Begins Saturday, December 5th, 2026

Class will meet via Google Meet on Saturday, 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone: Los Angeles (PST): 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM / Chicago (CST): 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM / New York (EST): 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM / London (GMT): 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM / Berlin (CET): 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Now Enrolling! Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.

Instructor Sophia Hembeck is a writer, visual artist & cultural critic. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arts in Berlin. She has published three collections of essays: Things I Have Noticed (2020), Things I Have Loved (2023) & Things That Are Different Now (2025). Her work has appeared in Extra Teeth, off-chance, The Localist, Koralle Magazin, Missy Magazin, Almost Magazin & Culture Vulture. In her Substack, The Muse Letter, she wonders about the meanderings of life.

Who is this class for?

This online writing class is for writers of all levels who want to take a close look at one of Joan Didion's most iconic essays and see what it can teach us about developing our own voice and style. Through analysis, discussion, and a series of practical writing exercises, you'll experiment with voice, observation, structure, and the art of saying more with less. No prior experience with Didion's work is required — only curiosity about how a sentence gets its power.

What to expect:

As the year closes, there is no better moment to sit with Didion's most famous essay. "It's easier to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends," she writes at the outset — an invitation to think about our own departures and returns, our own seasons of stagnation and forward motion. This one-day nonfiction masterclass takes that invitation seriously.

The first half is a guided lecture and close reading. We'll work through "Goodbye to All That" line by line, examining structure, tone, movement, and voice to understand what makes the piece work and how those mechanics can inform your own practice. Rather than treating Didion's style as a model to imitate, this creative writing workshop gives you a practical framework for understanding how voice, observation, and emotional restraint combine to create powerful nonfiction — and how to adapt those techniques toward an original voice that is unmistakably yours.

The second half is generative. You'll be guided through focused exercises and prompts built directly from what we've discussed, designed to sharpen your instincts and help you write more elegant, more incisive essays. Didion often said she wrote in order to discover what she thought and what she feared, and that spirit of writing-as-discovery shapes the whole afternoon. You'll leave with new pages, a clearer sense of your own stylistic instincts, and revision strategies you can carry into everything you write next.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will sharpen their essay-writing skills through a sequence of guided exercises focused on voice, observation, compression, and structure. You'll leave the seminar with a first essay draft or a working outline, developed during the second half of the class. This is a lecture-and-generative seminar; there is no individual manuscript critique or written instructor feedback included.

Readings

Readings may include "Goodbye to All That" by Joan Didion.

COURSE OUTLINE

Part One — Reading Didion Closely | ANALYSIS

Introduction to Joan Didion and her body of work. Guided lecture and close reading of "Goodbye to All That." Discussion of technique: structure, tone, movement, and voice. What makes the essay work, and how those choices translate to your own approach to ideas and observation.

Part Two — Writing Your Own | GENERATION

Focused writing exercises and prompts drawn directly from the craft elements discussed in Part One. Experiments with voice, observation, emotional restraint, and saying more with less. Drafting toward a first essay draft or outline.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Read one of the most influential essays in American nonfiction with a writer's eye, understanding how its structure and pacing create their effect
  
• Learn how voice, observation, and emotional restraint work together to make nonfiction land
  
• Practice compression — the craft of saying more with less — through targeted writing exercises
  
• Develop a framework for adapting the techniques of great essayists without imitating them
  
• Leave with a first essay draft or working outline generated during class
  
• Gain concrete strategies for writing sharper, more elegant, more distinctly personal essays

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $99 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Sophia Hembeck
  
• Begins Saturday, December 5th, 2026
  
• Class will meet via Google Meet on Saturday, 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET
  
• Tuition is $99 USD.