WEBINAR | Memoir Strategies: Transforming Life into a Story that Matters
2026-03-19 15:00 - 16:15 (America/New_York) | Zoom
A great memoir isn’t just about remembering your life—it’s about shaping your story for the page.

For Memoir Writers

Whether you’re just starting your memoir, stuck in the middle, or looking to refine an existing draft, in this webinar you’ll learn actionable strategies for crafting a narrative that captures readers from the very first sentence.

Discover how to find your voice, get tips for structuring your story for maximum impact, and learn how—and when—to sidestep common mistakes that can weaken your memoir. By the end of the session, you’ll have a toolkit of strategies to write with confidence, precision, and authenticity.

Beyond crafting an engaging narrative, this webinar also addresses what makes a memoir publishable. Make your story stand out so you can grab an editor’s attention—and keep your reader reading.

Write a memoir that matters. From refining your voice to avoiding common mistakes and capturing readers’ attention, this course gives you the tools to move from memory to a polished, publishable story.

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

In this webinar, you will:

SHAPE lived experience into story by using narrative craft—scene, structure, tension, and momentum

DEVELOP a credible, compelling voice that sounds like you on the page, not a performance of yourself

WORK with memory as material—accessing it, questioning it, and shaping it responsibly on the page

DESIGN titles that carry weight—that suggest depth, tension, and literary authority without explaining too much

HOOK readers fast with openings that signal stakes, urgency, and control

IDENTIFY and avoid common memoir pitfalls—moves that signal inexperience and turn away readers

TRANSFORM memory into narrative using the essential tools of memoir craft

CLAIM and REFINE your voice so the work feels grounded, intimate, and intentional

This webinar is perfect for…

writers new to memoir who want practical craft tools for shaping personal experience into publishable work

fiction or poetry writers crossing into memoir who already have a strong voice but want guidance on memory, structure, and narrative control

intermediate memoirists who have drafts in progress and need revision strategies that work

writers aiming for publication in literary magazines or with book-length ambitions

authors who want to understand what editors respond to—and what turns them off

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Dr. Heather Sellers is the author of You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know, a popular memoir about family and face blindness. An O Oprah Book-of-the-Month Club selection and Editor’s Choice at the New York Times Book Review, the award-winning book was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, Dick Gordon’s The Story, and Dateline, The Today Show, and Good Morning America with George Stephanopolis. Her essays appear in The New York Times, The Sun, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, The Best American Essays, and numerous journals and anthologies. She is the author of four books on the craft of writing, including The Practice of Creative Writing.

Her fifth collection of poetry is coming out in June: Women in Tampa Talking About Alligators.

Heather has been teaching for over 30 years. Currently she is a member of the MFA faculty at the University of South Florida, where she won the university’s highest teaching award. She also offers in-person workshops and private lessons for writers at all levels.

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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WEBINAR | How Did We Get Here? Crafting Compelling Character Backstories
2026-03-11 15:00 - 16:30
Strong characters reveal just enough backstory. How much should you reveal about a character’s history?

For Creative Nonfiction and Fiction Writers

A character walks into the room…and brings an entire lifetime of baggage with them. How much do readers need to know? How should the writer decide what to include out of all we know about the character’s real or invented past? Often, writers spend time writing extensive character backstory or family history that isn’t essential to the story, but we’re so close to the material, it’s difficult to narrow down the most important details, those necessary to move the story forward.

In this webinar, discover the key questions that unlock your character’s history—even if that’s you! —and learn how to use backstory strategically to power the plot and reveal information effectively to readers. We’ll take a look at prompts you can use to develop intentional backstory and learn methods of incorporating backstory into narrative, including dialogue, exposition, and flashback.

Whether you’re working on your first book or refining your approach to character, this webinar will give you practical tools to make better decisions about backstory—so you can write with clarity and confidence.

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

In this webinar, you will:

IDENTIFY the essential questions that unlock your character’s past and reveal what truly matters to your story

DEVELOP a clear strategy for deciding which backstory details to include—and which to leave out

LEARN effective methods for weaving history into your narrative without stalling plot momentum

UNDERSTAND how to use backstory strategically to drive plot forward and deepen reader connection

Through lecture, prompts, and discussion, you’ll leave with practical tools for creating intentional characters whose histories enhance rather than overwhelm your story.

This webinar is perfect for you if you’re:

planning or drafting a new project and want to develop compelling character backstories from the start

in the early stages of revision and realize your characters feel flat or their motivations unclear

struggling with how much backstory to include—unsure whether you’re revealing too much, too little, or at the wrong times

spending too much time writing character history that never makes it into the actual story

feeling overwhelmed by everything you know about your character and need a strategy for deciding what matters

writing fiction or memoir where character depth and motivation are essential to the narrative

an emerging or developing writer looking to strengthen your craft fundamentals around character development

stuck in backstory dumps and want to learn how to weave history seamlessly into your narrative

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Stephanie Dethlefs is a certified book coach and former teacher. She is the author of the middle grade novel Unspoken, and her stories, essays, and articles can be found in Tahoma Literary Review, Christian Science Monitor, Literary Mama, Flash Fiction Magazine, diyMFA, WOW-Women on Writing, and more. Through her online community, teaching, and coaching, Stephanie strives to help people with stories on their hearts get them onto the page with ease and self-compassion. She lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest. Find her on Substack at WritingFromTheGroundUp.Substack.com.

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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WEBINAR | The Fallacy of One Voice: The Fractured Self in Memoir
2026-02-25 15:00 - 16:30
Writers are often searching for their “voice” on the page. But in good writing, especially in memoir, writers balance multiple voices to tell their stories.

For Creative Nonfiction and Memoir Writers

As a teacher of creative writing for the last 30 years, I have found that the goal of most emerging writers is to “find their voice.” But why is this idea of “voice” phrased in the singular?

In this webinar, we will not only discuss the many voices within us but also talk about how the singular voice in contemporary American memoirs is a fallacy. That we live in a fractured place, with a fractured history, occupied by fractured citizens. But there is beauty in fractures. It is what memoir writers explore—the cracks and crevices of our lives.

During the webinar, we will look at voice from many perspectives: 1) what voices get us to the page or prevent us from getting to the page; 2) how writers control voice in their writing—like Lidia Yuknavitch, Kiese Laymon, and Stephen Kuusisto; 3) analyze how multiple voices weave seamlessly through one another. We explore our many fractured identities and how to put those identities on the page.

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

In this webinar, you will:

ANALYZE how other writers use multiple voices in their life writing

INTERROGATE the myth of the singular voice in American memoir

CONSIDER the relationship between fractured identity, history, and narrative voice.

CREATE language rules for our voices

REFLECT on which voices enable or obstruct a writer’s ability to tell the truth

This webinar is ideal for intermediate and advanced writers who are…

writing a memoir or deeply interested in exploring life writing

interested in nontraditional memoirs

eager to deepen their understanding of voice in complex, nontraditional writing

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Ira Sukrungruang is the author of the forthcoming book, Under and Up: Fatherhood and Fear in the Age of Distrust. He has published four nonfiction books:This Jade World, Buddha’s Dog & Other Meditations, Southside Buddhist, and Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist; the short story collection The Melting Season; and the poetry collection In Thailand It Is Night. Ira is the recipient of the 2022 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in Nonfiction, 2015 American Book Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature, an Arts and Letters Fellowship, and the Anita Claire Scharf Award in Poetry. His work has appeared in many literary journals, including The Rumpus, American Poetry Review, The Sun, andCreative Nonfiction. He is one of the founding editors of Sweet: A Literary Confection (sweetlit.com), and is the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College.

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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The Writers Bridge | Multiple Platforms, One Vision: Building Your Audience around Your Mission with Sari Botton
2026-02-24 13:00 - 14:00
How can you build a multi-audience platform around one vision?

Discover how building your own audience springs from commitment to what YOU want to write.

Sari Botton publishes Oldster Magazine, Memoir Land and Adventures in Journalism to an enormous audience of Substack and email subscribers, social media admirers, and live event attendees. Over a long career from journalist to magazine publisher, she’s interviewed notable writers and, through Oldster Magazine, explores what it means to travel through time in a human body at every phase of life.

She’s created an ecosystem of complementary publications, featuring her own writing, guest essays, interviews and more–and they all lead back to her vision of intergenerational communication and just plain good writing.

We’ll talk about how Sari’s work has evolved over her career while staying true to her vision, how to make a living by creating what you care about, and finding the audience that cares, too.

Join us TUESDAY February 24th at 1PM EASTERN – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome!

Our special guest

Sari Botton‘s memoir in essays, And You May Find Yourself…Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo, was chosen by Poets & Writers magazine for the 2022 edition of its annual “5 Over 50” feature. An essay from it received notable mention in The Best American Essays 2023, edited by Vivian Gornick. For five years, she was the Essays Editor at Longreads. She edited the bestselling anthologies __Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NewYork __and Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York. She publishes Oldster Magazine, Memoir Land, and Adventures in Journalism. She was the Writer in Residence in the creative writing department at SUNY New Paltz for Spring, 2023.

Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for this lively, funny hour of frank talk about publishing, platform, and always following your mission.

FREE, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.

Enjoy past recorded sessions here

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS

Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (12k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.

Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

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SEMINAR | Send, Build, Grow: Strategies for a Sustainable Newsletter Practice
2026-02-21 14:00 - 2026-02-28 16:00
Sharpen your voice and clarify your process to transform your newsletter into an intentional, sustainable audience connection.

Live on Zoom | Saturdays February 21 & 28, 2-4 pm Eastern

For All Creatives

Whether your author newsletter is thriving at 3000 or well-intentioned but rarely sent to primarily friends and family, the path to building and sustaining a meaningful email-to-audience practice is rarely straightforward. There are ebbs and flows. Subscribes and unsubscribes. Bursts of momentum followed by long periods of self-doubt and posting-into-the-void vibes.

This two-session seminar is designed for writers who have already launched a newsletter—maybe months or even years ago—and now want to step back, take a clear-eyed look at what they’ve built, and make it stronger, clearer, and easier to maintain. We’ll examine your newsletter as it exists right now: what’s working, what’s unclear or underpowered, and where there are opportunities for improvement.

Rather than starting over, we’ll refine what’s already there—sharpening your voice, clarifying your focus, and improving how you talk about your newsletter so it’s easier for others to understand, share, and recommend. We’ll also look at how to build stronger, more intentional relationships with your readers over time and identify sustainable, low-lift ways to increase engagement, visibility, and momentum.

This seminar is not about launching a newsletter or chasing growth at all costs. It’s about turning an existing newsletter into a more intentional, sustainable practice—one that fits realistically into your writing life and continues to earn its place over time. You’ll leave with concrete adjustments, clearer decisions, and a simple system that helps you show up consistently—without burnout, pressure, or performative “best practices.”

NOTES: This seminar assumes you already have a newsletter—active or on hiatus. It is NOT a step-by-step guide to launching from scratch.

The seminar will be appropriate for users of any newsletter platform, including Substack—you do not need to be on a specific email service. We will look at common elements like metrics and audience data, but we will not be deeply exploring the technical capabilities of any one service.

In this 2-Day seminar, you’ll:

ANALYZE the general forms and philosophies of author newsletters: what works, what stalls out, and why

EXAMINE your own newsletter’s purpose, audience, and value—what it’s actually offering readers, not just what you hope it does

REFINE your format, voice, and focus so your newsletter feels aligned with your strengths and interests

RETHINK how you present your newsletter—on your site, on social media, and in conversation—so it’s easier for others to understand and share

IDENTIFY low-effort, sustainable ways to increase visibility and subscribers without adding stress

STRENGTHEN your reader relationship through clearer expectations, better framing, and more intentional communication

You will leave with…

A clearer, more intentional newsletter that reflects your voice and values

A realistic system you can actually sustain

Concrete decisions instead of generic advice

Renewed confidence in why your newsletter matters—and who it’s for

A sense that your newsletter can be a meaningful, energizing part of your writing life, not just another obligation

This course is for writers and creatives…

With an existing newsletter who want to improve clarity, consistency, and engagement

Whose newsletters have gone quiet—and want a realistic way to restart and re-engage

Who feel unsure how their newsletter fits into their broader creative or professional goals

Who want growth, but not at the expense of joy or sustainability

Closed captioning is available. ✔Think you might miss part of the class? No worries, replays will be available 3 business days after each session. ✔

ABOUT YOUR Instructor

Stephen Knezovich is a marketing strategist who works with writers, artists, and arts nonprofits. He is the co-founder of the literary magazine Short Reads, the marketing director and co-founder of Ascender Book Services, the marketing strategist for Off Assignment, a collage artist, and the curator of two email newsletters: Read This and Gluu. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two kids.

Stephen’s philosophy is simple: marketing should be creative, personal, human—and sustainable.

Student Testimonials

“Working with Stephen has been a game-changer. Stephen helped me more than double my newsletter subscribers, gave me clear focus, and completely transformed my website.” — Kristen Weber, Inside an Editor’s Brain

“Stephen put my mind at ease that building an audience does not have to be ‘hard.'” — Betsy B. (Attendee of From Here to There)

“Wonderful presentation. I felt like I was talking to a friend.” — Susan B. (Attendee of From Here to There)

“I deeply appreciate the more grounded, down-to-earth approach that the presenter took. I also appreciated the very earnest and honest tone of this presentation.” — Justin A. (Attendee of From Here to There)

THE FINE PRINT

We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.

Before the class, you may request a full refund.

Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

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WEBINAR | Point of View: Finding the Right Lens for Your Story
2026-02-18 15:00 - 16:15
When you understand the purpose of your story, you can choose the best perspective to bring it to life.

For All Writers

Whether writing fiction, memoir, or poetry, understanding point of view/POV is essential to clear, compelling writing. One of the most complex craft tools available to writers, point of view is frequently a source of frustration and confusion. Point of view in story is so much more than your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-person pronoun choice. Point of view depends on a story’s purpose, the perspective that a character (or narrator/author) inhabits, and the emotional distance that the point of view has from both character and story. To top it off, ‘point of view’ and ‘perspective’ also mean ‘opinion,’ which is not at all what they mean in creative writing.

Even if you’re confident in your current point of view choice for your work-in-progress, when you inevitably find yourself stuck in a scene, an exercise in changing the point of view can reveal new aspects of the scene and subject, creating deeper and more compelling stories and poems.

This webinar balances craft instruction on the three primary points of view (and their subsets) with opportunities to practice playing with less familiar choices and distances to see how they impact your scene.

Bring a short scene you’re working on or stuck in if you’d like to use that for practice, but that’s not required to participate in the exercises.

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

In this webinar, you will:

LEARN the three major point-of-view options and their subsets

EXPLORE how psychic/emotional distance impacts point of view

VIEW examples of a variety of point-of-view strategies

DISCUSS the pros and cons of different point-of-view choices

PRACTICE applying various point-of-view choices to a sample scene

This webinar is ideal for writers…

Are overwhelmed by the enormity of point of view

Are curious about how point of view can deepen their writing

Want to experiment with unfamiliar points of view

Consistently use only one point of view in their work and want to broaden their tools

Frequently receive feedback that they’ve “changed point of view” or are “head-hopping” and don’t know how to fix that

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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WEBINAR | Using Research in Creative Nonfiction and Fiction: How Facts Enhance Creative Work
2026-02-12 15:00 - 16:30
“Sometimes it’s not enough simply to peer intently into your own soul. Sometimes you have to look out the window and see the world in all its complicated glory.” ~ Philip Gerard, The Art of Creative Research: A Field Guide for Writers.

For Creative Nonfiction and Fiction Writers

For many writers, “research” got separated from our creative impulses sometime in high school. We associate sources and quotes with credibility rather than inspiration. We assume that poets, essayists, and novelists operate purely from their muse, that it’s only imagination that produces art.

But research is an important but often overlooked collaborator and powerful tool in the writing process. Even in this squishy age of “truthiness” and “fake news,” writers can enhance their fictional narratives, poetic images, and personal stories with chosen facts, carefully uncovered and discovered.

In this webinar, we will examine how writers such as Anthony Doerr, Sabrina Imbler, Adam Hochschild, Sandra Tsing Loh, Hilary Mantel, Robert Pinsky, Sarah Vowell and Ellen Austin-Li use “creative research” in their work, and to what effect. We’ll discuss the ways “fact” can help you reach your truth — whether you’re writing historical fiction about the 18th century or trying to accurately capture a hazy family memory — and how to make facts and data come alive on the page.

We’ll look at preparing a research plan for your own projects, balancing research and writing time, and how not to get lost in the research. We’ll also go over research and reporting tools and skills, including interviewing, fieldwork, and using archives.

In this webinar, you will:

DISCOVER the many ways in which research can be used in creative writing

LEARN about research methods and techniques

EXPLORE how research can be applied to their own projects

UNDERSTAND how to integrate facts seamlessly into narrative without overwhelming voice, scene, or momentum

DEVELOP a flexible research plan tailored to your genre, project stage, and writing goals

This webinar is ideal for writers who:

wonder how to navigate fact versus fiction

are curious about how to integrate research into their projects

want their work to feel grounded, credible, and vivid

feel intimidated by research but suspect it could strengthen their writing

are working on projects that require accuracy without sacrificing imagination

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Ethan Gilsdorf is a writer, teacher, performer, and a huge nerd. He is the author of the award-winning memoir Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. His work appears in the New York Times, Washington Post, Esquire, Wired, Salon, O the Oprah Magazine, Huffington Post, Brevity, Electric Literature, Poetry, and The Southern Review, among other publications, and is named “Notable” by 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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WEBINAR | Fact, Memory, Imagination: Connecting the Dots to Uncover Meaning in Our Moments
2026-02-04 15:00 - 16:15
You have the raw materials of a story or the start of an idea. But how can you turn information into artful narrative? By exploring the craft of the literary list, you’ll find the moments of surprise and epiphany that turn bare facts into powerful art.

For Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, & Poetry

Unexpected juxtapositions create meaning. Unusual sequences. Well-framed themes. In writers like Tracy K. Smith, Sonya Huber, Pablo Neruda, and Christina Sharpe, we discover—and can learn from—the power of deliberately chosen details and masterfully constructed themes.

Just as a puzzle becomes a picture, it’s the connections and the order of information that transform moments into a compelling narrative. In this webinar, we’ll examine how Pablo Neruda’s poetry collection Odes to Common Things proves the power of the list as a starting place for a story and see how poems that begin as seemingly simple declarations evolve into compelling narratives.

We’ll learn from the masters. We’ll practice artful list building. We’ll explore, as well, the child’s dot-to-dot puzzle and how its emphasis on dots, lines, and color can help us frame our works in progress.

Prepare to write briefly to prompts. Prepare to discover epiphanies. Prepare for a process that is not just fruitful but fun. Beth will close by sharing the process she used to write Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News: A Philadelphia Story, which draws on fact, memory, and imagination—on dots, and lines, and color.

In this webinar, you will:

ENJOY the clever evolution of Neruda’s poems

EXPLORE the power of lists in the making of stories, prose and poems

LEARN to convert stodgy facts into interesting scenes

GAIN insights into the literary fulcrum and cascade (and what, precisely, those are)

PURSUE the elevated ending in your own writing

LEARN how Beth Kephart developed a constellation of dots to create the hybrid novel based on her family history

This webinar is ideal for writers who:

having compiled or discovered facts, wish to advance the story

wishing to write intimate memoir, poetry or fiction

begin with lists, or writers who have eschewed them

wishing to have more fun with the process

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of some forty books in multiple genres, an award-winning teacher, a paper artist, and the author of the popular Substack, The Hush and the Howl. My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera was a finalist in the 2025 Pattis Family Foundation Creative Arts Book Award. Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News: A Philadelphia Story was a Silver Medalist in the North American Book Awards (historical fiction). “Conversations with Women in Blue” won the 2025 Creative Nonfiction Prize from The Porch.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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WEBINAR | Essays on the Writing Life: How to Write, Publish, and Get Noticed
2026-01-28 15:00 - 16:15
Essays on writing craft and the writing life are a great opportunity for you to get noticed—and published.

For All Writers | Included in the Season Pass

This may sound kind of meta (and it is), but writing about writing is a prime way for emerging and experienced writers to get published, build platform, develop their voice, and join the literary communities they’d like to be part of.

In this 75-minute live webinar, Andrea, an editor at The Brevity Blog, will take you through the steps of how to write powerful, thoughtful, and fun essays using published examples from The Brevity Blog and other key literary outlets as a hands-on guide.

Attendees will reflect on who they are as a writer, what they write, and what they’ve learned about writing and themselves. Andrea will present the wide range of potential topics for these essays and review the key elements and craft that help published pieces succeed and connect with readers. Considering your earlier reflection, you’ll brainstorm ideas for essays you can write and how to approach them.

You’ll take away a template to follow when writing about writing, a list of potential outlets with detailed descriptions and tips for submitting, and links to strong essay examples published in the outlets

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

In this webinar, you will:

DISCOVER what writing about writing means and the impact these essays have

FIND potential essay topics that mine your own writing experience

EXPLORE key elements to writing an engaging and insightful essay about writing craft, writing process and your writing life

LEARN why and how writing about writing leads to publication, builds platform, and grows your writing community.

RECEIVE a list of potential outlets to target with your essays, along with specific examples

LEARN how to develop and (when required) submit a pitch for your essay

This webinar is ideal for emerging and experienced writers who…

want to get published, gain readers, and get noticed

have a longer work published or in process who want to build their platform and create awareness for their project

want to engage with and create a literary community

want to write about their art and writing process to establish and share their expertise

want to support and spread the word about their work as teacher, editor, or publisher

want to provoke thought on a writing topic or raise a call to action

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Andrea A. Firth is an essayist, editor and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s an Editor at The Brevity Blog, cofounder of Diablo Writers’ Workshop, and has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Saint Mary’s College of California. Andrea has taught dozens of courses on a wide range of creative writing topics, including how to submit and get published in literary magazines and commercial outlets. Her writing focus is personal essay, which she writes about in her Substack newsletter Everything Essay!

Andrea was a finalist for The Missouri Review’s 2021 Perkoff Prize in creative nonfiction, and her work has appeared in Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, Allium, Please See Me, Motherwell, The Coachella Review among others. Andrea leads a free, monthly co-working session called Submit It Now! at Chill Subs, and hopes you will join her there.

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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The Writers Bridge | Social Media Simplified with Jane Friedman
2026-01-27 13:00 - 14:00
What online behavior actually moves the needle? What’s a waste of time?

Discover what’s new in social media for writers in 2026.

Should you be on social media? Which platforms? Do you need video? What about a newsletter or a Substack?

Jane Friedman has been writing and reporting on publishing since MySpace. She’s seen the rise and fall of Medium, Twitter, and many more. And she’s done the research and knows the numbers: does #BookTok actually sell books, and which ones? Does it matter if you post video or stick to text? Is LinkedIn actually a social site? And what should be driving the choices you make about your writer platform?

Cohost Allison K Williams co-founded The Writers Bridge and built platforms on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (RIP) and is currently refusing to be sucked into BlueSky. She swears by an email list, but needs to use it more effectively. And cohost Sharla Yates doesn’t do much social media at all–should she?

We’ll talk about our own social media and platform-building dilemmas and YOURS on the next episode of The Writers Bridge.

Join us TUESDAY January 27th at 1PM EASTERN – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome!

Our special guest

Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Bottom Line, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.

Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for this lively, funny hour of frank talk about writing comedy, writing for TV, and the wonderful chaos of the writers’ room.

FREE, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.

Enjoy past recorded sessions here

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS

Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (12k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.

Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

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WEBINAR | Newsletter Better: The Art & Craft of Sharing Your Work with Others
2026-01-21 15:00 - 16:30
Most newsletter advice focuses on platform choice, schedules, and metrics. This webinar starts with a more important question: why you want a newsletter at all—and how to build one that actually fits you.

For All Writers & Creatives | Included in the Season Pass

We all want two things: 1) time and creative focus to write, and 2) for the work we’ve poured ourselves into to land with the right reader and matter to them as much as it matters to us. One of the best ways to find and connect with those people is an email newsletter—but the process of making a newsletter can suck away our creative time.

Email newsletters are one of the most powerful, versatile, and human tools you have for finding readers and keeping them close. (We know this to be true because every build-your-author-platform article ever written since the dawn of the internet has said very clearly: YOU MUST HAVE AN EMAIL LIST.)

And yet, you may not be sure how to begin, what your newsletter should look like, or why the emails you promised yourself (and your subscribers) you’d send every other week haven’t gone out in two years. It’s frustrating and confusing, and most of the advice out there is an endless list of growth hacks and one-size-fits-all templates. None of which, ironically, actually fits you.

This 90-minute session invites you to see the newsletter not as a task to manage or a list to grow, but as a durable creative practice that supports your writing life, your career, and your sense of connection over the long haul. We’ll explore why newsletters matter, why they remain powerful even in a noisy digital landscape, and how getting clear on your “why” makes every later decision—frequency, format, platform, etc.—simpler and more sustainable.

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

In this webinar, you will:

CLARIFY what a newsletter is actually for—and what it is not

LEARN the major newsletter “shapes”

EXPLORE real-world examples of successful newsletters across genres and approaches

DISCOVER why newsletters outperform social media in trust, engagement, and longevity—and why “owning your assets” is crucial

LEARN how to build audience on a believable, sustainable timeline

RETHINK newsletters as creative acts—extensions of your voice, obsessions, and service to your ideal readers

This webinar is ideal for writers and Creatives who…

feel overwhelmed or frustrated by conflicting advice about author platforms

want a newsletter that feels personal, sustainable, and human—not performative

have started (and stopped) a newsletter that felt like a chore rather than a choice

know they “should” have a newsletter but don’t know what they’d actually write … or why anyone would want to read it

want clarity and direction more than tactics and trends

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Stephen Knezovich is a marketing strategist who works with writers, artists, and arts nonprofits. He is the co-founder of the literary magazine Short Reads, the marketing director and co-founder of Ascender Book Services, the marketing strategist for Off Assignment, a collage artist, and the curator of two email newsletters: Read This and Gluu. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two kids.

Stephen’s philosophy is simple: marketing should be creative, personal, human—and sustainable.

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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SEMINAR | Nailed It: Conceptualizing your Nonfiction Book
2026-01-17 14:00 - 2026-01-24 17:00
Clarify your book’s purpose, identify its core message, and develop an outline or structure for your book that aligns with your purpose.

Live on Zoom | Saturdays, January 17th & 24th, 2-5 pm Eastern

For Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Memoir writers

For over two decades, Melissa Petro has helped hundreds of writers nail down the concept for their nonfiction books. A strong concept is the critical first step in writing a book, yet so many writers either settle on a vague or underdeveloped idea—one that lacks a clear narrative thread or emotional/logical core—or skip this step altogether.

This 2-day seminar focuses on you getting this step right. The intensive will combine lectures, discussions, readings, and writing exercises. Together, we’ll clarify your book’s purpose, identify its core message, and develop an outline or structure for your book that aligns with your purpose, setting you up for the next stages of writing.

Participants will have the opportunity to submit a description of their project to the instructor for feedback.

Added bonus: senior agent Laura Mazer will join the second class, giving participants a chance to workshop their concept live.

In this seminar, you’ll:

EXPLORE the pros and cons of various publishing paths, including Big Five, indie, hybrid, and self-publishing.

IDENTIFY your potential primary and secondary audiences and discuss other aspects of market, including premise and promise, style, voice, and thesis

DISCOVER competitive titles and other ways to demonstrate how a new book fits within the existing market, helping agents, editors, and publishers understand its potential audience and sales viability.

CREATE a chapter outline, ensuring your chapters are in an order with a strong narrative arc and/or concepts that flow from one to the other or tell some kind of story.

This course is ideal for

nonfiction writers interested in writing a book

writers who are stalled at any stage in the writing process

anyone curious about the book-writing process

Closed captioning is available. ✔Think you might miss part of the class? No worries, replays will be available 3 business days after each session. ✔

ABOUT YOUR Instructor

Melissa Petro is a freelance writer and the author of Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, published by Putnam Books, a division of Penguin Random House. As a workshop facilitator, she’s helped hundreds of people push through fear, write, share, and even publish their most vulnerable stories in national publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Salon, The Washington Post, and elsewhere, and has helped still more individuals re-envision their lives by making meaning of their past and transcending traumatic experiences.

Student Testimonials

“Melissa Petro is an exceptional writing teacher. She masterfully balances support and challenge, pushing her students to refine their work while offering insightful and encouraging feedback. Her unique blend of honesty, kindness, and fresh perspective makes her an invaluable guide for any aspiring writer.” – Jennifer S.

“I’m lucky to have found such a terrific mentor in Melissa. Her honest, critical feedback has expanded my writing skills. She also shares her experience as a lifetime writer, synthesizes how the industry operates, and offers best practices for becoming a published author. I highly recommend any course Melissa offers.” – Shabana S.

“I always knew I wanted to be a writer but was too scared to commit to the work- working with Melissa not only held me accountable to finishing my memoir, but made me a better writer. Every time we connected I knew I would be met with honest critique that pushed me past my comfort zone which is exactly what I needed.” – Shannon O.

“Melissa Petro gave me the expertise and encouragement needed to finally publish my writing. She has helped me to shape ideas, pitches, and drafts into essays for HuffPost, Elle, and Business Insider. Her mentorship has been incredibly valuable to me as a writer and a woman who is turning her most shameful secrets into compelling articles. She’s just the best there is.” – Katie N.

“Melissa Petro is an engaged, knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher. She provided practical guidance, while also giving us thoughtful personal feedback to each student. Highly recommend her class!”

THE FINE PRINT

We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.

Before the class, you may request a full refund.

Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

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WEBINAR | Self vs. Self: Writing Your Best Essays from Contradictions
2026-01-14 15:00 - 16:15
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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REPLAY | Organize Your Writing Life: Get UNstuck in 2026
2026-01-11 22:30 - 23:30
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 tomerge 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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The Writers Bridge | How to Pitch Your Book in 2026 with Literary Agent Jessica Berg
2025-12-30 13:00 - 14:00
Whether you’re talking to agents, publishers or readers, you need to comfortably talk about your book.

What makes a great pitch, and the platform you need to support your book.

Getting your book to the shelves means talking about it–clearly, concisely, and in a way that builds excitement and anticipation. And talking about your platform is part of that pitch.

Literary Agent Jessica Berg has heard thousands of pitches, and helped the authors she represents shape their platform and refine their pitch to attract publishing deals, plan their marketing, and ultimately reach readers.

Cohost Allison K Williams has shepherded writers through live and virtual pitch events, and helped them get comfortable talking about themselves and their books with top agents in New York and London. She’s pitched a fair few books herself and learned some surprising new elements of her own platform for 2026.

We’ll talk about successful book pitches, how your platform can support your pitch, and hear some of YOUR pitches on the next episode of The Writers Bridge.

Join us TUESDAY December 30th at 1PM EASTERN – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome!

Our special guest

Jessica Berg is a literary agent, author, and the founder of Rosecliff Literary. She loves stories that explore grief, longing, ambition, and survival and the complicated ways they intersect.

She earned her MFA from Spalding University and contributes regularly to Writer’s Digest. Jessica serves on the boards of the Women’s National Book Association and the Historical Novel Society, and teaches nationally on querying, comp titles, and the business of authorship, with a focus on building sustainable, long-term writing careers. Her client list includes Vincent Zandri, Lisa Roe, Arizona Bell, and others..

Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for this lively, funny hour of frank talk about writing and publishing.

FREE, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.

Enjoy past recorded sessions here

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS

Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (12k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.

Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

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WEBINAR | Using AI for Writing Business Efficiency: The Practical, Ethical Way to Spend More Time Doing What You Love
2025-12-17 15:00 - 16:30
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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WEBINAR | The Words That Start the Wave: Memoir Openings Designed to Move
2025-12-13 15:00 - 16:30
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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SEMINAR | The Final Polish: Make Every Sentence Shine
2025-12-06 14:00 - 16:30
Even the strongest stories falter if the sentences don’t sing.

For All Writers

You’ve revised your structure, developed your characters, and deepened your themes—but you’re still wondering, is this ready to submit, or does it need more work? Perhaps the prose feels flat, predictable, or cluttered with unnecessary words. Your voice doesn’t feel powerful. It’s not just you! Most writers face this challenge after completing their macro-level revisions: the sentences themselves need work, but it’s hard to see exactly what’s wrong or how to fix it. We all need a clear framework for evaluating prose at the sentence level.

This seminar focuses on the final polish—the sentence-level work that transforms a narrative from solid to striking. We’ll tackle the specific issues that drain energy from your prose: repetitive sentence structures that lull readers to sleep, vague language that tells instead of shows, and filler words that bloat your word count without adding meaning. You’ll learn how to fine-tune syntax, word choice, rhythm, and cadence to create prose that engages, surprises, and resonates with readers on every page.

Most importantly, you’ll develop the editorial eye to spot when your prose is polished and ready to be shared.

In this insightful seminar, you’ll:

IDENTIFY common sentence-level problems and how to avoid them.

EXPLORE variations in syntax and sentence length to create rhythm, tension, and emotional pulse.

DISCOVER strategies for sharpening word choice, enhancing specificity, and using fresh, precise language.

PRACTICE “purging” techniques to eliminate unnecessary words from your prose–easily!

LEARN to know when your prose is truly ready to submit.

This seminar is ideal for intermediate and advanced writers who:

Have a complete or near-complete draft of a book, essay, or story and want to elevate it with sentence-level polish.

Struggle with clichés, generalities, or filler words and want to make their language fresher, more precise, and more impactful.

Are ready to refine their work before submission, publication, or sharing with readers.

Want to move beyond structural revision into micro-level craft mastery.

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

ABOUT YOUR Instructor

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 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.

Student Testimonials

“Katie is the best writing instructor I have ever had. Her presentation was impeccable. She provided an abundance of ideas, details, examples, and information. In fact, the class was overflowing with information. I have nothing but praise for Katie and the class content.”

“Katie was an amazing instructor. She explained core concepts with clarity and ease, provided excellent examples and writing samples, and created a very supportive learning environment. The class truly exceeded my expectations!”

“Holy moly, this was a superb class. Instructor was well-prepared with lots of valuable and well-organized information and ideas. I have already begun applying some of the tools from class to revise—and what a difference it’s making!”

THE FINE PRINT

We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.

Before the class, you may request a full refund.

Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

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WEBINAR | Writing Through Menopause: Navigating Our Changing Voices
2025-12-03 15:00 - 16:15
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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The Writers Bridge | From Zero to 100K Followers: Midlife Social Media
2025-11-25 13:00 - 14:00
How to build your presence and get a book deal–by doing what you actually enjoy.

How can a midlife writer make a dent on social media?

By showing up.

When Lucie Frost first tried to sell her memoir, she heard the dreaded “not enough platform.” And she didn’t want to violate her own privacy or get trapped into following fads.

Instead, she focused on what drove her writing: curiosity. Her Instagram and TikTok appearances, sharing what she wanted to know and why, built a multi-generational audience of inquisitive readers, ready for her book, How the Hell Did I Not Know That: My Midlife Year from Couch to Curiosity.

In this months’ Writers Bridge, Lucie will share the tips and tricks she used to feel comfortable and happy building her platform, how she protected her online self, and how that platform led to a traditional publishing deal. She’ll also answer all your questions about how you can do it, too!

Join us TUESDAY November 25th at 1PM EASTERN – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome!

Our special guest

Lucie Frost is a no-longer-practicing lawyer and the author of How the Hell Did I Not Know That? (Trinity University Press, August 2025).

She has written humor and satire for NextTribe, Slackjaw, The Belladonna, Points in Case, Emrys Journal, and others. She is active on social media, with 100k+ engaged followers across various platforms.

She lives in Central Texas with her three needy, delightful dogs.

Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for this lively, funny hour of frank talk about writing comedy, writing for TV, and the wonderful chaos of the writers’ room.

FREE, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.

Enjoy past recorded sessions here

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS

Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (12k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.

Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Questions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com

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WEBINAR | How to End a Memoir: Finding Closure Without Cliché
2025-11-19 15:00 - 16:15
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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WEBINAR | Finding and Writing Your Joy: The Unexpected, the Inexplicable, and the Lovely
2025-11-12 15:00 - 16:15
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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WEBINAR | Writing with Your Ghosts: Turning Hauntings into Portals
2025-11-05 15:00 - 16:15
The questions, voices, places, and ideas that haunt you are a roadmap into the deepest layers of your writing.

For All Writers

As writers, we have themes and questions that we return to over and over again in our work. Sometimes this can feel limiting, but what if what you can’t shake off is meant to stick? Our “hauntings” are threads we’re holding that haven’t found their pattern. Writing is one of many ways we weave their patterns so they can rest.

What may feel common or repetitive is really the foundation of everything that is ours. These recurring themes contain the portals to our strongest stories. Let’s look at what we can learn from the things that haunt us and populate our unique writer’s point of view.

In this generative writing workshop, we will engage with exercises that help you meet and get to know the things that haunt you and your work. Not only will you name and dialogue with a haunting or two, but you’ll also learn ways to turn your hauntings into generative writing portals, create three fresh approaches to an old question, and take a short detour through the work of Georgia O’Keeffe’s skull paintings.

Come prepared to explore the other worlds that live inside of you!

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

In this webinar, you will:

EXPLORE questions and themes that haunt you

IDENTIFY a common thread among your obsessions

REFLECT on the use of a single subject in the skull paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe

LEARN HOW to re-energize what feels familiar and stale

CREATE three different writing approaches to one of your hauntings

This webinar is ideal for writers who…

Are curious about the secrets hidden in their hauntings

Feel their work has become repetitive

Are seeking new approaches to their writing themes

Want to learn how to re-energize a familiar topic

Are feeling stuck inside a single story

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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WEBINAR | Navigating Literary Magazines: Great markets for YOUR work
2025-10-30 14:00 - 15:30
Feeling overwhelmed by the landscape of literary magazines? Join us in this fun and lively session for answers to your lit mag questions.

For All Writers

The landscape of literary magazines can be overwhelming. With over 6,000 journals currently on the market, writers often struggle with finding the best and most appropriate magazines for their projects. In this lively and informative talk, we will look at the tools available to writers to narrow down the market and discuss ways to find journals specifically suited to their interests.

Are contests good to enter? How do you determine a credible writing contest?

What are things to look for in deciding whether to submit to a newer lit mag?

Should writers pay submission fees?

What do rejection letters really mean?

And so much more!

Gain empowerment to find exciting journals and submit your work for publication. Can’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants.

In this webinar, you will:

LEARN best practices for success in lit mag publishing and writing contests

DISCOVER ways to narrow the market and target those journals most suitable for your work

FIND new resources to help you with lit mag publishing

GET inspired and empowered to send your writing into the world

ASK any questions you have about lit mag publishing

This webinar is ideal for writers of all genres who are seeking successful strategies for submitting their work for publication.

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Becky Tuch is a fiction and nonfiction writer based in Pennsylvania. Her short stories have been honored with awards from Moment Magazine, Briar Cliff Review, Glimmer Train as well as fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and elsewhere. Additional work has appeared in Atticus Review, Gulf Coast, Post Road, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and other publications. She is the creator of Lit Mag News, a Substack dedicated to demystifying the world of literary magazines.

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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WEBINAR | Writing the Hermit Crab Essay: Telling Your Story in Borrowed Forms
2025-10-22 15:00 - 16:30
Learn to write and revise a Hermit Crab essay from the teacher who coined the term, and have fun generating new and surprising work!

For Creative Nonfiction, Personal Essay and Memoir

The “Hermit Crab” essay, Brenda Miller writes in Tell It Slant, borrows a form that already exists in the world to tell a personal story. Like the hermit crab creatures themselves, these essays need a found shell to contain their vulnerable underbellies.

In this webinar, Brenda Miller will show how you can find your own shells and use them to coax out material that otherwise might not have found its way. She will provide powerful examples and guide you in a fun and inspiring writing practice to generate new and unexpected material. She will also describe revision approaches and submission strategies for these innovative essays.

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

In this webinar, you will:

LEARN how to identify and use the Hermit Crab essay form in your own work.

DISCOVER how to select compelling “shells” for Hermit Crab essays.

STUDY the relationship between form and content.

PRACTICE writing techniques that coax out new material by working within borrowed forms.

LEARN specific revision strategies for refining Hermit Crab essays.

This webinar is ideal for writers who…

Need a little “spark” in their writing practice

Want to explore and experiment with new forms

Find themselves challenged in writing difficult material.

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Brenda Miller is the author of six essay collections, most recently A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form (University of Michigan Press, 2021). Her book of collaborative essays with Julie Marie Wade, Telephone: Essays in Two Voices, won the Cleveland State Poetry Center Award for an essay collection and was published in 2021. She co-authored Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction (Third Edition 2019) and The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World. Her poetry chapbook, The Daughters of Elderly Women, received the 2020 Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. Her work has received seven Pushcart Prizes. She is a Professor Emerita at Western Washington University, where she taught creative writing for 25 years.

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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The Writers Bridge | Funny on Purpose: The Craft of Writing Comedy
2025-10-21 13:00 - 14:00
With Emmy-award winning writer Elliott Kalan, former Head Writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

What’s the difference between a book that makes people smile and one that makes them snort-laugh on the subway?

Intent. And technique.

Most writers stumble into humor by accident—a clever turn of phrase here, a self-deprecating moment there. But award-winning comedy writer Elliott Kalan (winner of four Emmys, a Peabody, and Head Writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) knows something most authors don’t: being funny on purpose is a learnable skill, whether you’re writing memoir, fiction, or anything in between.

In this months’ Writers Bridge, Elliott will reveal why relying on natural wit isn’t enough—and how his “joke farming” method can help you cultivate intentional humor that enhances your story. He’ll show you how to plant comedic moments that feel organic, tend to them with the right structure and timing, and harvest laughs that serve your larger narrative.

Join us TUESDAY October 21st at 1PM EASTERN – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome!

Our special guest

Elliott Kalan is an Emmy, Peabody, and Writers Guild Award–winning television writer and producer whose credits include head writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and head writer for the reboot of Mystery Science Theater 3000, among other shows. He is currently executive producer and showrunner for the forthcoming Ghostbusters animated series on Netflix.

Elliott also hosts or cohosts the podcasts SmartLess Presents: ClueLess, The Flop House, and The Power Broker, a limited series from 99% Invisible. Additional writing credits include the history podcast Presidents Are People, Too!, the children’s sketch comedy show The Who Was? Show, three children’s picture books, and comic book series for Marvel and DC Comics.

Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for this lively, funny hour of frank talk about writing comedy, writing for TV, and the wonderful chaos of the writers’ room.

FREE, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.

Enjoy past recorded sessions here

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS

Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (12k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.

Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Questions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com

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WEBINAR | Micro Memoirs: Writing Tiny True Stories
2025-10-15 15:00 - 16:30
Can you write a powerful, true story in less than 300 words? Learn how to write emotionally resonant, attention-grabbing micro memoirs.

For Creative Nonfiction, Personal Essay and Memoir

Micro memoirs (a sub-genre of flash creative nonfiction) are true stories from one’s life written with power and brevity. Generally defined as 300 words or less, these tiny essays pack a powerful punch! With a limited word count, every word matters. Through writing micros, you’ll learn to distill what’s most important, focus on a single experience, and rely on images and sensory details to make your work pop on the page—work that can help your scenes, essays, and manuscripts, too.

During this online generative webinar, participants will look at examples of evocative micro memoirs and explore what makes them effective. They’ll learn how to create a lasting emotional impact on readers with just a few words by using precise sensory details, poetic devices, and metaphor. At the end, Bethany will provide three writing prompts as optional homework to jumpstart your writing!

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

In this webinar, you will:

EXPLORE the six key elements of a successful micro memoir.

DISCOVER how to create emotional resonance so readers keep thinking about your piece long after they read it.

GET TIPS for writing engaging and powerful micro memoirs that editors and readers will love.

EXPLORE how compression, sensory details, and lyricism increase the impact of your writing.

This webinar is ideal for writers who want to…

Explore the possibilities of tiny prose

Immediately capture the attention of editors and readers

Increase the impact and emotional resonance within all their writing

Learn how to use compression and sensory details to make their work come alive

Explore a form that can be written in liminal moments, in the midst of life’s busyness

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

Bethany Jarmul is an Appalachian writer, poet, writing coach, and workshop instructor. She’s the author of a poetry collection, Lightning Is a Mother, and a memoir, Take Me Home. Her work has been published in more than 100 literary magazines including Rattle, Brevity, and Chestnut Review. Her writing was selected for Best Spiritual Literature and Best Small Fictions and nominated for the Pushcart Prize and The 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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SEMINAR | The Right Words: Boost Your Author Platform with Storytelling
2025-10-11 12:00 - 14:30
Your author platform rests on your public identity. Create and define your online self to capture readers’ attention and showcase your story.

After creating your art privately, over time, marketing can feel disingenuous, even tacky. But to attract attention from readers, agents, and publishers, you need a clearly defined public persona that truly reflects who you are and what you offer. Storytelling is the key to getting noticed in a click-away world without compromising your message.

This 2.5-hour generative seminar will help you align your website, social media, and content with who you are while also ensuring your work is discoverable online. This isn’t a tech-heavy session—it’s about using your words to define your digital identity in a way that resonates with your audience and gets found by search engines. If you hate your current website or are procrastinating launching one altogether, or if you rely on social media platforms for your audience engagement but worry they could change or disappear overnight, this seminar is for you!

You’ll learn how to research and reflect on your current online identity, avoid common SEO and AI pitfalls, and generate key search words through storytelling. Through writing prompts and case studies, we’ll focus on crafting drafts for your Home and About pages, giving you the tools to build a digital presence that feels true to you. Whether you’re just starting your author website or renovating the one you have, you’ll leave this workshop with actionable steps to take your online presence to the next level and connect more effectively with your intended audience.

This seminar offers live workshopping for HOME or ABOUT pages of 5–7 selected websites. Submit your URL a week in advance (instructions in your confirmation email) for a chance to be featured live. If time allows, additional links may be shared in the chat. All participants—whether featured or not—will receive personalized feedback by email for up to two weeks after the session, including on content drafted during the workshop.

In this Interactive seminar, you’ll learn to:

ALIGN your online presence with your true creative identity.

LEARN to analyze and apply insights from different website styles.

DEVELOP clear and engaging content for key website pages, while maintaining a personal voice and clarity.

CREATE effective, engaging calls-to-action and website copy that draws visitors in and makes it easy for them to connect.

EXPLORE practical steps to refine an online identity that supports your professional and personal goals.

ENGAGE in Q&A to discuss specific challenges in shaping your website and digital presence.All registered attendees will receive the Golden Notes summary with actionable steps and the slides from the presentation, including prompts for further reflection and implementation.

This seminar is ideal for writers, freelancers, and creatives who

Are frustrated with their current website or procrastinating on launching one

Have changed careers or writing styles and need to update their digital presence

Are online-phobic and unsure how to navigate creating an authentic, engaging digital identity

Feel their social media presence isn’t enough and want to take full control of their online persona

Want to boost visibility without relying on complex SEO tactics or tech-heavy jargon

Looking to align their website, social media, and content with who they truly are, while making sure it works for SEO and engagement

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

ABOUT YOUR Instructor

Michelle Cutler is an award-winning screenwriter, storytelling coach, and essayist with more than 15-years of experience as a freelance advertising writer and brand strategist. She has worked on over 1,700 commercial campaigns across the U.S., U.K., and Europe, collaborating with top directors and agencies on projects ranging from the world stage of the Olympics to episodic television, feature films, and luxury house paint. Her reported and personal essays have appeared in HuffPost, Business Insider, Trail Runner Magazine, Under the Gum Tree, Brevity Blog, and elsewhere. She loves working with individual writers and artists on personal storytelling, branding, pitching, and audience engagement.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

Testimonials from past students:

“Michelle Cutler knows her stuff! And she is very generous and patient in sharing her expertise. I need to go back and listen to the recording again to glean even more benefit from her workshop!” – Andi Penner (IWWG hosted workshop participant)

“Michelle’s webinar gave me immediate and concrete steps to improve my website in a clear and easily understood manner. She is very charming and seemed genuinely interested in my questions, answering all of them by the end of the session. Well worth the time and money spent.” – Diana Eden (IWWG hosted workshop participant)

“I am a gardener in Nevada City California. My mother signed me up for this workshop. It absolutely turned my head around about the approach that I’ve been taking. It was fun and smart and it made the “lights in my building” brighter! I highly recommend it.” – Kathy Irving (IWWG hosted workshop participant)

“Michelle’s clear presentation and focus were invaluable! Her “SEO of Me” workshop was exactly what I needed as I work to tell my story as an online presence.” – Lisa St. John (IWWG hosted workshop participant)

THE FINE PRINT

We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.

Before the class, you may request a full refund.

Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

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WEBINAR | Personal Essays for Mainstream Media: the Form, the Market & What Editors Want
2025-10-08 15:00 - 16:00
Pitching and writing short personal essays for commercial media means answering Why you? and Why now? right up front!

for Creative Nonfiction and Personal Essay

Learn the nuts and bolts of the 750- to 1,500-word personal experience essays commonly found in popular, mainstream publications, ranging from the Boston Globe Magazine “Connections,” The New York Times “Modern Love,” HuffPost Personal, and special-topics publications like travel (Yankee, Afar), food (Bon Appétit), parenting (Motherwell), and other niche interests, lifestyles, and hobbies.

Learn how to craft essays that are straightforward, direct, and to the point; that focus on a poignant personal transformation; that have a strong “I” voice narrator from the start; and that provide the reader with some universal takeaway or lesson. We’ll also make sure your essays answer the “why now? ” question by showing how to make your essays timely, topical, and responsive to newsworthy events, anniversaries, and seasons—which editors love.

This webinar will NOT focus on experimental, lyrical, or literary essays.

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

In this webinar, you will:

UNDERSTAND the form, structure, and marketplace for mainstream essays.

AVOID the top mistakes that writers of these essays make.

DISCOVER how to craft personal experiences into short essays.

This webinar is ideal for writers at any level who:

want to publish in mainstream outlets

struggle finding a clear focus and takeaway for their essays

want to turn their personal experiences into marketable narratives

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

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

ETHAN 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.

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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WEBINAR | Beyond Description: Creating Powerful, Realistic Characters in Fiction and Memoir
2025-10-04 13:00 - 15:00
The most powerful characters on the page are complex and multi-layered, and they both surprise and convince readers with (and within!) their reality.

for Fiction and Memoir

Novelists create characters from nothing, who must feel as real as anyone we’ve met. Memoirists must pack a lifetime of knowledge into selected details to show readers the people they engaged with, as those people truly are. But too often, writers default to physical description—characters pausing in front of conveniently reflective surfaces—or narrating our own judgements of the people we know, rather than allowing readers to make those discoveries themselves. As an actor, playwright, and director, Allison K Williams has explored character creation inside and out.

In this special 2-hour (Saturday) webinar, you’ll learn how to use tools from theatre to analyze your own text and create stronger characters on the page. With examples from fiction and memoir, we’ll examine how objectives, passions, and foibles drive characters and deepen their dramatic impact; how qualities of movement are expressed in verbs and adverbs; the difference between high-context dialogue and “stuff I needed the reader to know so I made a character say it”; and even dive into how punctuation can shape a character’s emotion in a scene.

You’ll raise your craft level and gain a tool kit to help you present all your characters, real or fictional, as fully rounded beings, regardless of their word count, and make each one memorable and worthy of their time on the page.

In-class writing time and live editing will give you a chance to apply this to your writing right away.

This is a TWO-HOUR class, with 20 minutes of writing time in the middle.

45 minutes – Learn the tools of character analysis, and key writing techniques to show character on the page

10 minutes – Q&A to fully understand and apply the information.

20 minutes – Revise a scene that introduces one of your key characters to heighten the character’s impact on the page and more skillfully show who they are, what they want and why they matter. 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 (link will be provided in class, no pages will be accepted before they are called for).

40 minutes – Allison will live-edit pages shared on screen, noting where the writer is succeeding and what revisions could 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.

10 minutes – Q&A and planning your writing from here.

This webinar will cover

HOW the interplay of passion and foible creates conflict and tension within and between characters

The “CHARACTER ZERO” of Commedia Dell’ Arte and how it relates to modern prose

SHOWING villainous, abusive, narcissistic and harmful behavior in ways that allow the reader to judge—and why moments of “good” give evil more impact

WORLDBUILDING through character action and dialogue

WHEN, HOW, and WHY to use adverbs (hint: “in a _____ tone” is needlessly verbose! Bring on the adverbs!)

The ACTOR’S TECHNIQUE for bringing to life the most minor of characters—and how to use it in writing.

OBJECTIVES and OBSTACLES, and how they make characters active in every scene.

This webinar is ideal for

Novelists with a large cast of characters who need distinction; or only a few characters who must hold the reader’s attention throughout the book

Memoirists who want to write vivid characters without getting lost in their own emotional past experience

Creative writing students and graduates of MFA programs who want to expand their writing craft with conscious practice.

Developmental editors who want to grow their knowledge of characterization in prose and better communicate that knowledge to their author clients.

“Plotters” struggling with bringing a character dossier to life on the page

“Pantsers” who need to fill in background and personality without info-dumping

Writers hearing feedback that their characters blend together, or are too “black-and-white” and need more depth

All registrants receive the recording. ✔

Closed captioning is available. ✔

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 Big Five and literary/university publishing deals and the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. 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.

Before turning to writing and editing fulltime, Allison was a classically-trained actor. With a BA in Theatre and an MFA in Playwriting, she has acted and directed with American Stage, The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Eckerd College, Western Michigan University, and many more. Her plays for young actors have been noted by Dramatics Magazine as top-ten most produced worldwide, and her multi-character solo show TRUE STORY won Best of Fringe at the London Fringe Festival and toured the USA and Canada.

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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