Text and Live Video Archives | Writers.com https://writers.com/course_type/text-and-live-video Your voice is a gift. Share it. Thu, 08 Jan 2026 11:25:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 As I Remember It: Write Your Memoir, Scene by Scene https://writers.com/course/as-i-remember-it-write-your-memoir-scene-by-scene Fri, 05 Dec 2025 04:59:48 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=50944 Journey back to the scenes that shaped you, and learn to turn personal memories into a vivid, unforgettable memoir.

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]]> As I Remember It is a memoir writing course for anyone who wants to shape their life stories into something lasting—whether for family, future generations, or publication.

We’ll journey back through the scenes that shaped you—one chapter, one memory, one turning point at a time. Using a storyteller’s toolbox—structure, subtext, and foreshadowing—you’ll learn how to turn personal memories into vivid, unforgettable scenes. Along the way, you’ll explore how to make moments breathe on the page, uncover meaning in ordinary details, and write in a voice that sounds unmistakably like you.

Each week, you will write a short passage inspired by that week’s theme. You’ll read your work aloud in class—or, if you prefer, I’ll read it for you—and you’ll receive gentle, focused feedback from me and your classmates. Feedback is always limited to what we loved, or what we’d love to hear more of.

The foundation of this course is built on connection — to memory, to meaning, and to each other. Every week, we’ll gather as a circle of storytellers, sharing our work and listening with empathy and curiosity. You’ll find that hearing other people’s stories often unlocks your own. Our time together includes live reading moments, group discussions and plenty of laughter. The result is a genuine sense of community—a safe, encouraging space where words slow down and people truly listen.

By the end of the course, you’ll have a strong beginning of a memoir worth passing down through the generations. Most importantly, you’ll have rediscovered the pleasure of remembering, writing, and sharing the stories only you can tell.

Who This Course Is For

This course is for anyone who wants to write about their life—whether you’re just starting out or returning to writing after years away. You don’t need prior writing experience, just curiosity, courage, and a willingness to look back with honesty and humor.

Learning Goals and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

By the end of this course, you will:

  • Discover the techniques of memoir writing, including scene construction, sensory detail, and emotional pacing.
  • Learn how to transform raw memory into story with shape and momentum.
  • Build confidence reading your work aloud and receiving feedback.
  • Develop a deeper understanding of your own history and how it connects to the world around you.
  • Experience the power of community storytelling as both a writer and a listener.

Writing Goals

Over the duration of the course, you will:

  • Complete at least ten short personal narratives (1–2 pages each).
  • Revise and expand a selected piece into a cohesive memoir sequence.
  • Strengthen your authentic voice through weekly practice.
  • Compile a portfolio of stories that reflect your life’s arc and enduring themes.

Zoom Schedule

Beginning February 18th, we will meet each week on Wednesdays from 6-7:30 PM Eastern via Zoom. 

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: Ancestors and Artifacts

We begin with what lasts: the keepsakes, letters, or heirlooms that carry the weight of memory.

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page piece inspired by a personal artifact or heirloom—something that carries meaning, memory, a dramatic or humorous story.

Week 2: Birth

Revisit your grand entrance into the world. What world you were born into?                      

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page piece inspired by your birth story, or the origin story of your name or nickname.

Week 3: Family

We explore the stories passed down through generations — myths, migrations, and family traditions.

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page scene or vignette capturing a defining family moment.

Week 4: Toys, Games, and Childhood Pastimes

Playtime, pranks, and the small dramas of childhood. What did you make? What did you break? What did you learn? What did you love doing the most?

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page piece inspired by a game or toy that taught you something about life or about yourself.

Week 5: Growing Up — Making Choices

The turbulence of adolescence and the freedom (and folly) of early choices: school, work, love.

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page piece about a moment when you realized you were no longer a child — or a moment when you realized you would always be a child.

Week 6: Adulthood — Assuming Responsibility

Jobs, relationships, family, and the long stretch of “making it work.”

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page piece about a time when you had to shoulder responsibility, willingly or not. Or a time when you rejected responsibility to go your own way.

Week 7: Looking Back — How the World Has Changed

From rotary phones to retina scans, from letters to “likes”. What has changed for the better? Or the worse? What do you miss? What do you not miss? What are you hoping will be invented?

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page piece contrasting a memory from your youth with its modern-day equivalent, or with an imagined sci-fi future.

Week 8: Taking Stock — Accomplishments

Defining success on your own terms. What achievement gives you quiet pride? What did it cost you to get there?

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page piece about an accomplishment that changed how you see yourself, or how others began seeing you.

Week 9: Simplifying Life — Living More Intentionally

What really matters, and what can be let go?

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page reflection on what you’ve chosen to let go, what you’ll never give up and what you still want to acquire – simplifying be damned!

Week 10: Considering Death — Making Plans for the Future

An unflinching but life-affirming look at mortality, legacy, and how we wish to be remembered.

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page letter to someone in the future — a grandchild, a friend, or your younger self.

Week 11: Gifts and Guides

We honor those who lit the path before us — mentors, friends, even strangers.

Assignment: Write a 1–2 page piece about a person who changed your life, and how they did it. Or how you changed someone else’s life and how you did it, by accident or on purpose.

Week 12: Celebration

We close with readings, reflections and a standing ovation for the whole beautiful mess we call  life.

Assignment: Revise one of your favorite pieces from the course and share it in our final celebration. Remember: your story matters — and someone, someday, will be grateful you took the time to tell it.


Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

Original price was: $795.00.Current price is: $680.00.Enroll Now

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]]> Finding Your Poetic Temperament: Unlock Your Most Powerful Poetry https://writers.com/course/finding-your-poetic-temperament-unlock-your-most-powerful-poetry Mon, 01 Dec 2025 07:19:41 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=50156 What kind of poet are you: an imaginer, a storyteller, a musician, or a builder? Discover your own poetic temperament to find new creative breakthroughs, and write your most authentic poetry yet.

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]]> What kind of poet are you—an imaginer, a storyteller, a musician, or a builder? In this lively workshop, we’ll use Gregory Orr’s Four Temperaments—Imagination, Narrative, Music, and Structure—as a kind of “Myers-Briggs for poets” to uncover your creative tendencies and open up new possibilities in your writing.

We’ll dive into each of the Four Temperaments through close readings of selected poems, guided discussion, and generative prompts designed to help you better understand your process. You’ll identify your own poetic temperament and begin generating new work—first through your strongest impulse, then by experimenting with the temperaments you use least—and explore how shifting your emphasis can bring tension, depth, and surprise to the page.

Along the way, we’ll explore how the Four Temperaments offer a new kind of self-awareness—helping you notice the impulses that shape your drafts, understand where your poems naturally gravitate, and recognize where hidden breakthroughs may lie. You’ll learn to use this framework not only as a generative tool but as a guide for revision, widening the range of choices available to you on the page.

Each week, we’ll ground our work in Orr’s essay “Four Temperaments and the Forms of Poetry.” We’ll move from foundational concepts to the “limitless” impulses of Imagination and Music, before exploring how Narrative and Structure shape and refine a poem’s vision.

Each session blends craft talk, close reading, and generative exercises that invite you to draft boldly and experiment with new approaches. A substantial portion of each session will be dedicated to workshop: you’ll submit drafts in advance so we can preserve a true “first read” experience, receive in-depth feedback on three poems, and practice responding thoughtfully to your peers’ work in a supportive, exploratory space.

Playful, practical, and eye-opening, this course offers poets of all levels a fresh lens on creativity—and a structured path for developing confidence and impact in your work.

Who This Course is For

Whether you’re just beginning or returning to your craft, this course welcomes poets of all experience levels who are ready to explore new creative approaches while developing confidence and power in their writing.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will:

  • Understand how to activate your creative habits of mind to write more powerful poems.
  • Develop a deeper understanding of how four aspects of poetic craft can inspire and shape your writing-editing processes as well as reader response.
  • Explore the work of historical and contemporary writers whose poetry epitomizes the temperaments in harmonious tension.
  • Engage in the act of providing feedback to peers, learning in the process how to better and more swiftly identify opportunity in your own work; you will also receive feedback from peers and the instructor, practicing judicious receptivity.
  • Expand your knowledge of poetic craft through readings, discussion/lecture, writing practice, and suggested resources for further study.

Writing Goals

  • Write and workshop three new poems.
  • Create a queue of potential future revisions from among your finished work, seeing new possibilities for temperamentally minded tension.
  • Develop a customized Four Temperaments rubric to motivate your editing practice.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet via Zoom on Sundays from February 1st-22nd from 3-5PM Eastern. 

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: What are The Four Temperaments?

We will begin with a reading of Pablo Neruda’s “Horses,” pinpointing how and where the Four Temperaments appear on this poem’s personality profile for each of us. Then, we’ll dip into Gregory Orr’s essay, which originally outlined “The Four Temperaments,” before considering the order in which they tend to appear in our work. We will finish by writing in class, responding to a generative prompt designed to help us both confirm and play with our prevailing poetic temperament.

Assignment: Complete a rough poem draft chosen from among our first class session’s generative writing exercises. Submit your poem to me for workshop during next class session.

Week Two: Harnessing Power in Your Temperament: Prevalence & Latency 

Once we begin to acknowledge the pull of our prevailing Temperament on the page, how do we let it sing through more clearly in our poems? During this class, talk will focus on trust in the “impasto:” quick drafting led by our prevailing temperament. We will discuss your favorite passages from the Orr essay before moving into Workshop #1. Class will conclude with a lesson exploring what Orr called Limitless impulses: Music and Imagination. We’ll take a look at contemporary poems by Diamond Forde, Caroline Bird, and Danez Smith.

Assignment: Engage with a Limitless generative writing exercise designed to result in a new draft or an edited existing draft. Submit your poem to me for workshop during next class session.

Week Three: A Complex Choreography: Writing & Editing Temperamentally

Once we have identified our Prevailing Temperament and practiced with it a little, we’ll be ready to consider its counterpoint–the Temperament that exerts crucial tension. Here, we lean into editing. We will take a look at examples of poems in draft form (Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop), examining how temperament factored into the editorial refinement of the poem. We will then dive into Workshop #2. Class will conclude with a lesson exploring what Orr called Limiting impulses: Story (Narrative) and Structure. We’ll take a look at contemporary poems by Richie Hofmann, Donna Stonecipher, and Victoria Chang.

Assignment: Draft a new poem or edit one of your existing workshop poems using the provided Limiting prompt. Submit your poem to me for workshop during next class session.

Week Four: Harmonious Tension: When's the Poem Finished?

Powerful and memorable poetry, Orr suggested, derives from tension/harmony between limitless and limiting impulses. What do you think is the key? Are the limiting impulses wholly limiting? Are the limitless impulses solely expansive? Let’s talk about how and where The Four Temperaments as discrete units of craft ultimately break down for us. And they do; they must, if we’re lucky. We will hold Workshop #3 and conclude with an invitation to use a Four Temperaments Rubric for analyzing technical opportunities in your work before submitting it for publication.


Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
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]]> Good Grief: Writing Poems About Loss https://writers.com/course/good-grief-writing-poems-about-loss Thu, 20 Nov 2025 20:51:52 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=50155 Discover poetry as a processing tool for grief, and write new poems that reflect loss’s many facets—from sorrow to humor.

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]]> In this six-week course, you’ll join Dead Dad Jokes and Where I Dry the Flowers author Ollie Schminkey as we explore ways to write about grief. You’ll gain skills for using poetry as a processing tool, as well as tips for how to edit poems about grief and loss that you might want to share with audiences or readers.

This series will approach writing about grief and loss from a wide variety of angles, including structure, form, and even, at times, humor. You’ll get plenty of practice writing with exercises, including specifically tailored writing prompts that we will complete each week in-class. You’ll learn from the best, studying contemporary poets like Danez Smith, Andrea Gibson, and Sam Sax. At the end of this course, you’ll have at least 6 new poems and an expanded idea of what writing about grief can look like.

Each week, we will meet for an hour and a half over Zoom and cover a new topic. This will often include a short lesson with poem examples, followed by a brief discussion and a writing exercise. There will be an optional bonus writing prompt each week if you’d like to continue exploring, and you will have an opportunity for weekly instructor feedback on one of your drafts from every week. Please note that there is no formal peer editing component to this course; folks are welcome to solicit and provide informal peer feedback if they’d like, but it is not required or guaranteed.

Ollie aims for all of their classes to be actively non-competitive, non-judgemental, pro-diversity, anti-racist, pro-LGBTQ, and fun! (Yes, even while we are writing about grief.) You can expect a collaborative environment, a flexible approach to poetry, and (hopefully) a good laugh per class.

Note: Poems in this workshop will cover a wide variety of themes, some of which contain mature content and may be activating for some participants.

Who This Course Is For

Beginners are welcomed and encouraged! Experienced folks are welcomed and encouraged! Everyone is welcomed and encouraged! Prompts and materials are designed to be flexible and meet all poets where they are at in their writing journey. Although we will all be writing about personal experiences of grief and loss, everyone experiences those things differently, and there is no loss too small or too big to bring to the space.

Learning Goals and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will: 

  • Gain new poetic tools to write about grief.
  • Explore different types of poetic form that can be used to write about grief.
  • Learn to effectively edit poems about grief, and learn the difference between a poem that is meant to be edited for an audience/reader and a poem that is just for yourself.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will: 

  • Use a variety of structures and forms commonly found in grief/loss poetry.
  • Explore the role of effective metaphors in poems about loss.
  • Write at least 6 poems dealing with grief and loss.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet live on Zoom for 6 weeks on Wednesdays at 7:00PM Eastern (please adjust for your local time) from January 21st- February 25th. Classes will include a short lecture (10 minutes), guided writing time, exercises, sharing, and group conversation.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: What Poetry is For: Speaking to and Through Loss

In this first week, we’ll explore the many uses of poetry as it relates to grief and loss, from personal processing to activism to publishing. You’ll have some time to reflect on your personal poetic goals (spoiler: there’s no wrong answer!) We’ll also tackle the question “What is grief?” and discuss a few poems which approach grief from different angles. We’re also here to write, and we’ll end the workshop by writing our own letter poems. Each week, you’ll have the opportunity for private instructor feedback on either the poem you wrote in class, or the optional bonus prompt you are welcome to complete outside of class.

Week 2: Connecting to the Heart through Metaphor

I find that one of the most difficult things about grief is that it tends to defy definition, and it often feels like an inherently lonely experience. This week, you’ll learn how to use metaphor to more effectively describe the emotional truth of grief in your poetry, and to connect more deeply with readers/audiences. We’ll end the workshop by writing a poem together, specifically tailored to put your new tools to the test.

Week 3: Resurrection with The Golden Shovel

This week, we’ll explore a type of form poem called a Golden Shovel. Invented by Terrance Hayes, this form is typically used to pay homage to another poet; however, we’ll be using the form to pay homage to someone or something we’ve lost. This workshop will include both discussion and a guided writing prompt.

Week 4: Telling Complicated Truths Through Erasure

In the fourth week, we’ll explore a form called erasure (or blackout poetry) that can be particularly potent when writing about grief and loss. We’ll study several kinds of erasure, including those with found/pre-existing source material and those that are self-erasing. Of course, you’ll get a chance to test out this form on your own as we write together in workshop, and to continue writing through the weekly optional bonus prompt.

Week 5: Grief and Humor

This week, we’ll explore what role humor can take in poems about grief and loss. We’ll look at some contemporary examples, and, of course, write!

Week 6: Editing Grief

For our final week, we’ll talk about tips and tricks for editing poems about grief and loss, as well as ways to find good spaces to present that work. We’ll take a moment to celebrate the work that you’ve accomplished, and we’ll end the class with resources on how to sustain your writing practice and remain connected to writing community.


Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

$445.00Enroll Now

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]]> Boundaries, Burnout, and the Body: A Writing Workshop for Creative Resilience https://writers.com/course/boundaries-burnout-and-the-body-a-writing-workshop-for-creative-resilience Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:18:40 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=48677 Writing from a compassionate awareness of the body, build resilience in the face of burnout—and produce your most grounded, authentic writing.

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]]> Periods of transition, uncertainty, and burnout can cause ruptures in our physical, emotional, and creative well-being. In this generative writing workshop for writers of all genres and experience levels, we’ll explore what it means to recognize, respond to, and rebuild resilience in the face of burnout—and how our most grounded, authentic writing begins with a compassionate awareness of the body.

Co-taught by a neurodivergent burnout recovery & resilience coach, Kaylyn Kirkpatrick, and award-winning poet, Caitlin Scarano, this course will invite writers to engage in their writing practice through the lens of self-reflection, recovery, and resilience.

Each session will open with a grounding somatic practice, such as gentle, accessible seated movement or breathwork, followed by a generative writing prompt. Through a blend of small and large group discussions, targeted readings, and interactive activities, we will understand burnout and how it impacts us, uncover the values that fuel our creative practice, and discover long-term creative resilience. Please note: this is not a therapy group but a writing-centered space informed by somatic practices. All somatic practices will be gentle and adaptable for varying needs.

In the second half of the course, we will dedicate part of each session to workshop and discussion, where you will share new writing in a supportive, collaborative environment. Between sessions, you’ll receive additional wellness practices and writing prompts, as well as access to our shared online space, where you can post writing and reflections. Each week, you may submit up to one page of new writing (in any genre) for instructor feedback. During the course, you’ll also have the opportunity to schedule a 1:1 session with the instructor of your choice to explore burnout resiliency, somatic approaches, and your own writing practices.

Who This Course is For:

This workshop welcomes writers of all genres and experience levels who want to replenish creative energy and reimagine their relationship to writing during times of stress or transition, within a supportive community.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will: 

  • Uncover a personal vision of rest and regeneration through reflective writing.
  • Explore simple somatic practices to help connect mind and body.
  • Expand language for values, needs, and boundaries through writing prompts.
  • Develop resilience through guided reflections, writing rituals, and group discussion. 

Writing Goals

In this course, you will: 

  • Build a consistent writing practice to enrich physical and emotional wellness.
  • Share new creative writing in a supportive and warm workshop setting.
  • Generate new creative work.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet once a week via Zoom on Wednesdays from 6-7 PM Eastern. 

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: Uncovering Our Values Through Writing in Times of Burnout
  • In our first class, we will gather and orient to the space of this container and community as writers. Through guided visualization and writing prompts, we’ll identify the elements we’d like to call forth into the next 6-weeks in order to rebuild meaning, writing the new story we want to tell about our well-being and our creative work.
  • Activity: Reconnect with values by tapping into memories of peak experience
Week 2: Energetic Awareness and Writing from the Body
  • This week, we’ll practice asking for and receiving information from the body to develop non-judgmental awareness of our needs and energetic patterns. We’ll learn to listen and incorporate messages from the body and mind to create conditions for well-being and resiliency and how it relates to our writing practice.
  • Activity: Converse with the body through the language of sensation
Week 3: Exploring and Communicating Boundaries Through Writing
  • This week is about honoring our feelings, needs, and limitations from a place of kindness and collaboration. Writing through a non-violent communication framework, we’ll investigate what deeper needs may be hidden beneath strong reactions and periods of creative burnout. We’ll then create new scripts for how to reach for what we want and stop internal and external patterns of encroachment.
  • Activity: Reframe stories of blame using a non-violent communication framework
Week 4: Writing as Restoration
  • Burnout, depletion, or disconnection are often signals that there is a need for spaciousness to restore creative energy and allow new ideas to emerge. Through restorative breathing techniques and guided writing prompts, we’ll investigate our relationship to rest and regeneration. 
  • Activity: Develop one specific and actionable goal around writing as a restorative art
Week 5: Designing a Care Plan For Creative Wellness
  • When we have clarity around our creative capacity and needs, and after we have gotten some space, we gain new insights about what fuels and inspires us. This week, it’s time to add back what nourishes our bodies and writing practices. Through guided reflection and writing, we will examine the conditions that encourage and support our creative process. 
  • Activity: Map the phases of your creative cycle and the nourishment needed for each
Week 6: Writing As Your Future Self
  • In this final week of the course, we’ll leverage our imagination to call in more of what will support our burnout recovery and long-term creative resilience. Using guided prompts, students will visualize their future self and gain insights around the conditions that support and sustain their best writing. Students will have the opportunity to then share their vision, make commitments to honor their writing practice, and celebrate the insights gained through these 6-weeks.
  • Activity: Collaborate with your future self on the conditions that support creative wellness

Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

Original price was: $445.00.Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now

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]]> Write Your Life’s Stories https://writers.com/course/write-your-lifes-stories Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:16:45 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=48678 Transform your life experiences into art—with creative freedom, emotional depth, and narrative drive—in this memoir course for all levels.

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]]> Memoir is a unique and approachable form that invites you to transform your life experiences into art—with creative freedom, emotional depth, and narrative drive. In this course, I’ll teach the things I wish I’d learned in a graduate MFA program—techniques and insights drawn from my years as a memoir ghostwriter and book reviewer. Whether you’re writing a full-length memoir or a series of personal essays, you’ll gain practical tools to shape your stories with clarity, structure, and meaning.

Each session will include a short reading, a discussion of form and style, and a guided writing prompt designed to help you generate and refine material for your memoir. We’ll explore how to select which stories to tell, how to shape them for the page, and how to balance honesty, craft, and reflection. You’ll leave with new pages, fresh insights into your own story, and the confidence to keep shaping your personal narrative.

Like any good novel, a well-written memoir has a clear story structure and connectivity between scenes, memorable characters, and a narrator who changes in some way by the end. We’ll look at the work of both memoirists and fiction writers, such as Mary Karr, Anne Patchett, Frank McCourt, Leslie Jamison, Michelle Zauner, David Sedaris, Jacques Pépin, and others. By closely examining how they use structure, scene, and voice, you’ll learn how to bring similar narrative momentum and cohesion to your own work—crafting stories that feel alive, connected, and emotionally resonant.

This course is open to beginning and intermediate writers alike. You’ll explore which stories you want to tell—and how best to tell them—while building confidence, deepening your practice, and writing in community with others in a supportive, generative space.

Who this class is for

You’ve got so many interesting stories to tell — but where to start? How should you assemble these stories? In what format? This beginning-to-mid level class is for anyone who’s ever been told, “You should write your life story.” Perhaps you’ve got a few stories written, an incomplete outline, a chunk of a draft, and you’re ready to start getting things into a more cohesive shape.

Learning Goals

In this course, you will: 

  • Learn new tools for getting started on one or more of your life’s stories.
  • Understand “the point” of each scene or story you’re telling.
  • Better understand the meaning behind your words.
  • Develop or strengthen your regular writing practice.

Writing Goals

  • Write and edit at least one scene or story
  • Draft an online
  • Write character sketches for each main character in your stories — including you!
  • Have community with other writers of all levels in a safe writing space!

Zoom Schedule

Each week, we will meet on Zoom on Wednesdays from 3-5PM Eastern. 

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1 – Intro to Memoir

We’ll look at plot, aboutness and three examples of compelling back of the book summaries to use as guides. We’ll end this session with a short writing activity to help express what your life stories are about.

Assignment: Write your “back of the book” summary.

Week 2 – A closer look at aboutness in memoir.

We’ll read the opening of two different memoirs and talk about how the writer brings us in right away with some kind of curiosity.

In-class writing prompt about your one of your stories.

Assignment: Write your reverse engineered outline and read an essay by Samantha Kirby.

Week 3 – Stakes in story!

Every good story has at least a little something at stake. Together we’ll examine the stakes from a Samantha Kirby essay and reflect on how the story was structured, then talk about one of your stories.

Assignment: Refine your story with new insights.

Week 4 – Dialogue and perspective in memoir and personal essay!

Today we’ll look at how dialogue can function in creative nonfiction and how we can create richer characters by showing (not telling) who they are.

Assignment: Add and/or edit the dialogue in one of your scenes. Also, read an essay from Ann Patchett.

Week 5 – Unique format and using “other” media in storytelling.

We’ll look at an example of how to incorporate other characters’ voices and quotes in your stories, and do an overview of character sketches in personal stories.

Assignment: Write at least two character sketches for the main “characters” in your story, starting with yourself.

Week 6 – Character Sketches and Editing Techniques

Today we’ll talk character sketches and revisit how to write a stronger “about.” We’ll also talk about some of my favorite editing techniques to use along the way and after your first (and second, and third) drafts. We’ll end by setting up optional accountability partners to keep the momentum going beyond the class!


Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

$445.00Enroll Now

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]]> Finding Freedom in Traditional Poetic Forms: Haibun, Sonnet, Ghazal, and Pantoum https://writers.com/course/finding-freedom-in-traditional-poetic-forms-haibun-sonnet-ghazal-and-pantoum Fri, 24 Oct 2025 06:55:22 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=48045 Discover the freedom that emerges from working within—and sometimes breaking—the rules of four timeless poetic forms.

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]]> In the words of Mark Strand and Eavan Boland, “Forms are not locks, but keys. They don’t just open doors; they can start a journey and ultimately determine where you land.”

A poem can contain many elements to give it structure. Rhyme, meter, sound, repetition, experimentation, and so many others connect us to poetry’s deep lineage—its long tradition of rhythm, pattern, and invention that continues to evolve across generations. And there are so many profound reasons why traditional forms have survived the centuries, inspiring new poets and adapting to modern voices.

In this intensive four-week workshop, we’ll explore the many facets of the haibun, sonnet, ghazal, and pantoum, examining how sound, rhythm, and structure shape meaning. Each week, you’ll study celebrated examples of the form, participate in guided discussions, and write your own original poems in response. Through lessons, in-class writing, and peer sharing, you’ll gain confidence in navigating formal techniques while discovering the freedom that emerges from working within—and sometimes breaking—the rules.

By the end of the course, you’ll have a small portfolio of new and revised poems, a deeper appreciation for poetic form, and a renewed sense of how structure can serve as both guide and gateway to creative discovery.

Who This Course is For

For poets of all levels and experience. Poets need not be previously familiar with these forms to participate.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

  • Introduce the conventions of the haibun, sonnet, ghazal, and pantoum forms and how these rules can support your own themes, experiences, and ideas
  • Study sample poems in each structure from a variety of both older and contemporary poets
  • Introduce a number of strategies to get into a traditional poetry writing ‘headspace’
  • Recognize the unexpected creative freedom inherent to writing in controlled structures, as they force poets to employ strategies that might be new to them
  • Equip you with creative techniques to generate initial ideas and images
  • Develop your ability to shape your initial ideas into strong drafts

Writing Goals

  • Perform a variety of prompt-based writing activities each session.
  • Draft multiple first drafts each session
  • Learn how to tailor your poetic voice to various unique structures

Zoom Schedule

We will meet on Zoom each week on Wednesdays from 6-8PM Eastern.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: Haibun

An unusual combination of prose poem and haiku, the haibun was popularized by the 17th century Japanese poet Matsuo Basho. Both the prose poem and haiku typically communicate with each other, though poets employ different strategies for this communication—some doing so subtly, while others are more direct. This interactive workshop will include lessons, analysis of well-known haibun, in-class activities and writing, and sharing drafts with the class.

Week 2: Sonnet

The sonnet is a popular classical form that has compelled poets for centuries. In this discussion and writing-intensive workshop, we will explore the many facets of the sonnet form, focusing on our personal relationships with sound and rhythm and refining our relationships with form and content. We will learn the rules, yes, and when best to break them, fostering a new understanding of and appreciation for this unique poetic approach.

Week 3: Ghazal

The ghazal is unlike any form you’ve probably written before. Let’s set aside our expectations of how a poem works and embrace what Hashmi has noted “ceaselessly hungers for the absent beloved.” In this discussion and writing-intensive workshop, we will explore the many facets of the ghazal form, focusing on our personal relationships with sound and rhythm and refining our relationships with form and content. We will learn the rules, yes, and when best to break them, fostering a new understanding of and appreciation for this unique poetic approach.

Week 4: Pantoum

A pantoum is an incantation, a chain of sounds and ideas that shift with each encounter. In this discussion and writing-intensive workshop, we will explore the many facets of the pantoum form, focusing on our personal relationships with sound and rhythm and refining our relationships with form and content. We will learn the rules, yes, and when best to break them, fostering a new understanding of and appreciation for this unique poetic approach.


Finding Freedom in Traditional Poetic Forms: Haibun, Sonnet, Ghazal, and Pantoum
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]]> Late the Sweet Birds Sang: Generative Poetics for Writers in Mid-Life & Beyond https://writers.com/course/late-the-sweet-birds-sang-generative-poetics-for-writers-in-mid-life-beyond Tue, 21 Oct 2025 19:25:50 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=48721 Harness the depth and wisdom of your lived experience in this generative course for poets 45 and older.

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]]> What does it mean to write our truths now that we’re in the second half of our lives? What have our years taught us, and what lessons are still unfolding? At mid-life and beyond, what poems are we most compelled to write—and how can we harness the depth, wisdom, and emotional range of our lived experience to strengthen our voice and craft?

In this generative course for poets over 45, we’ll write with authenticity and earned perspective. Most of our time will be devoted to writing together, using layered prompts inspired by accomplished poets such as Margaret Atwood, Patricia Smith, Lucille Clifton, Louise Glück, Diane Seuss, and Carl Phillips, as well as revolutionary younger voices like Chen Chen and Danez Smith. Each session will invite you to explore new themes, refine your craft, and embrace your creative vitality at this stage in your life. Optional time at the end of class will allow you to share work aloud and receive encouraging, informal feedback.

By the end of the course, you’ll have up to 24 new poem drafts or beginnings—a rich body of work that reflects the depth of your experience. You’ll gain confidence, strengthen your poetic voice, and find nourishment in a supportive, multigenerational community of writers who understand what it means to keep creating through life’s many seasons.

Who This Course is For

This course is geared toward writers of all levels at mid-life (45 or thereabouts) and beyond. Emerging writers are welcome and embraced.

Learning Goals:

In this course, students will: 

  • Hone and strengthen their poetic voices.
  • Learn how to write and practice writing in a variety of poetic forms including the Seussian sonnet, haiku, cento, erasure, ekphrastic and epistle.
  • Practice building tension and employing poetic turns.
  • Gain confidence in sharing their work with other writers.
  • Learn strategies for revision.

Writing Goals:

In this course, you will:

  • Write 20-24 new poem drafts or beginnings.
  • Write in a variety of poetic forms.
  • Practice modifying (“breaking”) form.
  • Play with precision and risk-taking in your writing.

Zoom Schedule:

Beginning January 6th, we will meet on Zoom on Tuesdays from 6:30-8:30 PM Eastern.

Weekly Syllabus:

Week One: “Age is More Than a Number:” The Power of Lived Experience

This week, following an introduction to the class, we will read poems by writers like Louise Gluck, Patrick Connelly & Lucille Clifton & write in community with one another. The last 15 minutes or so will be spent verbally sharing work (optional) & receiving verbal, live feedback.

Week Two: “The Rest is Memory:” Remembering & Reimagining

This week, we will read poems by writers like Margaret Atwood & Patricia Smith as we write about family, place & memory. The facilitator will share some creative & traditional strategies for revision. The last 15 minutes or so will be spent verbally sharing work (optional) & receiving verbal, live feedback.

Week Three: “Grand Adventures:” Taking Risks & Developing Voice

This week, we will read poems by writers like Diane Seuss & Danez Smith & write poems that take risks as we develop & showcase our poetic voices & write in community with one another. The last 15 minutes or so will be spent verbally sharing work (optional) & receiving verbal, live feedback.

Week Four: “Fear & Fortitude:” Writing What We Must

This week, we will read poems by writers like Chen Chen, Camille Guthrie & Melissa Fite Johnson who use humor & other poetic tools to write about the complexities of the human experience as we write in community with one another. The last 15 minutes or so will be spent verbally sharing work (optional) & receiving verbal, live feedback.


Late the Sweet Birds Sang: Generative Poetics for Writers in Mid-Life & Beyond
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]]> Writing Unconventional Women https://writers.com/course/writing-unconventional-women Tue, 14 Oct 2025 02:50:49 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=45419 Move past common tropes to craft unique, fully realized female characters who are true to their own voices and stories.

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]]> The world needs more women in fiction who are vibrant, authentic, and willing to challenge the status quo. Too often, women characters on the page are reduced to tropes—flat and predictable, or written only in relation to others. This course is about changing that. Together, we’ll craft fully realized characters who are completely true to their own voices and stories—even when that upends cultural and societal expectations.

This workshop is for fiction writers—whether you’re working on a short story, a novel-in-progress, or simply want to develop stronger female characters. Each week, you’ll generate new material in class through short assignments that push you to experiment with different approaches to characterization, while paying attention to the craft choices that make unconventional women characters unforgettable. We’ll look at how the finer details, such as skills, interests, and relationships, can make our characters stand taller, speak louder, and live more vividly on the page. Our discussions will help you refine your instincts for when to push against stereotypes and how to create characters who feel original and layered.

Each week, you’ll generate and submit 1-2,000 new words. We’ll also workshop your writing with a three-point focus: what we loved, where we got a tad lost, and what we want to hear more about. You’ll leave the course with a set of new character-driven pieces, as well as the tools and confidence to continue developing complex women characters in your fiction.

Who This Course is For

This course is for fiction writers who want their female characters to stand out rather than be stereotypes and tropes. We will look at how our own cultural backgrounds can blind us to the unconscious ways we write, the language, roles, context and relationships. We will use a variety of examples and I encourage you to bring more to the shared table. This process will directly impact your ongoing projects, building a deeper connection to your unusual female characters and how that impacts the story you want to tell.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet each week on Zoom on Thursdays at 7 PM Eastern. Note: We will not hold class the weeks of 12/22 and 12/29 due to the Christmas and New Years holidays. We will resume class the first week of January. 

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will: 

  • Become more aware of how culture affects stereotypes and tropes.
  • Develop revision skills that sharpen your language choices to describe all aspects of unconventional characters.
  • Understand the subtle ways we can subvert expectations.
  • Build out an in depth backstory to give a full authentic life to your protagonist.
  • Flesh out a fuller sense of your narrator within your work in progress.

Writing Goals

  • A weekly in class writing exercise on specific topics (1-2 pages).
  • A weekly home assignment taken from that week’s workshop to revise your ongoing projects.
  • Written feedback (one page) from Sarah on each longer assignment.
  • An opening chapter, reworked and revised to highlight the depth of your main character. 
  • Develop a clear revision practice.

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: Playing with identity

How do our characters see themselves? how do friends, family and strangers see them/react to them? Thinking of relationships as they move through the world, both familiar and new. What are their flaws? Strengths? Are they aware of them? What’s their chemistry with another of your characters? We will talk about your own work-in-progress and find ways to help your characters be the unconventional strong women you want to write about.

Writing Prompts: With your character, a new or one you want to develop, write a two-page interaction in the town they live in, include conversations, actions, and something they need from the other person. How do they tease, bicker, play, control, challenge each other?

Feedback: Setting how we support each other, what to offer in terms of constructive feedback and how to ask for what we want from each other. Then, we will share our new scenes and talk about identity, interactions, what we notice in the writing read to us, the patterns and strengths as well as where we wanted more.

Homework Assignment: Take this process and link it to your own WIP. Take a chapter and rework with these ideas. Revise up to five pages.

Week Two: Context

How can we challenge the status quo if we’re not conscious of the cultural expectations in the world you’re creating? We’ll discuss what we each see as ‘normal’ across our different class/religion/race/gender/citizenship experiences. We will create a shared list of such experiences and ideas to be aware of.

Homework Assignment: Take this process and link it to your own WIP. Take a chapter and rework with these ideas. Revise up to five pages.

Week Three: Presentation

How does your protagonist appear, not just physically (clothes) but mannerisms, names, hair, footwear, how do they walk, run, move? Again, playing against the social roles and expectations we can shine a light on our women narrator’s outer differences to reflect inner attitudes. Are they unlikeable or unrelatable because of how they move through the world?

Feedback and discussion on what shifted in how you see and describe these female narrators.

Homework Assignment: Take this process and link it to your own WIP. Take a chapter and rework with these ideas. Revise up to five pages.

Week Four: Backstory: creating a Look Book for your main characters

Working with film studies in the past, I learned the value of finding as much as possible about my protagonists, putting it all together in a digital scrapbook. We will use Pinterest or something similar, and the goal is to layer their history into one visual/audio folder, images of places you see them having lived, music that impacts them in the past and present, styles, homes, vehicles, movies, books, friends.

Writing Prompts: Pick a selection of images, books and movies that affect your character when she comes across them in an unexpected way, e.g. at the supermarket, she sees/hears…

Feedback and discussion on the process and what are your take-aways?

Homework Assignment: Take this process and link it to your own WIP. Take a chapter and rework with these ideas. Revise up to five pages.

Week Five: Actions versus reactions

We’ll look at how different demographics (e.g. gender) and the language we use, the adjectives, verbs, and what is/isn’t expected from our narrators. What do they do in your story that almost nobody else would do? Does it make perfect sense for them to do it because it’s so true to who they are?

Writing Prompts: 2-3 page scene. What will they do when forced to choose between the two things they care about most?

Feedback with a detailed look at verbs, adjectives and more.

Homework Assignment: Take this process and link it to your own WIP. Take a chapter and rework with these ideas. Revise up to five pages.

Week Six: Skills, Work, Hobbies and all the other stuff of life

Let’s consider how your strong and wonderfully different women step outside the box of mainstream expectations as far as what they do for a living or for fun? How does these aspects affect the story/narrative? Their relationships with family and strangers? 

Homework Assignment: Take this process and link it to your own WIP. Take a chapter and rework with these ideas. Revise up to five pages.

Week Seven: Uneasy pairings, Tension and release

When our characters have inner conflicts and are outside the social norms, they can be hard to predict because even they don’t know what they’ll do. Now we know our characters better, we can play with lists of unusual potential scenes.

Homework Assignment: Take this process and link it to your own WIP. Take a chapter and rework with these ideas. Revise up to five pages.

Week Eight: Putting it all together

Fighting stereotypes and tropes. Playing with tension. Watching our language. Considering context. And what can we say without saying it?

Feedback: We will then share what changed for us in that opening chapter. What are your take-aways from the eight weeks and how can we carry on?


Writing Unconventional Women
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]]> An Insider’s Guide to Publishing https://writers.com/course/an-insiders-guide-to-publishing Fri, 26 Sep 2025 05:14:19 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=46838 Demystify the publishing process for your novel or memoir. Master book publishing's practical essentials, and come away with a polished query letter and the confidence to move your work into the world.

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]]> So you want to publish your novel or memoir… now what? The path from manuscript to publication can feel overwhelming, with countless decisions about publishing models, agents, marketing, and even how to present yourself as an author. In this four-week course, industry expert and indie press founder Michelle Kicherer will demystify the publishing process and give you the tools you need to take your next steps with confidence. Whether you’re preparing to query agents, considering self-publishing, or simply want to understand the landscape, this course will guide you through the practical essentials.

We’ll begin by exploring the pros and cons of different publishing models—self, hybrid, indie, and big press—so you can identify which path makes the most sense for your work and goals. From there, we’ll discuss how to get your manuscript into its strongest possible shape before you pitch, and what goes into a compelling query letter and submission package. After drafting your query letter, you will have the opportunity to send it to me for feedback so you can leave this course with a ready-to-use query template you can refine and modify for each agent.

Later sessions will focus on building your author presence and preparing for the marketing and publicity side of publishing. You’ll learn why an author website matters, what it should include, and how to set one up quickly and effectively. We’ll also discuss how to craft an author bio and think strategically about your public identity, so you’re ready for readers, journalists, and potential publishers alike.

By the end of the course, you’ll have a clear understanding of today’s publishing landscape, a practical plan for your next steps, and the confidence to move your work from the page into the world.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals:

  • What are the pros and cons of each type of publishing: self, hybrid, indie press, and big presses?
  • What shape should your manuscript be in by the time you pitch it?
  • What goes into a query letter?
  • Why you should have an author website, and what to put on there (and, how to set one up in an afternoon)
  • So you get an agent, then what?
  • So you get a publishing deal….then what?

Writing Goals:

  • Draft your query letter.
  • Write your author bio. 

Zoom Schedule

We will meet on Zoom on Thursdays November 6th, 13th, 20th and December 4th from 7-8:30PM Eastern. There will be no meeting on Thursday, November 27th due to the Thanksgiving holiday. 

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: Intro to Publishing

What are the different types of publishing options, and what are some pro’s and con’s of each?

Homework – Review the of the publishing resources we discussed in class, and write a list of questions that came up or reflections you reached. Be prepared to share at least one (written or verbally).

Week 2: Agents and Query Letters

Agents, query letters, and what else you should have ready if you want to go traditional. We’ll also talk about how to get your manuscript into the best shape you can get it before you pitch.

Homework – Take an honest assessment of your manuscript and ask yourself: is it in the best shape I can get it? And, write your query letter! I will provide written feedback on your one-page query.

Week 3: Publicity and Marketing…Oh, my!

Marketing yourself can be a real pain, but you want your book to sell once it’s out there, right? Today’s session is all about what happens after you get a book deal or confirm a different publishing path.

Homework – Writing reflection: What do you want people to know about you? What feeling do you want your readers to get from interacting with your work? Submit your author bio for written feedback, and bring your questions next week for where you got stuck.

Week 4: Author Website and Online Presence 

Today we’ll talk about your author website and online presence. What is helpful to have in place before and after the publishing process? What do agents and journalists look for? I’ll help you get set up with the top things to have available so that you’re most likely to land a book deal and publicity.


An Insider’s Guide to Publishing
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]]> The Stories of Your Life: Personal Essays and Creative Nonfiction https://writers.com/course/the-stories-of-your-life-personal-essays-and-creative-nonfiction Thu, 25 Sep 2025 18:25:33 +0000 https://writers.com/?post_type=product&p=47234 Discover the unique power of the personal essay to explore your life experience, and come away with a wealth of new writing.

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]]> The stories we tell each other, and ourselves, help us make sense of, and create meaning in, our lives. And the personal essay has a unique power to bring clarity to our own experiences, so that we can discover new things about ourselves.

This ten-week course will be fun and inspirational, wide-ranging and deep-delving. You’ll be guided through a process of inquiry that will help you reflect on your experiences, observe the world around you, bring your memories to life, and research topics that fascinate you. We’ll explore the possibilities of experimentation, and the ethics of telling stories that aren’t only yours to tell. And we’ll consider the means by which we can convey our insights, our convictions, and our awe to our readers.

Along the way, we will read and discuss exemplary essays from Roman times through to the present day, by authors such as Seneca, Michel de Montaigne, Virginia Woolf, Natalia Ginzburg, Annie Dillard, Teju Cole, Yiyun Li, Krys Malcolm Belc, Carmen Maria Machado, and Robert Macfarlane.

You will perform a series of exercises designed to help you cultivate new material, and innovate new ways to share your ideas and your experiences with others. You will write a thousand words each week, and receive feedback on your writing from your classmates and your instructor—we’ll dedicate much of our class time to workshopping the writing generated by you and your classmates, in a combination of small-group and full-class discussions. You will emerge with at least three brand-new essays, and a clear sense of how you can harness the possibilities of this amazing form.

Who This Course is For

This course is for anyone who would like to explore the possibilities of the personal essay and creative nonfiction. Whether you’re a beginner looking for tips on how to get started, or a seasoned writer in search of a fresh approach, this class will offer you the motivation, accountability, and guidance you need to write at least three new essays, and the tools you need to develop an essay-writing practice.

Learning & Writing Goals

Learning Goals

  • Identify and develop story material using a range of approaches
  • Reflect upon your own experiences and preoccupations to uncover compelling questions
  • Develop observational skills, invoking all the senses
  • Enliven your scene narration, to bring a memory to life
  • Improve and diversify your research skills
  • Consider complex ethical questions
  • Tap into a long tradition of essay writing, and the contemporary conversation surrounding creative nonfiction
  • Analyze exemplary essays by a host of celebrated authors, and mine them for inspiration and craft tips

Writing Goals

  • Write a thousand words each week for ten weeks
  • Generate at least three new essays
  • Complete a series of custom-designed writing exercises
  • Read and respond to your classmates’ work to produce insightful, constructive feedback
  • Process feedback from your classmates and your instructor
  • Discuss strategies for developing material and revising drafts

Zoom Schedule

We will meet on Zoom each week on Sundays from 10:30AM-12:30PM US Eastern Time.

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: Tradition

We’ll begin by looking at the long tradition of essay writing, and considering what this complex history means for us as writers penning essays in 2025. We’ll read examples by Michel de Montaigne and Yiyun Li, and set our goals and our schedule for the coming ten weeks—each of our subsequent classes will have a significant focus on workshopping the writing generated by you and your classmates, in a combination of small-group and full-class discussions. You will begin writing your first new essay.

Week Two: Reflection

This week, we will explore how reflecting on our experiences and preoccupations, and engaging with topics we find perplexing, can help us identify the subjects we want to write about, and delve beneath their surfaces to arrive at new insights. We’ll discuss some reflections from Seneca, and you will continue to work on your first essay.

Week Three: Attention

This week we will hone our observation skills, to better pay attention to what’s around us, and to more vividly portray our subjects in our writing. We’ll read an essay by Annie Dillard, and you will complete your first piece.

Week Four: Recollection

This week we will focus on memory, its vagaries and depths, and the ways that past events continue to influence our lives and the world around us. We’ll look at an example from Natalia Ginzburg, and you will begin your second new essay.

Week Five: Interpretation

This week we will seek inspiration from art and music, and discuss how the essay can respond to, and interact with, other creative forms. We’ll draw instruction from Teju Cole, and you will continue work on your second essay.

Week Six: Conversation

This week we’ll discuss tips and tricks for how to conduct useful research, and for how to harness it in our own writing without getting bogged down in the details. We’ll read an article by Robert Macfarlane, and you will complete your second essay.

Week Seven: Experimentation

This week we’ll look at how flexible the essay can be, and how getting creative with the form can help us express ourselves in new ways. We’ll read an essay by Krys Malcolm Belc, and you will begin writing your third new essay.

Week Eight: Consideration

This week we will tackle the thorny question of the ethics involved in writing about our lives and the experiences of others—and also at how those tensions can generate compelling material. We’ll discuss a piece by Carmen Maria Machado, and you will develop your third essay.

Week Nine: Revelation

This week, we’ll look at how the insights we gain from our own encounters and experiences can help elevate our writing. We’ll read an essay by Virginia Woolf, and you will complete the third of your new essays.

Week Ten: Conviction

This week, we’ll look at strategies we can employ to convince our reader of the truth and importance of something we believe in. We’ll discuss a piece by James Baldwin, as you begin to chart the next steps on your creative, nonfictional journey.


Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
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