n\n\n\nGET INSPIRED to harness the power of essential questions\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is a great fit for writers of fiction & nonfiction including screenwriters who are…\n\n\n\n\nLooking to enhance their storytelling skills and engage readers more deeply.\n\n\n\nSeeking new strategies to broaden their audience and increase their work’s appeal.\n\n\n\nWanting to stand out in a competitive market by using essential questions to convince agents\, editors\, and publishers that there’s a readership for their work.\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJennifer Leigh Selig is an LBGTQ+ teacher\, international speaker\, book publisher\, and author whose writing and teaching career spans four decades. She’s the author of dozens of newspaper articles\, book reviews\, essays\, journal articles\, short stories\, screenplays\, and books\, including the Nautilus Gold award-winning book\, Deep Creativity: Seven Ways to Spark Your Creative Spirit\, The Writer’s Block Workbook: A Psychologist’s Guide to Working With and Through Writer’s Block\, and Deep Memoir: An Archetypal Approach to Deepen Your Story and Broaden Its Appeal. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/webinar-essential-questions/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250625T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250625T143000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250525T133632Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250701T154549Z
UID:10000029-1750856400-1750861800@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Looking Back\, Moving Forward: Writing About Grief\, Loss & Trauma
DESCRIPTION:Unsure how to start writing about grief\, loss\, or trauma? Stuck midstream? Wondering how honest to be?\n\n\n\nCreative Nonfiction \n\n\n\nWriting about grief\, loss\, or trauma can feel overwhelming. Where do you begin? How much should you reveal? And how do you shape painful experience into something meaningful—for both you and your reader? \n\n\n\nRobert Frost famously said\, “No tears for the writer\, no tears for the reader.” But turning raw emotion into compelling narrative requires more than catharsis. It demands reflection\, structure\, and the willingness to uncover what’s at the heart of the story. \n\n\n\nIn this 90-minute live webinar\, we’ll explore how acclaimed memoirists and essayists approach emotionally charged material—and how you can apply their techniques to your own work. We’ll look closely at the roles of conflict\, joy\, and meaning-making in shaping personal narrative and discuss strategies for writing that is honest without becoming unmoored. \n\n\n\nYou’ll leave with practical tools to deepen your creative nonfiction and move your work forward—with insight\, clarity\, and connection. We’ll also revisit Frost’s lesser-known companion quote: “No surprise for the writer\, no surprise for the reader.” \n\n\n\nThere will be writing in this webinar!  \n\n\n\nCan’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXAMINE the nuts and bolts of craft in notable examples of memoir and essay about loss\, grief\, and trauma \n\n\n\nEXPLORE narrative balance of research\, memory\, and imagination\n\n\n\nDEVELOP confidence in your right to write your version of events\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is a great fit for creative nonfiction writers of all levels who are…\n\n\n\n\nSeeking to create a compelling story from the experience of grief\, loss\, or trauma\n\n\n\nInterested in crafting scenic writing\n\n\n\nCreating narrative from researched fact and individual memory\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJESSICA HANDLER is the author of the novel The Magnetic Girl\, winner of the 2020 Southern Book Prize\, a 2019 “Books All Georgians Should Read\,” an Indie Next pick\, Wall Street Journal Spring 2019 pick\, Bitter Southerner Summer 2019 pick\, and a SIBA Okra Pick. Her other books include Invisible Sisters: A Memoir and Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss. Her nonfiction has appeared on NPR\, in Tin House\, Drunken Boat\, The Bitter Southerner\, Brevity\, Creative Nonfiction\, Newsweek\, The Washington Post\, and More Magazine. She lives in Atlanta. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\n 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/looking-back-moving-forward/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250618T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250618T143000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250516T201115Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250701T155840Z
UID:10000030-1750251600-1750257000@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Mindfulness for Writers: Simple Steps To Create a More Fruitful Writing Life
DESCRIPTION:Mindfulness allows us to see with fresh eyes\, to uncover what hasn’t yet been explored\, and offers a powerful counterbalance to the disappointments that accompany rejection and ambition. Learn to reclaim the joy in your writing life.\n\n\n\nAll Genres \n\n\n\nToo often\, as writers\, we find ourselves drawn to common\, customary\, and comfortable realizations–but the practice of mindfulness can open us to see with fresh eyes\, to search our memories\, and reveal what hasn’t yet been explored. Mindfulness teaches us to listen to others\, but also to ourselves\, even those thoughts that make us uncomfortable. (Perhaps especially those thoughts!) \n\n\n\nPracticing mindfulness offers a powerful counterbalance to the disappointment and dissatisfaction that too often accompany the world of publishing\, rejection\, and ambition. To live a more fruitful writing life\, we can make both the practice of writing and the work itself less about ourselves\, becoming mindful of our motives and our attachment to desired outcomes. \n\n\n\nCan’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nDISCOVER how mindfulness can free up our creativity and enhance our enjoyment of writing\n\n\n\nEXPLORE how to move beyond “safe and customary” realizations in our writing \n\n\n\nLEARN ways to lessen the disappointment and dissatisfaction that accompany the business side of submission\, rejection\, and ambition.\n\n\n\nNURTURE compassion for our characters\, our family members\, and ourselves.\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is a great fit for writers of all levels who…\n\n\n\n\nFeel stuck\, discouraged\, or dissatisfied with their writing life\, and wish instead to be energized and optimistic\n\n\n\nWant to see with fresh eyes\, moving beyond common and comfortable realizations\n\n\n\nWant to reconnect with the joy and surprise they once felt as writers\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOne of our most popular and beloved presenters\, DINTY W. MOORE is the author of the memoirs Between Panic & Desire and To Hell With It\, and the writing guides Crafting the Personal Essay and The Mindful Writer\, among other books. He has published essays and stories in Harper’s\, The New York Times Magazine\, The Georgia Review\, The Kenyon Review\, The Southern Review\, Short Reads\, and elsewhere. He is the founding editor of Brevity\, the journal of flash nonfiction. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/mindfulness-for-writers/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://writingcraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Moore.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250611T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250611T160000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250508T200602Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250701T155647Z
UID:10000026-1749654000-1749657600@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Fresh Words\, New Patterns\, Bold Essays: Breaking Free from Cliché
DESCRIPTION:Writing is an art of disruption. Our best writing resists and overturns familiar patterns of thought and language\, inventing new forms of expression.\n\n\n\nNonfiction \n\n\n\n“I have yet to meet a writer who set out to say nothing interesting. Yet\, when our essays fail to interest editors\, agents\, and readers\, we are often at a loss for how and where we went wrong\,” says our presenter\, Jaswinder Bolina.  \n\n\n\nJaswinder is a thoughtful\, thorough teacher. For writers ready to explore their voice and reach the next level in their sentence craft\, join him in this intermediate/advanced webinar to study how our choices of diction\, syntax\, and sentence construction often underlie greater missteps in our work. Cliché means so much more than the overuse of familiar phrases. It can also mean our tendency to use familiar sentence structure in our writing–and worse\, in our thinking.  \n\n\n\nWe’ll discuss what constitutes a cliché\, why we’re so inclined to use clichés\, and how avoiding dead language brings power to our ideas. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXAMINE how cliché comes from stating the obvious\, but also from stating something remarkable and interesting in an obvious and uninteresting way.\n\n\n\nCONSIDER the differences between original and clichéd writing to write more artful and impactful nonfiction.\n\n\n\nCHALLENGE our language and our thinking in order to write original\, thought-provoking essays that attract the attention of editors\, agents\, and readers.\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for …\n\n\n\n\nExperienced writers\n\n\n\nWriters hoping to publish in major media outlets\n\n\n\nWriters looking for techniques to enhance their prose\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJaswinder Bolina’s fourth poetry collection English as a Second Language and Other Poems is published by Copper Canyon Press in 2023. His debut collection of essays Of Color was published by McSweeney’s in June 2020. His nonfiction has appeared at The Washington Post\, The Paris Review\, Shenandoah\, The Poetry Foundation\, and other outlets. His essays have also been featured in anthologies including the 14th edition of The Norton Reader (W.W. Norton & Company 2016)\, Language: A Reader for Writers (Oxford University Press 2013)\, and Poets on Teaching (University of Iowa Press 2011). He teaches on the faculty of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Miami. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/fresh-words-new-patterns/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://writingcraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Event-Templates-copy.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250531T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250531T160000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250426T200547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250520T191206Z
UID:10000022-1748703600-1748707200@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:FREE WEBINAR| From Here to There: Simple Marketing Strategies for Writers Who Feel Stuck
DESCRIPTION:You don’t need a personal brand. You need a personalized path. Even if you’re the most marketing-skeptical writer\, this webinar can help you get unstuck\, find your people\, and build a platform in a way that feels like a natural extension of your work—and yourself. \n\n\n\nAll Genres \n\n\n\nMarketing is often framed as a hustle: build your list\, grow your audience\, get on every platform\, sell your work. But for many writers\, this can feel overwhelming\, confusing\, and a little gross. Let’s be honest: writing is hard enough. What if finding and connecting with readers was the fun part? Or at the very least\, what if your marketing efforts didn’t all feel like agony\, obligation & ick? \n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, we’ll walk through the six most common roadblocks writers face in building a platform—-and the spots where most writers get stuck\, spin their wheels\, or want to give up.  \n\n\n\nOver our time together\, you’ll learn simple\, sustainable strategies to build momentum\, and start showing up with less anxiety and more intention. Whether you’re launching a newsletter\, trying to grow your readership\, or just want to be less allergic to the idea of “putting yourself out there\,” this webinar will give you a map—and a little motivation—to move forward. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nIDENTIFY six key roadblocks that prevent creative momentum\n\n\n\nLEARN how to define a personal “North Star” to guide and focus all your marketing decisions\n\n\n\nUNCOVER simple\, human strategies for building confidence and finding your audience\n\n\n\nSHIFT away from “content creation” to “creating connections”\n\n\n\nEXPLORE sustainable\, low-tech ways to stay consistent without burning out\n\n\n\nRECEIVE a list of practical tools\, prompts\, and resources to keep making progress long after the webinar ends\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for Writers who…\n\n\n\n\nwant to grow their audience without compromising their voice or values\n\n\n\nare overwhelmed by marketing advice and/or unsure where to start\n\n\n\nare “doing all the things” and still feel like nothing’s working\n\n\n\ncame to writing later in life and feel behind when it comes to platform-building\n\n\n\nare building toward publication but feel paralyzed by self-promotion\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nStephen Knezovich is the co-founder of Short Reads and Ascender Book Services. He is also the marketing strategist for Off Assignment\, a collage artist\, and the curator of two newsletters: Read This and Gluu. Previously\, he spent 16 years as the director of marketing for the literary nonprofit and publisher Creative Nonfiction. And before that he was a fledgling graphic designer\, an occasional DJ\, an inept book reviewer\, an undisciplined fiction writer\, the interim GM of a (now successful) restaurant\, a film school dropout\, the founder of a fake fraternity\, a passionate (but decidedly not professional) skateboarder\, and an aspiring comic book illustrator. He lives in Pittsburgh\, Pennsylvania\, with his wife\, two kids\, and their giant dog. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/from-here-to-there/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://writingcraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Event-Template-1-5.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250528T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250528T150000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250427T161516Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250701T155434Z
UID:10000023-1748437200-1748444400@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Writing the Unknown: Imagination\, Invention\, and the Ethics of Filling in the Blanks
DESCRIPTION:How to responsibly craft scenes you or your protagonist didn’t witness\, don’t fully remember\, or can only speculate about—with clarity\, honesty\, and emotional truth.\n\n\n\nFiction & Nonfiction \n\n\n\nFirst-person POV in both memoir and fiction demands emotional truth\, but what happens when the main character simply doesn’t—or can’t—know what happened\, but the story still demands that certain information come through? In this craft-centered session\, we’ll explore techniques for threading in offstage action\, family history\, hidden truths\, and essential context—without breaking the voice or cheating the form.  \n\n\n\nMemoirists may need old family stories\, information from people they’re estranged from or are deceased\, or cultural context from before their birth. \n\n\n\nNovelists know that first-person fiction is intimate and immediate—but your narrator can’t be everywhere\, can’t know everything\, and might be naive\, biased\, or flat-out wrong.  \n\n\n\nWhether due to absence\, memory gaps\, or lost connections\, writers often face the challenge of telling stories that hinge on scenes the main character never witnessed or the memoirist can no longer verify.  \n\n\n\nThis special 2-hour webinar explores how to use informed imagination and clearly signaled speculation to bring in offstage information and uncover hidden truths without misleading your reader or losing consistency in POV. We’ll explore writing the unknown using speculation\, research\, deduction\, mysticism & faith. Through discussion\, examples from published work\, and a guided writing exercise\, we’ll learn how to responsibly fill in the blanks—and consider when doing so serves the memoir or novel and when it doesn’t. \n\n\n\nThis is a TWO-HOUR class\, with 20 minutes of writing time in the middle.  \n\n\n\n\n40 minutes – Learn five types of perhapsing\, see them in published work\, and understand why and how to create scenes and montages outside the protagonist’s direct experience.\n\n\n\n10 minutes – Q&A to fully understand and apply the information.\n\n\n\n20 minutes – Revise a scene to include perhapsing\, or write a few speculative paragraphs from scratch. Allison will continue taking questions in the chat. OPTIONAL: volunteer for live-editing and upload your scene as a Word doc or docx to a Google Drive.\n\n\n\n40 minutes – Allison will live-edit pages shared on screen\, noting where the writer is succeeding in the purpose of the scene\, and what revisions she suggests to make the prose even more effective. During live edits\, she’ll call out specific techniques and tips for everyone to apply to their own work\, right away. \n\n\n\n10 minutes – Q&A and planning your writing from here.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE the challenges of uncertain or secondhand scenes\, backstory\, subtext and offstage action in first-person prose.\n\n\n\nDEFINE emotional truth in fiction and the ethics of invention in nonfiction.\n\n\n\nDEEPEN your narrative authority by signaling speculation on the page with language and structure.\n\n\n\nWRITE a speculative or secondhand scene using clear signals to the reader.\n\n\n\nDISCOVER what’s working with live-editing of volunteer pages and tips for everyone.\n\n\n\n\nThis workshop suits memoirists and novelists at all levels who want to use ethical imagination as a craft skill\, not a shortcut.\n\n\n\nYou’ll receive the slides and prompts to take this work into your manuscript \n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAllison K Williams is the author of Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro From Blank Page to Book. She’s helped writers sell to Big Five and literary publishers\, hit the NYT Bestseller list\, and sign multi-book deals. She’s guided essayists and humorists to publication in media including the New Yorker\, Time\, the Guardian\, the New York Times\, McSweeney’s\, Refinery29\, Hippocampus\, the Belladonna and TED Talks. As Social Media Editor for Brevity\, she inspires thousands of writers with weekly blogs on craft and the writing life. \n\n\n\nAllison works with literary and commercial fiction and nonfiction\, and is familiar with the conventions of most genres. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University and spent 20 years as a circus aerialist and acrobat before writing and editing full-time. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/writing-the-unknown/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250521T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250521T161500
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250427T163311Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250701T154924Z
UID:10000024-1747839600-1747844100@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | The Ideal Sentence: Your Voice\, Your Tone\, Your Pace
DESCRIPTION:Every beginning sets a tone\, establishes a voice\, and signals the quality of the language that is to come. Your beginning is one of your most important writing choices–learn to make it powerful.\n\n\n\nAll Genres \n\n\n\nWill that language be complex and tangled? Plain-spoken? Vanilla? Lavender? Will it zing like jazz or sing like a lullabye? Will it feel lethargic\, or will it clop\, or will it swashbuckle? \n\n\n\nIt’s always time to think about sentences—to explore the ways they work (and sometimes don’t)\, the ways we bend them to get closer to the truth\, and the ways we work on patterns and rhythms so that the pages remain alive.  \n\n\n\nProse from Hilton Als\, Michael Ondaatje\, Jean-Dominique Bauby\, Jia Tolentino\, Annie Dillard\, Olivia Laing\, Carmen Machado\, Terry Tempest Williams\, and Mark Richard will inspire us and lead our way. \n\n\n\nExercises presented will be focused on voice\, tone\, mood\, and pace. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nREFINE your writing voices\n\n\n\nEXPERIMENT with mood\, tone\, and pace\n\n\n\nDEVELOP powerful new beginnings\n\n\n\nCREATE a better understanding of your writerly strengths\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers who:\n\n\n\n\nare intent on capturing the attention of agents\, editors\, and readers.  \n\n\n\nare keen on perfecting their work.\n\n\n\nwish to build more dimension into their writing.\n\n\n\nWant to learn more about sentence craft and explore their writing voice.\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOne of our favorite presenters\, BETH KEPHART\, is the award-winning writer of memoir\, children’s books\, young adult novels\, and craft books. She is also a paper artist. Her new book\, her first novel for adults\, is Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News: A Philadelphia Story. Please join her Substack journey at The Hush and the Howl. More at bethkephartbooks.com \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/the-ideal-sentence/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250514T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250514T163000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250411T191358Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250701T154802Z
UID:10000017-1747234800-1747240200@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Structure Your Story: How to Keep Readers Hooked From Start to Finish
DESCRIPTION:Storytelling skill is the most challenging aspect of the craft of writing. Learn how to design a structure that will hold your readers and keep them turning the page.\n\n\n\nFiction\, Nonfiction\, Memoir\, Novel\, & Short Story \n\n\n\nStorytelling skill is the most challenging aspect of craft: the way the plot unfolds and how events create new energy and excitement for readers to keep going. For many of us\, these skills do not come naturally.  We have to train and practice. \n\n\n\nStructuring a successful project requires knowing where to start\, what to include\, and how to deliver a powerful\, memorable\, and compelling story with a meaningful resolution. In this webinar\, we’ll explore the basic principles of story design and present proven templates to help you re-think your approach to story design\, restart your project\, and save revision time. \n\n\n\nThis webinar is for novelists\, short story writers\, memoirists and nonfiction writers who are working on individual pieces or a book-length project. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE ready-made\, easily customized templates that jump-start your story \n\n\n\nTROUBLESHOOT pitfalls that hold great stories back\n\n\n\nLEARN the six key scenes that make a story rivet your reader\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for Writers:\n\n\n\n\nStuck in a novel or memoir (especially if you’ve reached the murky middle!)\n\n\n\nStruggling with a large amount of material\n\n\n\nWho feel they have not yet mastered essential plot skills\n\n\n\nWho worry their work isn’t capturing attention\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOne 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. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/webinar-structure-your-story/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://writingcraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Event-Template-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250507T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250507T143000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250401T163123Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250506T154026Z
UID:10000016-1746622800-1746628200@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | The Meaning in the Moment: Using Place\, Time\, and Detail to Power Your Scenes
DESCRIPTION:Learn to bring more immediacy and urgency to your prose by replicating how life feels in the moment\, crafting scenes that capture the texture of actual living. \n\n\n\nFiction & Nonfiction \n\n\n\nOur lives—and our characters’ lives—unfold in distinct moments – specific times\, particular places\, intimate details – rather than through explanatory passages and abstract interpretation. In this webinar\, we will practice bringing more immediacy and urgency to our prose by replicating how life feels in the moment\, and crafting scenes that capture the texture of actual living. \n\n\n\nWhether working with our own remembered lives in memoir\, or our characters’ constructed lives in fiction\, rather than “naming” a character’s emotional reactions\, let the reader experience the discrete moments that bring the significant feeling forward. We will look at examples from both memoir and fiction and discuss how to use the techniques in your work. Allison and Dinty will also “improvise” scenes\, writing in the moment to illustrate how details accumulate to create a whole. \n\n\n\nYou’ll leave with a better understanding of your craft\, clear ideas to enhance your scenes\, and prompts and nudges to get you started on new work or revision. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE how scenes can resonate more powerfully by replicating “real” life events\n\n\n\nDISCOVER ways to increase the immediacy and urgency of your story\n\n\n\nLEARN HOW deliberate craft choices create a powerful emotional connection\n\n\n\nWATCH Allison and Dinty improvise scene writing and editing live on Zoom\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for:\n\n\n\n\nWriters sick to death of hearing “show don’t tell” and unsure how to act on that feedback\n\n\n\nWriters who have been told they “Explain too much.”\n\n\n\nWriters who’d like their work to immediately capture attention and engage agents\, editors and readers.\n\n\n\nWriters with a piece that’s been widely submitted and rejected\n\n\n\nMemoirists needing new ways to recreate intensity of feeling on the page\n\n\n\nNovelists struggling with their genre\, who need to embrace tropes while keeping them fresh.\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDINTY W. MOORE  is author of the memoirs Between Panic & Desire and To Hell With It\, and the writing guides Crafting the Personal Essay and The Mindful Writer\, among other books. He has published essays and stories in Harper’s\, The New York Times Magazine\, Georgia Review\, Kenyon Review\, Southern Review\, Short Reads\, and elsewhere. He is founding editor of Brevity\, the journal of flash nonfiction. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nALLISON K WILLIAMS is the author of Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro From Blank Page to Book. She’s helped writers sell to Big Five and literary publishers\, hit the NYT Bestseller list\, and sign multi-book deals. She’s guided essayists and humorists to publication in media including the New Yorker\, Time\, the Guardian\, the New York Times\, McSweeney’s\, Refinery29\, Hippocampus\, the Belladonna and TED Talks. As Social Media Editor for Brevity\, she inspires thousands of writers with weekly blogs on craft and the writing life. Allison works with literary and commercial fiction and nonfiction\, as well as essays\, short fiction\, and and social platform. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University and spent 20 years as a circus aerialist and acrobat before writing and editing full-time. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/webinar-the-meaning-in-the-moment/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250430T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250430T143000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250321T203419Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T200805Z
UID:10000010-1746018000-1746023400@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Smarter Than You Think: Trusting Readers with Subtlety\, Nuance\, and the Pleasures of Uncertainty
DESCRIPTION:Readers love putting two and two together for themselves\, but too often—out of insecurity—writers forget to provide readers the space to discern and discover. \n\n\n\nFiction & Nonfiction \n\n\n\nReaders are curious people with active\, agile minds. Too often\, though—out of insecurity about how well our story is coming across—we provide too much information\, robbing our readers of one of the key pleasures of reading: putting two and two together for themselves. \n\n\n\nThis webinar will use examples from successful memoirs and literary essays to examine how we can write as if telling our story to the smartest friend we have. Where is the line between leaving a reader in the dark and allowing for some delicious suspense? When are nuance and suggestion more effective than perfect clarity? When is contradictory character information a strength rather than a blunder? \n\n\n\nWe’ll examine how we can enter the reader’s thought processes to discern the difference between confusing our readers and leaving them intrigued. And we’ll examine our own insecurity patterns\, rooting out our tendencies to tell\, then show\, then tell again. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE the line between confusing our readers and leaving them happily intrigued\n\n\n\nLEARN to write as if telling our story to “the smartest friend we have.”\n\n\n\nEXAMINE our own insecurity patterns\, rooting out our tendencies to tell\, then show\, then tell again.\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers at any level who:\n\n\n\n\nWould like their work to immediately capture attention\, to engage agents\, editors and—of course—readers\n\n\n\nStruggle with “how much to tell\,” “how much to show\,” and how much to “hold back”\n\n\n\nWant to revise work that’s been widely submitted and rejected\n\n\n\nAre insecure about their storytelling skills (that’s all of us)!\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDINTY W. MOORE  is author of the memoirs Between Panic & Desire and To Hell With It\, and the writing guides Crafting the Personal Essay and The Mindful Writer\, among other books. He has published essays and stories in Harper’s\, The New York Times Magazine\, Georgia Review\, Kenyon Review\, Southern Review\, Short Reads\, and elsewhere. He is founding editor of Brevity\, the journal of flash nonfiction. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/webinar-smarter-than-you/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250423T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250423T163000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250321T204659Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250417T161054Z
UID:10000011-1745420400-1745425800@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | The Fine Art of Containment: Finding New Ways to Hold Your Story
DESCRIPTION:Structure can seem like such a mundane word\, but in this webinar\, we’ll find exciting new ways for you to bring your story to life on the page.\n\n\n\nNonfiction \n\n\n\nYou’ve mined your memories\, written your scenes\, and come to some insights—yet your personal essay or memoir still doesn’t seem to fully engage your reader. Radically revising your structure might be the answer. \n\n\n\nWe’ll be thinking of structure in the sense of “containers\,” the way you might choose the perfect vase for a bouquet. Containers in this context could be thought of as through-lines that both hold and propel the narratives. These container scenes create both boundaries and forward movement for material that might otherwise have a hard time finding its focus. \n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, we will explore the various “container scenes” writers have used to structure their essays\, and how you can identify container scenes that might already exist in your own work. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE how to structure a personal essay to fully engage a reader\n\n\n\nPLAY with Beginnings and Endings\n\n\n\nDISCOVER how to identify a container scene in the works you read\n\n\n\nIDENTIFY and employ container scenes in your personal narratives\n\n\n\nBE EQUIPPED with suggestions for future reading and practice\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers:\n\n\n\n\nEager for fresh insights into revision practices\n\n\n\nInterested in how published authors structure their personal essays\n\n\n\nLooking for inspiration to draft new work and revise existing pieces\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBRENDA MILLER’s most recent book is A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing on Form. She is the author of five more essay collections\, including An Earlier Life\, which received the Washington State Book Award for Memoir\, and she is the recipient of seven Pushcart Prizes. Her book of collaborative essays with Julie Marie Wade\, Telephone: Essays in Two Voices\, received the Cleveland Poetry Center Award for Creative Nonfiction and was published by Cleveland State University Press in 2021. She co-authored\, with Suzanne Paola\, the textbook Tell it Slant: Creating\, Refining\, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction\, now in its third edition from McGraw-Hill Higher Education. She is a Professor Emerita of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/webinar-the-fine-art-of-containment/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T161500
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250321T202214Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250403T030714Z
UID:10000008-1744210800-1744215300@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | The Dreaded Comp Titles: A Necessary Evil That Can Launch Your Career
DESCRIPTION:Learn why the industry relies on comps\, where to find the best ones\, and how to use them to strengthen your pitch.\n\n\n\nComp titles are one of the most powerful tools for helping agents and publishers quickly understand where your book fits in the market. These comparable books—similar to yours in key ways—can make or break your pitch. In a logline or query\, comp titles serve as “shorthand” for your book’s tone\, theme and story\, making it easier for editors and agents to determine if a manuscript is a good fit. In a proposal\, strong comp titles also prove that books like yours are selling now. \n\n\n\nYet\, finding and using comp titles is one of the most challenging parts of querying. \n\n\n\nThis webinar will demystify the process of identifying and effectively using comp titles. Learn why the industry relies on comps\, where to find the best ones\, and how to use them to strengthen your pitch. Discover tools\, databases\, and research methods to uncover comps with strong sales numbers—all with step-by-step guidance and one-on-one assistance. Learn a structured\, 7-step process to streamline the search\, giving you everything needed to research and find your titles. \n\n\n\nAs an added resource\, a 30-minute video will be provided\, detailing how to use your newly found comps to improve your chances of securing the right agent or publishing house. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\n✅ Discover effective strategies for finding strong comp titles\n\n\n\n✅ Learn how to use comp titles to strengthen queries and pitches\n\n\n\n✅ Understand how comps demonstrate market viability and attract agents\n\n\n\n✅ Overcome the frustration of searching for and selecting the right comps\n\n\n\n✅ Avoid common mistakes that can weaken a book’s positioning\n\n\n\n✅ Gain tools to maximize success in securing an agent or publisher\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for ….\n\n\n\n\nAspiring and Querying Authors – Writers preparing to pitch their book to agents and publishers who need strong comp titles to strengthen their query.\n\n\n\nSelf-Publishing Authors – Writers looking to position their book in the market and attract the right audience using comp titles.\n\n\n\nLiterary Agents & Editors – Publishing professionals who want to refine their ability to identify and evaluate comp titles for submissions.\n\n\n\nBook Coaches & Writing Instructors – Professionals who guide writers through the querying and publishing process and need effective strategies for teaching comp title research.\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAMY COLLINS\, Agent with Talcott Notch Literary Services\, has over 30 years of experience matching books with readers. As a former book buyer\, publisher\, and sales director\, Amy focuses on the marketplace and sales potential for authors. As an agent\, she represents many authors who have signed deals with major publishers and is currently negotiating book to film as well. Amy is the author of several non-fiction books and is currently traveling the country with her two dogs meeting with editors and authors. She can be found on Instagram\, Threads\, and BluSky at @askamycollins. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/webinar-the-dreaded-comp/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250402T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250402T161500
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250319T153132Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250327T143139Z
UID:10000006-1743606000-1743610500@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Writing the Taboo in Memoir: Bring Your Most Vulnerable Stories to Life
DESCRIPTION:At their best\, personal narratives about “taboo” topics speak to our darkest truths and teach us what it means to be vulnerable.\n\n\n\nTopics like mental illness\, sex\, and violence are often branded “taboo” and can be some of the most difficult material to write about. But at their best\, these narratives speak to our darkest truths and teach us what it means to be vulnerable. Even the most stigmatized topics can be made approachable if you know how to pull the reader in and give your story universal resonance. No matter how difficult the subject matter\, memoirists can keep readers engaged by using craft techniques like worldbuilding\, identifying universal truths\, and exercising narrative control. \n\n\n\nThis webinar will explore the challenges and opportunities of writing honestly about taboo topics. We’ll discuss why it’s so important to give voice to unsayable truths\, and how to use craft tools to create unforgettable memoirs and essays. We’ll also address self-care strategies\, how to know when material is “too” explicit\, and how and when to exercise narrative restraint. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE why certain topics are “taboo” in personal narratives–and why you should write about them anyway.\n\n\n\nLEARN craft tools for making such stories feel resonant to readers\, including worldbuilding\, identifying universal truths\, and exercising narrative control.\n\n\n\nADDRESS the practical challenges of writing about taboo topics\, including self-care strategies\, knowing when material is “too” explicit\, and how to use narrative restraint.\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for ….\n\n\n\nA memoirist or personal essayist who is tackling topics often considered taboo or stigmatized in society. Examples of these kinds of topics include mental illness\, sex\, and violence. \n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKATIE BANNON is a writer\, editor\, and educator whose work has appeared in 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 is a developmental editor who loves working with memoirists and essayists on how to write and revise their most vulnerable\, taboo stories. She teaches at GrubStreet and lives in Central Massachusetts with her partner and two cats. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/writing-the-taboo/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250308T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250308T160000
DTSTAMP:20260507T094929
CREATED:20250122T200257Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250217T155842Z
UID:10000004-1741446000-1741449600@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:Angle of Vision: Reflection and Retrospection\, Time and Tense
DESCRIPTION:Writers of nonfiction prose rarely consider tense\, but it is essential to orienting a reader. Writing about our own experiences\, crafting through verb tense\, allows retrospection—consideration of the past from the vantage point of the present. \n\n\n\nRetrospection is a powerful form of meaning-making: it allows us to consider what happened through the lens of subsequent experience\, adding a layer of significance to memory and allowing writers to recognize and reflect on what’s changed and why it matters. To powerfully use this voice\, writers must make thoughtful choices when choosing tense. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWe’ll examine and discover how tense functions; consider the oft-repeated advice that present tense is more vivid and immediate; and analyze how mastering tense allows seasoned writers engage in retrospection and reflection. \n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXAMINE the ways one can use tense to enable retrospection and reflection\n\n\n\nANALYZE past and present tense\, to understand how each functions discretely and how they can work together\n\n\n\nLEARN to use tense in your own writing\, to create an angle of vision that draws meaning from memory and experience\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers of memoir and personal essay who want to better understand how to write from their own memories and experiences.\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available ✔All registrants receive the recording ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMichael Copperman’s  prose has appeared in The Oxford-American\, Guernica\, The Sun\, Creative Nonfiction\, Boston Review\, Salon\, Gulf Coast\, Triquarterly\, Kenyon Review and Copper Nickel\, among many others\, and has won awards and garnered fellowships from the Munster Literature Center\, Breadloaf Writers Conference\, Oregon Literary Arts\, and the Oregon Arts Commission. His memoir TEACHER: Two Years in the Mississippi Delta (University Press of Mississippi 2017)\, about the rural black public schools of the Mississippi Delta\, was a finalist for the 2018 Oregon Book Award in CNF. His work is represented by David Dunton of Harvey Klinger. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email info@craft-talks.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/angle-of-vision-reflection-and-retrospection-time-and-tense/
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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