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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250607T140000
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SUMMARY:2-DAY SEMINAR | The Quest for Clarity: The Blueprint Method to Structure Your Nonfiction Book or Memoir
DESCRIPTION:Writing a nonfiction book or memoir with authority requires command over your material and your ideas. Learn how to focus on what matters most so you’re prepared to craft a compelling book proposal.\n\n\n\nNarrative Nonfiction and Memoir \n\n\n\nLive on Zoom | Saturdays\, June 7 & 14 @ 2:00-4:00 pm  EDT \n\n\n\nEven before you write a proposal\, distilling a book’s core is an essential first step in understanding what you’re writing about\, how you’re telling the story\, and who that story is for. These foundational structural elements help capture the attention of agents and publishers. \n\n\n\nIn this two-session course\, you will complete a mini-blueprint to help you clarify and strengthen several key aspects of your book’s structure. You’ll learn how to articulate why your book is needed and why you’re the right person to write it\, define its central point\, and craft a compelling killer sentence or early logline. \n\n\n\nYou’ll also develop book jacket copy\, brainstorm multiple draft titles and subtitles\, and determine your book’s dominant style—whether it’s an exposé\, a reinterpretation of history\, a memoir focused on family\, trauma\, or something else. In addition\, you’ll identify the structural “container” for your book\, such as a collective or chronological narrative\, and create (or make a good start) on an outline for the book that conveys a sense of momentum from one chapter to the next. It’s a summary of the story’s logic. \n\n\n\nParticipants will complete most or all of the mini-blueprint before our second class\, and we’ll review selected examples of participant work to highlight what’s working well and why\, along with common pitfalls to avoid. You will gain a much deeper understanding of your book—bringing you one step closer to writing a strong commercial nonfiction book proposal. \n\n\n\nRead more about Amy’s take on this topic here. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this insightful four-hour live seminar\, you’ll learn to:\n\n\n\n\nDISCOVER the elements of a blueprint that will help organize your research and ideas and nail the thesis of your book.\n\n\n\nACTIVATE the blueprint’s tools to uncover your ‘why\,’ the point of your book\, and your ideal reader.\n\n\n\nDRAFT an outcome-based outline that begins to reveal your chapter flow.\n\n\n\nEXPLORE the power of drafting titles\, jacket copy\, and other succinct elements that reveal your book’s purpose and focus.\n\n\n\nUNLOCK your book’s sense of urgency\, timeliness\, and undeniability.\n\n\n\n\nCan’t make the first session? No worries. We’ll send you the replay by Wednesday! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis seminar is ideal for writers who have a rough idea for a nonfiction book and no idea how to develop it\, as well as writers who have already produced many words but don’t know how to continue and have no discernible structure or outline.\n\n\n\nFor writers planning a memoir\, this seminar will help you find the focal points for your story and define its emotional center.\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR instructor\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmy L. Bernstein is a professional nonfiction book coach helping subject-matter experts and memoirists to develop sellable manuscripts. Amy’s reputation as a results-oriented coach is growing\, as senior literary agents and publishers send authors needing direction and polish her way. She is a former award-winning journalist\, executive speechwriter\, and communications director in the George W. Bush and Obama Administrations. Amy is also a published author\, poet\, and essayist. Her new nonfiction book\, Wrangling the Doubt Monster: Fighting Fears\, Finding Inspiration\, was short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize and won first place as best book of self-help and inspiration from BookFest 2025. \n\n\n\nTestimonials from past students:\n\n\n\n“I love your enthusiasm\, your clarity\, your compassion\, and your humor! Great presentation. And it didn’t feel rushed at all. I look forward to the recording.” \n\n\n\n“It’s like you got inside my head and told me everything that I’ve been wondering about for the past 6 months. Thank you Amy!” \n\n\n\n“Thank you for the Master Class on how to write a book proposal for a nonfiction book. The class was absolutely first-rate! Your approach really helped take the edge off the process for a first- time book writer.”  \n\n\n\n“Amy Bernstein is a wizard. I entered her workshop with a proverbial problem – something was missing from my writing. Within 30 minutes of her instruction\, the words came. Don’t walk to her workshop\, run!” \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 class\, you may request a full refund. \n\n\n\nPlease keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins. \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/seminar-the-quest/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Seminars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250611T150000
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SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Fresh Words\, New Patterns\, Bold Essays: Breaking Free from Cliché
DESCRIPTION:Writing is an art of disruption. Our best writing resists and overturns familiar patterns of thought and language\, inventing new forms of expression.\n\n\n\nNonfiction \n\n\n\n“I have yet to meet a writer who set out to say nothing interesting. Yet\, when our essays fail to interest editors\, agents\, and readers\, we are often at a loss for how and where we went wrong\,” says our presenter\, Jaswinder Bolina.  \n\n\n\nJaswinder is a thoughtful\, thorough teacher. For writers ready to explore their voice and reach the next level in their sentence craft\, join him in this intermediate/advanced webinar to study how our choices of diction\, syntax\, and sentence construction often underlie greater missteps in our work. Cliché means so much more than the overuse of familiar phrases. It can also mean our tendency to use familiar sentence structure in our writing–and worse\, in our thinking.  \n\n\n\nWe’ll discuss what constitutes a cliché\, why we’re so inclined to use clichés\, and how avoiding dead language brings power to our ideas. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXAMINE how cliché comes from stating the obvious\, but also from stating something remarkable and interesting in an obvious and uninteresting way.\n\n\n\nCONSIDER the differences between original and clichéd writing to write more artful and impactful nonfiction.\n\n\n\nCHALLENGE our language and our thinking in order to write original\, thought-provoking essays that attract the attention of editors\, agents\, and readers.\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for …\n\n\n\n\nExperienced writers\n\n\n\nWriters hoping to publish in major media outlets\n\n\n\nWriters looking for techniques to enhance their prose\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJaswinder Bolina’s fourth poetry collection English as a Second Language and Other Poems is published by Copper Canyon Press in 2023. His debut collection of essays Of Color was published by McSweeney’s in June 2020. His nonfiction has appeared at The Washington Post\, The Paris Review\, Shenandoah\, The Poetry Foundation\, and other outlets. His essays have also been featured in anthologies including the 14th edition of The Norton Reader (W.W. Norton & Company 2016)\, Language: A Reader for Writers (Oxford University Press 2013)\, and Poets on Teaching (University of Iowa Press 2011). He teaches on the faculty of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Miami. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nFULL REFUNDS ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund\, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/fresh-words-new-patterns/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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