Course Details

We are all familiar with the adage write about what you know. And what could we possibly be more familiar with than our own lives? Yet when pitching pieces to newspapers and magazines, many of us are under the impression that we must keep our own opinions and experiences to ourselves ? unless we happen to be pitching a personal essay. That is no longer true. In today?s voyeuristic climate, where the popularity of reality TV, blogs and confessional memoirs grows daily, being self-centered in your writing is a good thing! The market is wide open to subjective, highly personal features that showcase your unique voice and life experiences.

An editor told me recently, "What I?m really looking for right now is pieces that are very personal and filled with gory details about the writer?s own experience."

These pieces differ from personal essays in that they blend reported fact with opinion and experience. For example, you might write a piece about your battle with a rare illness and weave comments from medical practitioners and others who?ve suffered the same illness, into the piece. If you are a committed carnivore, you might sell a humorous and highly personal travel piece about your trip to a vegan yoga retreat. Or you might pitch a "participatory" piece where you experience the adventure/experience/treatment that you are writing about.

This class will show you how to mine your own life for story ideas that will captivate and offer editors a fresh perspective. Your life experiences, educational background, ethnic background, failed relationships, health status, triumphs, and your weird and wonderful habits are all invaluable assets and fertile ground to root around in for saleable feature ideas.

Over the course of eight weeks, you will workshop two articles and receive weekly lectures on every angle of the business of selling personal stories to newspapers and magazines.

In this class, you can expect to learn:

• How to develop your unique voice
• The different types of personal articles you can sell and which publications they are right for
• How to sell personal stories to publications across the globe
• How to spin three separate personal articles out of one idea
• How to come up with captivating ideas

By the end of class, students can expect to have:
Two salable personal pieces and pitch letters to match.

Admission Requirements:
Please send a letter of interest which includes a brief work history and a writing sample that should not exceed 2,000 words.

Instructor Bio

Precious Williams's Courses

London-born New Yorker Precious Williams has written about Ivy League Hookers for the New York Post, women addicted to one-night stands for Cosmo and life for women inside the Nation of Islam for the London Times. She is also a contributing editor at Elle (UK), for whom she interviews celebrities -- most recently Jenna Jameson and Portia di Rossi. Precious's profiles, personal essays and investigative pieces have been published in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including The Times, New York, Glamour, Marie Claire, The Daily Telegraph and Details. Her essay "Two Dollars A Word", detailing an encounter with a celebrity interviewee, appears in the recent Simon & Schuster anthology, Sex & Sensibility.

View Precious's work samples in her Freelance Marketplace profile.

Precious studied English lit at Oxford and Journalism at the London College of Printing. Her first two books will be published in 2007. Both books -- a memoir and an instructional guide to writing personal essays -- were sold on proposal.

Testimonials

Taking Precious Williams' workshop on Writing about Sex and Relationships was wonderful. She covered everything from first person essays, to service pieces, to interviews. She's intelligent and extremely perceptive and writes from the heart. This completely translates into how she deals with students and in her handling of the course. The class was thought-provoking as well as fun. -- Beth Bernstein, former student

"I signed up for How to Become a Celebrity Interviewer to meet Precious Williams. I have long read and loved her articles in UK Elle, so it was no surprise how much I enjoyed her class. Precious wasn't afraid to let us know some of the mistakes she'd made and learned from in the past, which made her class all the more encouraging. I'm now signed up as a stringer and have some very exciting interviews with singers and actors already lined up! Meeting Precious definitely gave me both the inspiration and the confidence to try out this new world of celebrity interviews." -- Katrina Lawrence, beauty & lifestyle writer

"(Precious Williams) is a perfect role model for novice writers like myself. She is witty, engaging, and lively. She made me want to hear everything she said because she had so much to offer. I really came away with a better understanding of how to write for magazines as a whole and magazines I preferred. She clearly navigated the publishing world for the class each time, and made it sound possible to be a writer. Precious gave every student hope and showed us just how opportunity knocks for everyone. I have already sent out my first pitch letter, and have a second one ready." -- Jackie Matragrano, former student

"Precious Williams is a wonderful mentor. I spent the past two years writing a chick lit novel set in Manhattan, and her classes on Writing About Dating & Relationships and Celebrity Interviewing helped me get back to writing shorter pieces -- and get them published! Her tips helped me land a weekly newspaper column writing profiles of noteworthy people in New England. I've also had success with articles on The New York Times best-selling authors and domestic diva Martha Stewart. The great thing about her classes is that while you're learning, she makes you laugh." -- Noelle Ashley, author & columnist