Detangling the Braid: Revising Essays that Contain Multiple Arcs with Amanda Montei — April 4

Working on an essay that braids together multiple story arcs, time periods, or styles of nonfiction can be messy. In this 1-day revision intensive, we'll smooth out your drafted essays by identifying, clarifying, and enriching each strand.

Any essay that blends more than one style of writing requires special attention in the revision process. When you're juggling not just a personal story, but also cultural commentary, philosophical exploration, pop culture criticism, social history, or literary musings, early drafts can feel messy and matted.

In this one-day revision intensive, we'll take things step by step by untangling each thread, determining their individual arcs, and figuring out what they need to shine. Then, we'll reconsider what belongs, and explore how the strands of your essay might come together in new ways.

What you will learn

• To read your own essay drafts with an eye for developing multiple arcs at once

• To read other essays with an eye for how different styles of nonfiction come together

• To distinguish how nonfiction writers draw on various literary histories in the essay

Workshop takeaways

Students will leave with revision ideas for one essay, reading suggestions, revision prompts to use in future essays, and a stronger sense of both the revision process and the genre of nonfiction today.

Additional info

This workshop will be recorded for the convenience of those unable to attend live. The recorded session will be emailed to participants the following day.

About the Instructor

Amanda is the author, most recently, of Touched Out. Her essays have been featured at The New York Times, The Guardian, Elle, Time, Mother Tongue, Slate, The Believer, Ms. Magazine, and many others. She holds an MFA in Writing from California Institute of the Arts and a PhD in English literature from SUNY at Buffalo. She runs the popular newsletter Mad Woman and lives in California.