Revision, Editing, Workshopping, and Learning How to Give and Accept Critique
with Patrick O’Neil
Looking for a course to take your creative nonfiction to the next level? Or maybe your project is stalled, and you’d like to give it a jumpstart to get it back up in running order. Or perhaps you’re here to revise and refine your writing to good enough shape to send it out into the world. Or maybe you’ve never worked with an editor and the idea is intimidating as hell.
You are in the right place. We’re here to deal with all of that and more.
4-weeks / Online / Asynchronous / $250
February 17 to March 16, 2025
Although that title sounds a tad exaggerated and maybe a little sales-gimmicky, it is in fact what we’re going to be doing here for the next four weeks. So please forgive any perceived marketing hyperbole or exaggerations.
Week One / Lecture, Exercise, Discussion, Workshop
Editing – Trusting your editor: Learning How to Accept Criticism, Critique, and Feedback.
I don’t think I’m bragging, or just talking smack, when I say the subject matter we’re going over in the next four weeks is all the stuff I wish I had been taught when I was in grad school.
Week Two / Lecture, Exercise, Discussion, Workshop
Revision: Wordiness – Cut Out the Fat: Lean Quick Prose Is the Objective
This week we’re going to be talking about making our writing better through editing and revision. As we all know, there’s a lot more work to writing than just getting the words down on paper. And that “lot more work” involves looking at each sentence, making sure it’s well designed, and serves its purpose. In other words, we should be making our writing as strong, meaningful, and comprehensible as possible. I know that may sound overwhelming. But it’s all part of the revision process. You want your work published?
Week Three / Lecture, Exercise, Discussion, Workshop
Beginnings, Middles, and Endings – Revising Structure, Storyline, and All That’s In Between.
When you first begin writing and structuring a creative nonfiction memoir you might not know exactly what it is about. I know that sounds weird, but unless you’ve written a complete synopsis listing what each chapter is about, thus visualizing the structure and purpose of the book, you could still possibly be figuring it all out even though you’re well into writing the damn thing.
Week Four / Lecture, Exercise, Discussion, Workshop
Asking For the Right Help – Workshops, Writing Groups, Family, and Friends
Most of us write in our own private bubble of solitude. Writing is, after all, for the most part, not a team sport, or a group activity. It is solely up to us to take our inspiration from concept to reality and create that vision we have in our heads. But for the majority of us, we could use some help, guidance, or advice to bring our writing to a final product. Or at least to get it in good enough shape to submit to agents and publishers.
Get all the help you can to get your manuscript in the best shape it can be before seeking publication.
“So how do I do that?” You may be asking.
First and foremost, get eyes on your work. You can do this by joining a writing group. If there isn’t one to join, form one with the writers you know that are currently writing books. If you’re isolated geographically, do it on zoom. Utilize the group to critique each other’s work, much like we’ve done here the last two weeks.
If you know of a creative writing course you can take (like this one), do it and use it as a workshop and utilize the course for revision suggestions.
Patrick O’Neil is the author of the memoirs Anarchy At The Circle K (Punk Hostage Press, 2022), Gun, Needle, Spoon (Dzanc Books, 2015), and Hold-Up (13e Note Editions, 2013). He is the co-author of two instructional writing manuals, Writing Your Way to Recovery: How Stories Can Save Our Lives (Independent Press, 2021), with the author James Brown. And in the company of an amazing list of writers, The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison (Haymarket Books, 2022), for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including: Juxtapoz, Decibel, Air/Light, and Razorcake. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) from Antioch University Los Angeles, and teaches creative writing at various rehabs, correctional facilities, institutions, and colleges.