If writers can compose a novel in a month (as they do in National Novel Writing Month), then surely you can compose an essay in a week! Over the course of five days, we will begin, revise and edit a 750-word personal essay.  Writers of all levels are welcome to explore what can be done in this disciplined framework—beginning with a raw idea that turns into sentences and paragraphs and a rough draft ready for a reader. We will talk about how writers make those crucial decisions about what to keep, what to toss, and what to expand or condense.  Each day we will spend in reviewing one another’s drafts, along with specific exercises in revision. By Thursday we will be looking at sentence-level editing, with our last day spent on suggestions for when, where and why you might submit the piece.  In the process of taking an idea from random thought to polished draft, the workshop will provide a user-friendly template of the revision process, along with a clearer understanding of when and how readers can help, and when this short form is best for particular material. 

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments and provide feedback on writing you produce in our week.