Craft Class This Weekend

Reminder (or introduction of new information): This Saturday, July 11, at noon PST, over zoom, I’ll be teaching a 1-2 hour class on the craft of writing. There’ll be some (optional) in-class exercises, which I’ll do along with you. If you want to participate in the exercises, bring a short paragraph of writing you don’t mind fucking around with a little bit. Participate fully or leave your camera off and just listen or anything in-between. All good. There is no replay—this is a live class only.

This class will give you specific tools to do your absolute best writing, and a method of evaluating and editing your own work so you can continue to do your best. It’s not about teaching you to write a certain way or in a particular style. I want each of us to have a toolbox to be as precisely ourselves as possible. It’s easier to take risks and be a weirdo in your writing if you feel really confident in your craft.

This way of writing is time-consuming. I think it’s worth it.

This is the most basic of basic stuff. But somehow a lot of it has been forgotten and lost, not just to individual writers, but to literary culture as a whole. So we’re going back to square one.

The class is mostly geared toward novelists but I think it could be useful for any kind of writer.

There’ll be time for Q & A at the end, and you can ask pretty much anything you want as long as time permits.

TO SIGN UP: The class is included with an annual paid substack subscription. If you can’t or don’t want to pay through substack, let me know and we can arrange Venmo. Same price: fifty bucks.

IF YOU’RE AN ANNUAL PAID SUBSCRIBER, you’ll get the zoom link a few times in the days before class. No need for further action, just show up.

IF YOU’D LIKE TO ATTEND but can’t afford the fee, drop me a note and we’ll work something out.

IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE LIVE, bring a little snippet of writing, 100-300-ish words, that you don’t mind fucking around with. Could be a few lines from a book, a line of description or dialogue from a script, an email, a love letter. You can have your little snippet on your screen, printed, or hand-written on paper. If you prefer just to listen, all good.

More reminders:

Little Mysteries is available wherever you buy books.

So is The Book of the Most Precious Substance.

Marigold: The Story of an American Haunting, is coming in print in 2027.