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The mb One-Day Workshop: Personal Essay Clinic
Course DetailsFace it: Your mother loves everything you write, your friends don't have a skilled enough eye to tell you what's missing from your pitch, and your writer friends are too busy with their own work to help you edit your own. You don't have the time (or money) to take a long workshop, but you need help rewriting, reshaping, and figuring out how to pitch your article. Introducing The One-Day Workshop. In this small class -- limited to 10 students -- you'll bring in 11 copies of a piece (up to 2,000 words, including an optional pitch letter) to be read and commented on by the class, critiqued by the instructor, and edited as heavily as the piece requires. The instructor will also recommend venues for which the work is suitable. Your pitch letter for the class will be workshopped as well. Reviewing other students' work offers an invaluable lesson, as well. Through others' examples, you'll learn how to turn the red pen on your own work and learn to edit yourself with a sharp editorial eye. The insight and knowledge that critiquing other students' work offers is an excellent learning instrument. In a small class, you'll learn from one of our master instructors how to edit yourself, what your work is missing, what it has too much of, and where it would fit perfectly for publication. No matter how much experience you have, every writer needs an editor. Let our teachers, writing veterans who continue to reign over the marketplace, be yours. In this workshop, Paula Derrow, Articles Director at Self (who assigns personal essays for the magazine), will edit and critique personal essays. Admission Requirements:Please submit a brief letter of interest that includes a work history, as well as a writing sample of less than 2,000 words. | ||
Instructor BioPaula Derrow's Courses No courses available at this time.  Testimonials Paula's course resulted in my being published in The New York Times' Modern Love column, which for the rest of my career I'll always credit Paula. Before working with her, I had never had the confidence to send my writing out...and thanks to her I got not only the confidence, but the quality work! (And have been successfully freelancing ever since.) Paula's suggestions inevitably take a personal essay from 'a good idea' to publishable. -- Liza Monroy, freelancer, novelist, mb instructor"Paula Derrow gets to the heart of the personal essay. She inspired me to finish essays I had been toying with in my mind for a long time, and I have submitted my first essay for publication. I couldn't recommend this class more highly." -- Glenn Michael Gordon, former editor, Reader's Digest online "I took Paula's 1-night workshop and was immediately impressed with her deceptively laid-back style. Delivered gently and considerately, her feedback was incisive and powerfully focused on the heart of each person's story. I left the class not only feeling as though I had unique experience worth writing about, but was also in possession of the tools to write about it and sell the essay -- which I promptly did, writing a piece shortly after the class that ran in the June 2006 issue of Runner's World. Thanks, Paula!" -- Bill Braine, editor and freelancer "Paula convinced me that what I was writing was not only publishable but also worth publishing. With her encouragement -- and unremittingly honest critique - I was able to hone pieces I've since placed in the NYTimes City Section, and the My Word (person essay page) of the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine. I am also now hard at work on a proposal for a memoir, which, without her, I would never have even thought I could write. She launched me on a new career path. I can't commend Paula highly enough." -- Erica Rex "I had a student loan op-ed piece that was originally very dry. Paula helped me to turn it around by explaining that an op-ed should be as personal as a regular essay -- not stiff, didactic rhetoric. I'd recommend this class to anyone interested in developing their own authentic essay writing voice in a supportive creative environment." -- Anna Marrian, freelancer "Paula manages to be candid and encouraging at the same time. Most of all, her classes are extremely helpful. Her comments are incisive and insightful, and helped me also to read my own essays from the perspective of editors and readers, which was invaluable. Paula's advice is also practical, including suggesting venues for publication. In fact, I ultimately sold my essay to SELF! I couldn't recommend her class more highly." -Mindy |
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