A 4-WEEK WORKSHOP WITH STEPH SPRENGER
& NATALIE SERIANNI
Workshop Your Personal Essay
A 4-week, small group workshop on Wednesdays or Fridays
Have you considered joining a small writing group for accountability and feedback, but don’t know where to begin? This 5-week workshop is an introduction to the powerful and motivating experience of writing in community. We’ll walk you through the process every step of the way, from idea generation to instruction on the ingredients of a successful personal essay to revision to providing feedback to other writers.
The workshop begins with brainstorming and curating excerpts of work (potentially drawing from responses to prompts from earlier workshops for inspiration) to find topics that light you up and have the making for a more in-depth, polished piece of writing.
We’ll choose topics together through discussion, freewriting, and exploring previous writing, and then we’ll work together to craft a powerful, effective personal essay weaving in elements of premise, theme, structure, writing crafts, narrative arc, and vivid language.
As a community, we’ll work to amplify your natural strengths as a writer and get to the heart of what you’re really trying to say. Through positive, supportive feedback and thoughtful discussion, this workshop will bring out the best in each writer and help provide techniques for a healthy writing practice.
Here's what you'll receive:
The workshop includes a virtual forum with lessons, resources, discussion, community, and support, as well as weekly Zoom meetings.
The weekly workshopping will occur in our virtual meetings; this is where writers will share their writing, exchange ideas, and offer feedback to one another. Writers will then take feedback and ideas to continue crafting and revising their pieces.
Year after year, we continue to be amazed by the impact of community on women’s writing. When women write together, we can provide insights and suggestions, support and direction, encouragement and inspiration, and it always elevates the writing of each individual as well as strengthening the collective.
When you are a writer, you also yearn to be read, and that can be a vulnerable aspiration when you may not be ready to launch your words into the public. A writing group gives you the opportunity to share your words with like-minded women who will receive and care for your stories while you polish them and prepare to share them more widely.
- Generative tools to brainstorm ideas and select essay-worthy material
- Learn how to craft a compelling essay from start to finish
- Guidance to find the “lighthouse” of your story, identifying the theme, premise, and what you really want to say
- Support when integrating writing techniques, building an effective narrative arc, and developing your writer’s voice
- Techniques for offering constructive, gentle feedback and an opportunity to learn how to provide accountability and support for fellow writers
- A facility with workshopping writing in a group setting
- A sense of community to stay connected, motivated, and supported
- A polished essay as a “finished product” and guidance on how and where to publish it.
Meet your instructors
Steph Sprenger
Two options to join us.
We are the HerStories Project.
We are a community by and for midlife women who write.
Jessica and Stephanie have been teaching creative writing workshops to women for over a decade—everything from prompt-based groups to personal essays to month-long summits to planning books. Our community members have shared what matters most to them, and we are listening..
