Sunday, April 5th, 10 am to 4 pm; San Francisco
$95 members/$110 non-members
Would you like to learn how to recognize the deadwood in your copy? Do you want to write punchier sentences, free of redundancies and clunky phrasing? Does an assigned word count fill you with fear?
If you’re like most writers, you probably have trouble editing your own work. Sure, it would be nice to hire an editor every time you needed one, “but let’s face it,” says instructor Cheryl Ossola, “most of us are on our own.” So why not tune in to your inner editor? Come spend a day learning how to prune text without sacrificing content, thus making more room for all the facts and insights that give your writing power.
Writing tight won’t stifle your writer’s voice; it will free it. Whether you write magazine features, personal essays, fiction, academic papers, a blog, or just the occasional business letter, making every word count increases the payoff for your readers. Writing for clarity and impact means being ruthless about jettisoning what doesn’t work. And then, when you do want to loosen up, particularly in fiction, you’ll be more mindful about how and when to do it effectively.
Be prepared to take a critical look at your writing habits, and to go home fortified with new tips and techniques. The day will include discussion, examples, and the chance to take a scalpel to your own (or others’) writing.
Cheryl Ossola is editor-in-chief of Dance Studio Life, a monthly print magazine for dance teachers. A former associate editor and copyeditor for Dance Magazine, she has copyedited books for Human Kinetics publishing house, and written dozens of feature articles for Dance Studio Life, Dance Magazine, and San Francisco Ballet. She is working on her first novel.