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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260723T150000
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SUMMARY:WEBINAR | The Art of the Cinematic Close-Up: Crafting Details that Immerse Readers in Your Story
DESCRIPTION:Learn to use your writerly “lens” to focus on the solitary details that open a narrative universe of fluid\, truthful\, and seamless prose.\n\n\n\nFor Creative Nonfiction and Fiction WritersIncluded in the upcoming Season Pass \n\n\n\nWriters of fiction and nonfiction alike understand: we can’t use ostentatious or flowery language\, nor vague or abstract moments\, if we want to truly grab our readers and immerse them in the world of our story. Learn how to focus your scenes with concrete details\, vivid imagery\, original language\, and apt metaphor that is scaled to the task at hand. \n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, we’ll use the metaphor of photography and cinema to focus our writing lenses on the art of the close-up—the particular\, singular\, and sustained. Looking at writers from Cheryl Strayed to Virginia Woolf\, J.R.R. Tolkien to Zadie Smith\, we’ll examine how to describe physical things and people\, places\, as well as discreet moments in time\, states of high emotion\, and interiority with rigor and specificity. From “close-ups” like a dying moth on a windowsill; the way a drunken father stumbles around the house; the moment you tossed your second hiking boot off the mountaintop; a feeling of foreboding partway through a quest; you’ll discover how to use language beautifully and truthfully to create what John Gardner called a “vivid and continuous” dream in the reader’s imagination.   \n\n\n\nYou’ll leave having written some new passages that you can use in any writing project. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE the craft of sustained\, vivid description\n\n\n\nDISCOVER how to manipulate your writerly lens of focus with intention\n\n\n\nLEARN the difference between the particular and specific vs. the vague and abstract\n\n\n\nPRACTICE writing new passages using close-up techniques you can immediately apply to your own work\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers who:\n\n\n\n\nfeel their work is flat or lacking depth\, focus or specificity\n\n\n\nare finding their writing voice\n\n\n\nstruggle with writing description\n\n\n\nwant to move beyond generic imagery and find the singular\, unexpected detail that brings a scene to life\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA sharp\, funny presenter\, Ethan Gilsdorf is a writer\, teacher\, performer\, and a huge nerd. 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 has been named “Notable” by The Best American Essays.  \n\n\n\nEthan 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. At Hampshire College\, he studied filmmaking and creative writing and received an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Louisiana State University. He presented the TEDx talk “Why Dungeons & Dragons is Good for You (In Real Life)” and offers workshops teaching adults\, children\, and organizations how to play Dungeons & Dragons. \n\n\n\nREFUNDS (less a $10 processing fee) ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund\, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.  \n\n\n\nThere are no refunds after the replay is sent.Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/art-of-the-cinematic/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260723T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260806T200000
DTSTAMP:20260521T174839Z
CREATED:20260521T173405Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260521T174839Z
UID:10000127-1784826000-1786046400@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:3-WEEK WORKSHOP | Words That Matter: Writing for Advocacy and Change
DESCRIPTION:Words have the power to inform\, move\, and mobilize. Learn to craft essays that mine your experience while speaking out on important issues\, challenging injustice\, and calling on readers to act.\n\n\n\nOpen to 10 writers only\, working in Creative Nonfiction\, Narrative Nonfiction\, or Personal Essay \n\n\n\nLive On Zoom | Thursdays\, July 23 – August 6\, 2026 | 5-8 pm Eastern \n\n\n\nIn this generative writing workshop\, we’ll explore how the creative nonfiction essay conveys important themes and messages and questions the status quo\, bends a critical eye to social norms\, and brings to light a range of issues that need addressing\, from the small to the big. \n\n\n\nWe’ll explore a variety of essay styles and stories\, from thoughtful commentary to powerfully emotional pieces\, many of which explore difficult\, political\, and important contemporary issues: works rooted in truth but done so with the creative flair of artful formatting and prose. Most importantly\, we’ll practice and write our own advocacy essays. \n\n\n\nIf you’re passionate about speaking out against injustice\, expressing dissent\, and stimulating imagination of a better world\, join us to refine your skills and build your publication record with essays that make a difference. \n\n\n\nIncludes the instructor’s written feedback on your work. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOver these three weeks\, you will …\n\n\n\n\nQUESTION creative nonfiction essays to understand how they can convey important themes and messages\n\n\n\nPRACTICE employing craft elements to successfully advocate for issues in a way that emotionally connects with readers\n\n\n\nWORKSHOP one another’s work to provide diverse feedback\, perspectives\, and reactions\n\n\n\nEXPLORE a variety of essay styles and stories featuring difficult\, political\, and important contemporary issues\n\n\n\nGENERATE new writing to develop into powerful essays\n\n\n\n\nSchedule\n\n\n\n\nWeek 1: Short writing practice to get into the writing zone; discussion of essay examples distributed and read before class; longer writing sprint with brief on-the-spot reading/feedback\n\n\n\nWeeks 2 and 3: A workshop of up to 1\,000 words for each student; discussion of essay examples distributed and read before class; end with short writing practice to send us off with more ideaFollowing the final session\, the instructor will send written feedback to each student\n\n\n\n\nThis course is for beginning and intermediate writers who …\n\n\n\n\nwant to learn how craft elements create effective messaging\n\n\n\ndesire to use their craft for advocacy purposes\n\n\n\nhave stories to tell or want to speak out on issues they are passionate about\n\n\n\nwant to explore more experimental styles of essay writing\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔Think you might miss a class? No worries\, replays will be available. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmy Shea is an essayist with an MFA and a doctorate in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow and is the author of Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins.  \n\n\n\nAn energetic and encouraging teacher\, Amy focuses on practice-based instruction with time to write\, play\, and close-read examples to stretch your writing skills. Always inclusive\, she loves to provide lots of examples\, so students end up with lots of SWAG (Stories We All Get [to read])!Amy Shea’s work has appeared in The Missouri Review\, Portland Review\, The Massachusetts Review\,  the Journal of Sociology of Health & Illness\, among others. She works as the Writing Program Director for Mount Tamalpais College\, a free community college for the incarcerated people of San Quentin. Learn more about her work at https://amysshea.com. \n\n\n\nTestimonials from past students:\n\n\n\n“Amy Shea’s classroom presentations to my college writing classes were excellent and informative. She was a guest writer in both introductory and advanced writing classes\, and in both cases the students raved afterwards about how helpful her presentations were for them. Her focus on different kinds of research\, writing\, and editing in the context of writing creative nonfiction is useful for writers at all levels. Highly recommended!” –David Buuck\, Academic Director\, Oakland Clemente Course in the Humanities & Assistant Adjunct Professor of English\, Mills College \n\n\n\n“Amy is a wonderful lecturer and educator! She asks great questions that always stimulate lots of discussion and creates a great learning environment for the attendees with her warmth and creativity.” –Justine Juson \n\n\n\n“Amy presented her research and writing practices to my students\, who mostly saw research and writing as exacting hard work that was beyond them but not beyond others. Amy’s descriptions\, sometimes humorous and always instructive\, encouraged my students to think differently\, and by the end of class\, my students felt empowered to explore creativity and research in their own writing practices.” –Jeff Magnin \n\n\n\nTHE FINE PRINT \n\n\n\nWe 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. \n\n\n\nBefore the first class\, you may request a refund (less a $25 processing fee).After class begins\, you may request a refund for the remaining value of the course (less a $25 processing fee). \n\n\n\nNo credits or refunds will be available after the 1st class. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/words-that-matter/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Workshops and Masterclasses
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