Experimenting with Essay Structure — 4-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop with Lizzie Lawson Starts Sunday, June 6th, 2027
Essay Structure Workshop: Break the Form | June 2027 Online
Experimenting with Essay Structure Writing Workshop: A 4-Week Asynchronous Nonfiction Course with Lizzie Lawson
Begins Sunday, June 6, 2027
This is a 4-week asynchronous online writing workshop via the Wet Ink classroom.
Enrollment is limited to 12 students.
Now Enrolling!
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Instructor Lizzie Lawson is a writer and teaching artist from Minneapolis, MN. Her essays have been published in Slate, Electric Literature, HuffPost, Business Insider, The Florida Review, The Sun, The Rumpus, Passages North, and more. She earned a BA in marketing from the University of St. Thomas and an MFA in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She's currently working on a memoir in essays about coming of age in, and leaving, the Catholic Church. She writes the Substack, Work in Progress, and can be found at lizzielawson.com.
Who is this class for?
This nonfiction writing workshop is for personal essay and memoir writers who want to experiment and take risks. Whether you're curious about how effective essays are structured, looking for inspiration, or appreciate the motivation of deadlines, this class welcomes all levels.
What to expect:
How do you decide what structure is right for the story you want to tell? There are many surprising shapes and structures an essay can take, from traditional narrative arcs to experimental forms such as lyric, braided, and hermit crab essays. In this online writing class, you'll examine what makes the best essays successful, discuss how structure impacts reader experience, and experiment with new structures in your own writing.
This four-week asynchronous workshop will equip you with weekly video lectures, form-bending readings, writing prompts, and the opportunity to receive written instructor feedback on one essay of up to ten pages. You'll read published essay examples by Melissa Febos, Lidia Yuknavitch, Samantha Irby, T Kira Madden, Kristen Arnett, and more. By the end of this creative writing course, you'll have a clear understanding of the wide-ranging possibilities within the essay genre, one full essay draft, pages of new ideas, and resources for revision and publication.
Enrollment is capped at 12 students, so the cohort stays small and every writer gets close attention from Lizzie and real engagement from peers.
What are the writing goals?
In this course, students will generate one essay of up to ten double-spaced pages and receive detailed written instructor feedback. Students will also leave with pages of new ideas sparked by weekly writing prompts and form-bending readings.
Readings
Readings will be provided by the instructor and may include essay examples by Melissa Febos, Lidia Yuknavitch, Samantha Irby, T Kira Madden, Kristen Arnett, and others.
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1: Introduction to traditional narrative structure and how to break out of it. Read examples of essays written in traditional and nontraditional structures. Discuss strategies to keep an essay moving forward and the benefits and constraints of different structures.
Week 2: Introduction to braided and fragmented essays. Read and discuss essays that weave multiple threads and make use of gaps and white space. Study what mood each form creates and what effect it has on the reader.
Week 3: Introduction to hermit crab essays and identifying the right structure for your story. Read and discuss essays that take the form of a non-literary text. Students will also share and discuss ideas for the essay they plan to submit for feedback.
Week 4: Essay feedback and revision techniques. Students will receive written feedback on up to 10 double-spaced pages as well as strategies for revision and publication.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- Discover the wide-ranging possibilities within the essay form
- Understand how structure impacts reader experience
- Read and analyze form-bending essay examples from leading nonfiction writers
- Experiment with new structures (braided, fragmented, hermit crab, and more) in your own work
- Generate one full essay draft of up to ten pages
- Receive detailed written instructor feedback with strategies for revision and publication
TESTIMONIALS:
"The feedback that Lizzie provided was really detailed, constructive, and thorough. You can tell she really cared about making us better writers." — Former Student
"The readings were excellent: I've been introduced to new writers and developed obsessions with a few. I've also written an essay (probably the best thing I've ever written) that I've been wanting to write for about six months, but needed a pop culture vehicle to tell the story through. Anyway, thought it was fabulous." — Former Student
"Lizzie exposed us to so many unique voices/perspectives and always generated a comfortable environment to share our work in. The essay selection was phenomenal." — Former Student
"My favorite quote from Lizzie was 'you don't have to tell a story only once.' I can't explain it well, but it opened a door somewhere in my writer's mind. I don't have to be scared I'll mess up a piece and that memory will be wasted. I can simply start again." — Former Student
"I was offered feedback on a very personal essay I wrote for this class. Lizzie was gentle, practical, and helpful in her approach to helping me write and edit this piece. Her advice on other students' writing also provided a great perspective for a broad range of pieces." — Former Student
ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
This class is asynchronous, meaning you complete the weekly assignments on your own schedule. There are no set meeting times to allow for greater participation; your cohort will consist of writers from different time zones, which allows for a wonderful diversity of voices.
Along with your weekly deadlines, there is plenty of interaction with the instructor and your peers within Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. Students also post work and provide and receive feedback in the online classroom.
You can finish the work as you see fit, week to week, which is perfect for any schedule. There are discussion questions each week inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever they find most compelling and/or useful. The instructor engages with these discussions throughout the week, and you will receive feedback on all assigned writing activities.
HOW DOES WET INK WORK?
Wet Ink was built and designed specifically for online writing classes. Wet Ink is private, easy to use, and very interactive.
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
Tuition is $330 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.