Course | THE KITTREDGE ESSAY SCHEMA | 5 Weeks | Starting April 5, 2023 | Wednesdays 7-8:30 ET | Live on Zoom
Join me in a 5-week class focused solely on writing an essay using the Kittredge schema. The class meets live-on-Zoom one night a week, Wednesdays 7-8:30 pm, starting April 5. Dates are April 5 | April 12 | April 19 | April 26 | and May 3.
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Preferably you have sufficient time to write during the week, since I invite you to produce a 10-15 page essay during our time together. It's much easier to learn this schema by practicing it yourself, rather than simply hearing about it.
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You will receive, if you wish, detailed & substantial edits (if needed) from me--developmental, line, and copy edits. In plain English, that's structure, sentences, and grammar.
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When I arrived at graduate school in the 1990s in Missoula, Montana, the first class I enrolled in was a creative nonfiction workshop with the iconic writer William Kittredge, a kind, bearlike man who had been raised a cowboy in the ranchlands of the Warner Valley of Oregon. Bill had just published his memoir, Hole in the Sky. In that class I was expected to write two essays, something I did not know how to do.
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On the first day of Bill’s workshop, understanding how baffled we were about our assignment, Bill proceeded then to lay out a schema. I’m going to map it out for you in this class because that formula, if you want to call it that, flat-out and hands-down changed my life. Boom. I’m not sure I would have become a writer were it not for that detonation, which both blinded me and made me see. This schema was more aptly a treasure chest, which I was not smart enough to unlock on my own, although it was right in front of my eyes, in everything I’d ever read. I was then still under the impression that writing was a gift, not an apprenticeship, that it fell outside the bounds of deconstruction because it happened magically. I actually thought that. Bill Kittredge gave me a priceless gift, and I’m going to give it to you.
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To be honest, it’s a difficult schema, so this course is only open to advanced writers. By “advanced” I mean that you should already have published a number of pieces of literary nonfiction. You may already have published a book or you may have an MFA.
The class will be fast-paced, technical, and extremely exciting. The first night’s class will be essential to attend, because a recording will not suffice for this material.
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What you will receive:
1) Five 1.5-hour classes exploring a particular structure that will set you on fire, unlock what you need to write a good story, and change the way you look at creative nonfiction.
2) Handouts to keep (in the form of pdfs), including a graphic of the schema; the three building blocks of writing (and I don’t mean intro, body, and conclusion); and examples of the essay in use.
3) Substantial edits (if necessary) returned to you in Track Changes on a final essay, if turned in by May 5. The essay should be 10-15 pages, DS, 12-point font.
4) My unflagging encouragement and coaching.
5) Hopefully an essay close to being ready to submit.
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The cost of the class is $350.
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Writing a 15-page essay in 5 weeks from inception to revision is not going to be easy. Please do not sign up for this class if you don’t have the time to apply yourself to this project.
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However, if you are ready for a challenge and to learn a sweet trick of the trade, I wholeheartedly invite you to join me.