VIRTUAL
Live Editing Workshop: Find Your Story’s Heat
So you have a rough draft of an essay or a chapter of your memoir. Now what? In this 2-day live editing workshop, we’ll discuss strategies for identifying your pages’ themes and “heat,” and how to shape your draft into a compelling, high-stakes narrative. Through a combination of guided exercises, craft tools, and live editing, you’ll leave class with clarity about the emotional core of your story and how to convey it to readers.
THE DETAILS
2 live classes via Zoom, May 3-4, 1pm - 4:30pm ET
All sessions will be recorded (so you can sign up even if you can’t join live!)
In this workshop, you will:
LEARN
strategies for finding your story’s universal themes and stakes.
SHAPE
your pages into a well-crafted, compelling narrative that keeps readers engaged from start to finish.
a roadmap for revising your pages with the help of guided exercises and live-edit feedback.
CREATE
BUILD
a virtual community of writers to help hold you accountable.
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• Strategies for finding “heat” & themes in your pages (1 hour)
• Break & Writing Exercise on identifying heat (30 mins)• Writing Exercise on mapping your themes (1 hour)
• Live editing of pages (1 hour)
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• Revision techniques for conveying themes & raising the stakes (1.5 hours)
• Break & Revision Exercise on conveying themes (30 minutes)
• Break & Revision Exercise on raising the stakes / creating tension (30 mins)
• Live editing of pages (1 hour)
Meet the instructor:
Katie Bannon is a writer, editor, and educator whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, ELLE, Newsweek, and more. A graduate of GrubStreet’s Memoir and Essay Incubators, she holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Emerson College. Her memoir manuscript was a finalist for the Permafrost Nonfiction Book Prize. She currently teaches writing at GrubStreet and lives in Central Massachusetts with her husband and two cats.
TESTIMONIALS
Cost Details
Which includes:
• 7 hours of instruction.
• Live editing of 2 double-spaced pages of your choice, either during class or (depending on class size) via recorded video after class.
• Writing & revision-focused prompts specifically curated to help you hone your craft and publish your work.
• A workbook filled with craft tips, resources, and a curated list of places to submit work.
• Unlimited access to the instructor via email.
• Recordings of all sessions in case you can’t join live or want to rewatch.
$225 for the workshop
This workshop is for…
Writers who have drafted rough pages of an essay or memoir chapter, but don’t know where to go from here
Writers who want strategies for identifying themes & universal elements of their personal stories
Writers looking to ramp up the stakes and tension in their personal narratives
This workshop is not for…
Writers who are working on a fiction project
FAQs
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Not to worry! All sessions will be recorded, so you can participate at a time that’s convenient for you. Those recordings will be available for you to watch for 120 days after the workshop ends. If you can’t make the class live, you’ll send me your 2 double-spaced pages by email and I’ll send you a recorded video with my feedback.
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During the last hour of each class, students will have the opportunity to share 2 double-spaced page of an essay or memoir-in-progress. I will read your page out loud while sharing my screen, and will then give you a live critique. Depending on class size, I may do the critique via recorded video and email it to you after class instead. These feedback sessions are designed to be helpful even to writers who aren’t being critiqued — we all tend to struggle with the same craft challenges!
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Bring a rough draft of an essay or a portion of your memoir, ideally pages you’re struggling with. Together, we’ll find the themes and stakes and shape them for the reader!
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All you need to participate is a computer and internet. I’ll be sending a Zoom link ahead of our first class. We’ll be discussing the basics of Zoom and how to use it at the beginning of class.
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Please feel free to let me know about any accessibility needs you have (you’ll be prompted to answer this question as part of the checkout process). I am committed to making this an excellent and accessible experience for all!
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• 7 hours of instruction.
• Live editing of 2 double-spaced pages of your choice, either during class or (depending on class size) via recorded video after class.• Writing & revision-focused prompts specifically curated to help you hone your craft and publish your work.
• A workbook filled with craft takeaways, resources, and a curated list of places to submit work.
• Unlimited access to the instructor via email.
• Recordings of all sessions in case you can’t join live or want to rewatch. -
• Editing and/or meetings with the instructor outside of the workshop sessions.
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No portion of your class fee is refundable within 10 days of the class start date. Refunds will be sent within 30 days of receipt of notice of cancellation.
If the class needs to be cancelled for any reason (for instance due to low-enrollment, with fewer than 8 participants), you are entitled to a full refund.
Find Your Story’s Heat reserves the right to cancel the intensive in the event of civil unrest, natural disaster or Act of God. In the event of cancellation of the intensive in its entirety, you will receive a full refund of any fees paid. You agree to release Find Your Story’s Heat and its agents and/or representatives from any liability, including consequential expenses you may have incurred in planning to attend.
