What is the Narratively Book Incubator?

It’s a chance for small groups of writers to receive close, personal guidance, feedback, and one-on-one mentoring from a very accomplished book author; attend a carefully curated roster of expert panels and Q&As with agents, editors and other industry insiders; and work in community with each other to write your book in 2026.

Who can join for the Summer Session?

This session is for writers who have made substantial progress on their book and want to develop all the tools and confidence needed to help you stay on track as you reach the finish line—and yes, start the daunting but rewarding process of revising.

You don’t need to be at any particular word-count or chapter-mark in your writing process in order to join; as long as you’re at the place where you’ve written a substantial part of the book and want the guidance and accountability to get it finished. In biweekly group lessons and monthly office hours with the instructor, you’ll assess your progress and zero in on how to hone your manuscript.

When does the section for new writers meet?

Our section for new writers starting in Summer, led by Claire Rudy Foster, takes place on Thursdays from 7pm to 8:30pm ET on the following days:

• July 9, July 23, August 6, August 20, September 3

This section will be limited to just 6 new writers.

Can I join one of the other sections?

Our other sections are currently waitlist-only, but we may have one or two spots open up.

• Shawna Kenney: Mondays 5:30pm to 7pm ET

  July 6, July 20, August 10, August 17, August 31

• Kern Carter: Tuesdays, 1pm to 2:30pm ET

  July 7, July 21, August 4, August 18, Sep. 1

• Audrey Clare Farley: Wednesdays 7pm to 8:30p.m. ET

  July 8, July 22, August 5, August 19, Sep. 2

• Claire Rudy Foster: Sundays 12pm to 1:30pm ET

  July 12, July 26, August 9, August 23, August 30

More information about all of these talented instructors can be found on the main Book Incubator page and in the recording of the Meet the Mentors chat.

How do I sign up?

Head to the main Book Incubator page and make sure you’ve read the full program description. Then fill out our Writer Intake Form and we’ll reach out ASAP.

What if I’m still not sure?

If you’re thinking of joining and want to talk it over with me first, grab some time on my calendar or drop me a line at brendan@narratively.com.

So….what exactly is it again?

Check out all the details here!

Learn More + Sign Up

In this intimate six-week workshop class, Sara will guide writers through how to approach personal experiences and trauma related to religion, and you’ll start to share your own story with an instructor and peers who appreciate the unique nature of religious trauma and can help you represent it with accuracy and compassion.

If this sounds like the class you’ve been waiting for, don’t wait any longer! Class starts this Thursday, June 11 and there are just two remaining seats available.

Learn More + Sign Up

Jeff’s incredible story, The Man Who Got America High, appeared in Narratively and was optioned by Fox Searchlight, and his story about the McDonald’s Monopoly fraud became the subject of a historic bidding war, won by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for a record $1 million. With more articles in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many other publications—30+ of which in development for film and television—Jeff has been called “the most optioned writer working today”—after Stephen King.

He also happens to be a very nice and relatable guy, which you’ll see in the video above!

Jeff’s new course, Magazine to Movie—How to Write True Stories That Get Optioned, is a true masterclass. This 10-part self-guided course is available for you to dive into any time. It encompasses:

• Over two hours of video workshops and lessons

• Handouts, sample structures, reading lists and more

• Detailed interviews with Jeff about the business of publishing.

As you make your way through the 10 chapters, you’ll work through the full arc of long-form narrative nonfiction: how to find a story worth telling, how to research it with the rigor of an investigator, how to structure it so it moves like a film, how to pitch it to editors, and how to protect your intellectual property when the entertainment industry takes notice.

By the time you finish this class, you’ll have a framework for finding your next story, the tools to structure it with cinematic precision, and a clear understanding of how to pitch, protect, and option your work to the entertainment industry.

Cost: $200

Sign Up

Paid Narratively Academy members get 20% off all classes, including this one. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to become a member—or to get the paid member promo code if you already are a member.

This class is right for…

• Magazine writers hoping to turn their work into film and television

• Journalists ready to write longer, more ambitious pieces

• Authors who need to know how the entertainment industry works

• Anyone who wants to write stories that belong on the big (or small) screen.

  Sign Up

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the 10 chapters of this course.

Chapter 1: Find Blockbuster Ideas

• Unearth forgotten stories using surprising research methods

• Turn a small historical newspaper story into an irresistible longform hit

• Learn how a single question can unlock incredible local legends hiding in plain sight

Chapter 2: Research Like A Pro

• Hunt through courthouse transcripts and newspaper archives

• Use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to make PDF documents searchable

• Set up a bulletproof evidence recording system

Chapter 3: Organize Your Sources

• Build a serial number system for every source and an archive that makes fact-checking straight-forward

• Create a phone log to track every call, wrong number, and voicemail

• Handle foreign language sources quickly and accurately

Chapter 4: The Art Of Cinematic Writing

• Apply fascinating narrative structures to make non-fiction stories feel as fun as fiction

• Transform any true story into a cinematic experience with clear acts and narrative turning points

• Understand the power of the midpoint

Chapter 5: Simplify Your Schedule

• Use simple spreadsheets and Gantt charts to break 10,000-word stories into manageable daily targets

• Write with forward momentum and create drafts without backtracking

• Avoid writer’s block and blank page paralysis

Chapter 6: Get Your Facts Straight

• Build your story structure with facts BEFORE writing a single word

• Annotate every quote and fact with footnotes as you go

• How to stop fact-checking becoming a nightmare

Chapter 7: Self-Edit Longform Stories

• How to avoid your words feeling familiar during long projects

• Use the highlighter method to track dates and characters

• Apply the “30-word cut” rule and the “week off” technique—plus how to use beta readers

Chapter 8: A New Way To Pitch

• How to write pitches that grab any editor’s attention

• How to use screenwriting techniques to write a killer pitch

• How to overcome pitch frustration

Chapter 9: Fight For Your Rights

• Learn to negotiate with publishers for favorable IP rights

• Understand “work made for hire” red flags

• How to self-publish when necessary to retain 100% ownership

Chapter 10: How Film/TV Options Work

• Decode complicated Hollywood deal structures

• Navigate royalties, spin-offs, sequels, and merchandise rights—and other hidden compensation

• Get the insider’s guide to option agreements

Sign Up

Registration Details: This is a self-guided class. After signing up, you’ll receive a link to access the full course materials, which you can navigate at your own pace.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

Read more

Speaking about dishing dirt…what if you could turn your old diary entries into publish-ready memoir stories…or even a book? Many of us know we have a memoir or a series of essays buried in our journals. But where to begin?

The next edition of one of our most popular classes, From Journal to Memoir: How to Turn Your Side Scrawls Into Literary Gold, starts this Sunday, June 7 and there are still a few seats left. This class is for anyone with journals, Google Docs, or years of scattered material who’s ready to start shaping it into something bigger. Led by memoirist, essayist and poet , you’ll learn how to identify the through line in your work, structure a compelling memoir, and begin turning fragments into a cohesive, book-length project.

Learn More + Sign Up

I can’t believe June is almost here already, which means we have not one but two classes starting on Monday. The first is our in-person photography class, led by veteran photojournalist Ben Fractenberg and taking place in NYC. There are still a few spots left in that one, so grab a seat now if you want to join.

The second is 30 Days, 30 Essay Prompts: A Month of Generating Inspiration and Ideas for Memoir. This fun self-guided class is made for you if you know you have revealing and relatable stories to share, but you rarely find the time in your busy schedule to write — and when you do, you catch yourself staring at that dastardly blinking cursor on the white screen and just can’t find a way to start. This June is the time to break those habits, get moving on your writing and never look back.

Learn More + Sign Up

Read more

Now, onto prompts… Some of our most popular offerings over the past year have been our month-long prompts courses, which are designed to help you break through writer’s block and generate lots of ideas for your memoir writing. Developed by Narratively Chief Submissions Reader , these self-guided classes help you figure out what you really want to write and how to get it started. We’ve had a lot of requests to offer our original prompts course again—and to debut some brand-new prompts for those who’ve already completed the first course. Ask and ye shall receive! In June, we have the original 30 Days, 30 Prompts class for those who haven’t had a chance to take it yet; July is all about prompts for self-editing your work; and August is our next brand new prompts class, focused on writing about family and relationships. These classes are self-guided and you can complete the prompts at your own pace, so it’s totally doable to sign up if you’re traveling this summer and not available every single day.

June: 30 Days, 30 Essay Prompts: A Month of Generating Inspiration and Ideas for Memoir

We’ve all been there. You know you have revealing and relatable stories to share, but you rarely find the time in your busy schedule to write — and when you do, you catch yourself staring at that dastardly blinking cursor on the white screen and just can’t find a way to start. June is the time to break those habits, get moving on your writing and never look back. Every day, you’ll receive a short personal essay or two to read, paired with a related prompt to inspire your own writing. You’ll set aside a few minutes of your day to respond to that prompt and, if you choose to, share a short piece of writing with a supportive and encouraging community of writers.

Learn More + Sign Up

July: 31 Days, 31 Revision Prompts: A Month of Self-Editing Your Essays

OK, so you’ve written some essay drafts—maybe even a lot of drafts—but now what? Does the idea of revision and editing strike fear in your creative heart? That’s natural, but it doesn’t have to be that way. This self-guided course is designed to help you tighten, strengthen, expand and contract your essays or memoir. It will help you add depth and background, make your narration shine, be more active with your word choices — in short, take what you’ve already written and prepare it for potential publication. Daily exercises and prompts include creating a narrator personality chart, finding the most resonant starting/point of your essay, and identifying ways to make your writing more active. The overall goal is to provide you with a self-editing toolbox of techniques you can use to polish your current drafts and perfect future essays.

Learn More + Sign Up

August: 30 Days, 30 Prompts For Writing About Family and Relationships

And here’s the brand new one! Everyone has family issues to write about…and we all put it off, because it’s too hard too complicated, or we just don’t know how to write about the people closest to us. This new course is designed to help you find inspiration, focus your memories, and introduce ways to write about the people and relationships in (and out) of your life. The prompts will help you find your own unique storytelling approach to essays about your family members, and your relationships with them and other people.

Learn More + Sign Up

Sign Up

Cost: $95

This August is the time to find a new relationship with your writing, about family and relationships. Narratively Chief Submissions Reader Amy Barnes’ popular “30 Days, 30 Prompts” classes have given hundreds of writers a full month of inspiration and generative work. This new month-long course uses a similar format to guide you in writing about your family and relationships — from parents to marriages to children, best friends to colleagues.

This self-guided course is designed to help you find inspiration, focus your memories, and introduce ways to write about the people and relationships in (and out) of your life. The course will help you find your own unique storytelling approach to essays about your family members, and your relationships with them and other people.

For six days each week, you’ll receive a short piece or two to read. The inspiration story might be a short personal essay or memoir, piece of fiction, poetry, a craft article, or a news story. That reading will be paired with a prompt/thoughts to hopefully inspire you to write about your own interpersonal relationships or family. The last day of each week will be set aside for looking more closely at what you’ve worked on or read during the week, and to catch up with any prompts you’ve missed. You can interact with the community if you want, reading their posts and offering light feedback or, if you prefer, you can work on the prompts all offline.

This is not an overly time-consuming class. The idea is to set aside half-an-hour each day to focus on your writing. You aren’t required to participate every day; the goal is to challenge yourself to write as much as you can. You might write just a few sentences, or when you’re inspired, much more.

The overall goal is to provide you with inspiration and guidance. And along the way, you’ll also expand your knowledge of potential publication options to submit to, via the daily readings. We’ll also take a look at ways to approach writing essays that may be more personal or sensitive, how to include/not include information about relatives/partners/children, using a pen name, or fictionalizing your nonfiction account of events

This is a self-guided class. You have the option to share your daily writing with the group and respond to your peers’ work, but there are no live meetings or feedback from instructors.

This class is right for you if …

• You have essays ideas that you’ve struggled to write because they’re about people close to you.

• You have interesting life experiences that you want to share, but you’re not sure if your essay drafts will resonate with readers and editors.

• You want directed readings and inspiring prompts on ways to approach tough topics, family dynamics, life experiences, or interpersonal relationships.

By the end of this class you’ll be ready to…

• Finish and submit multiple personal essays this year, and/or move forward on your full-length memoir.

This is a 30-day self-guided prompt-based class, running from August 1 to August 31, 2026. Students can work at their own pace, at a time of their choosing, and are not required to write every day.

Sign Up

Instructor Bio: A Narratively editorial team member for the past eight years, Amy Barnes stepped into the new role of chief submission reader in 2024. Her third collection of fiction and essays, Child Craft, was published by Belle Point Press in September 2023. She has read over 2,500 essay submissions for Narratively, along with nonfiction and memoir stories as a reader and editor for sites and presses including Fractured Lit, Craft, The Porch TN, The MacGuffin, Orison Books, Ruby and Gone Lawn. She taught online courses for over 20 years for JER Group. Her own essays and creative nonfiction have appeared in many publications: McSweeney’s, JMWW Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly, Southern Living, Allrecipes, Motherly, Romper, Reckon Review, Simplemost, Forbes, Fodor’s, AARP, Business Insider, The Lonely Crowd, and others. She’s also been nominated for writing awards, including Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize, was included in Best Small Fiction 2022, and longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions from 2021 through 2025

Sign Up

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

More: Check out all of our Narratively Academy online writing classes here.

Read more

This brand new class is a six-week intensive aimed at making sure you have the tools you need to actually finish that book proposal, draft that troublesome chapter in your novel or memoir, or finish that screenplay — all without having AI write a single word.

Jay’s spent years developing his Socratic AI method that turns Claude or ChatGPT into a tailor-made thought partner for writers around the world, and in this class, you’ll be motivated like never before to finish your work with a community of fellow writers.

Class starts Monday, May 18 and you can sign up now!

Learn More + Sign Up

is one of the leading thinkers and writers in this burgeoning field. She’s been teaching university courses for over fifteen years that focus on the religious roots of racism, misogyny, and authoritarianism, and she’s written two books of her own about evangelical purity culture: Virgin Nation and After Purity.

We’re very fortunate to have Sara on hand this spring to teach a brand new Narratively Academy class on Writing About Religious Trauma.

In this intimate six-week workshop class, Sara will guide writers through telling personal experiences and trauma related to religion, and you’ll start to share your own story with an instructor and peers who appreciate the unique nature of religious trauma and can help you represent it with accuracy and compassion.

Learn more and sign up here.

Learn More + Sign Up

Award-winning photojournalist Ben Fractenberg has shot for The New York Times, Daily News and THE CITY, among other outlets, and his street photography was recently featured in a solo show at Gallery 198 in New York.

In this three-part workshop (Narratively Academy’s first-ever in-person class!) Ben will guide you through the intricacies of shooting compelling street photography. If you’re a writer who wants to start taking photos for your own pieces—or you’re just interested in learning about the art of street photography—this class is for you.

Classes will take place at CUNY Journalism School, 219 West 40th Street in Manhattan.

Sign Up

We’ll study some of the great street photographers and discuss how they created their images, and we’ll navigate issues like: How and when do you approach strangers about taking their photo? What’s the best way to compose an image using available light? How do you find and capture moments that document the spirit of our time?

Then we’ll hit the streets, making our own photos to share and critique with the group.

This is the right class for you if…

• You’re a writer or reporter who wants to start capturing images to include with your stories.

• You want to learn how to create professional-looking images with a smartphone.

• You enjoy meeting like-minded artists and want to see the city in a new way.

After class you’ll have

• The confidence to take compelling street photos

• A new awareness of your environment

• An increased appreciation for well-composed photographs

This 3-week class takes place on Mondays from 6pm to 7pm ET, starting on June 1 and ending on June 15. All class sessions take place at CUNY Journalism School, 219 West 40th Street in Manhattan.

Cost: $235

Class Size Limit: 10

Paid Narratively Academy members get 20% off all classes, including this one. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to join—or to get the paid member promo code if you already are a member.

Sign Up

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Scholarships: A limited number of sliding-scale, income-based scholarships are made available when possible. Apply for a scholarship here.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

Thanks for being a paid member! To get 20% off this class, enter PAIDSUB in the promo code field when signing up.

Sign Up

Street Photography Workshop

Whether you write memoir or reported stories, you know writers are increasingly relied on to take our own photos. But there’s a huge difference between a quick snap and a thoughtful, composed photo. That’s why we are so thrilled to offer our first-ever photography class. Award-winning photojournalist Ben Fractenberg has shot for The New York Times, Daily News and THE CITY, among other outlets. In this three-session hands-on workshop held in New York City, you’ll spend time out in the city shooting, then come back together to review, refine, and push your work further. Whether you’re brand new to street photography or looking to get more intentional about your practice, this class is about learning to see—and capture—the moments most people miss.

Learn More + Sign Up

From Journal to Memoir: How to Turn Your Side Scrawls Into Literary Gold

You’ve been writing your whole life—but how do you turn all those dog-eared notebooks into something you can publish? This class is for anyone with journals, Google Docs, or years of scattered material who’s ready to start shaping it into something bigger. Led by memoirist, essayist and poet Rebecca Evans, you’ll learn how to identify the throughline in your work, structure a compelling memoir, and begin turning fragments into a cohesive, book-length project.

Learn More + Sign Up

Nonfiction Book Development Bootcamp

If you’re ready to take on a full-length nonfiction book—memoir, narrative nonfiction, or something in between—but you’re not totally sure how it takes shape, this intensive two-day bootcamp will help you clarify your idea, define your structure, and start building a project with real momentum. Led by an acclaimed nonfiction author and instructor Melissa Petro, who has helped hundreds of writers develop their concepts—you’ll transform your idea into a structured, strategic vision you can confidently pitch, write and publish.

Learn More + Sign Up

Writing About Religious Trauma

In this intimate six-week workshop, author and scholar Sara Moslener will guide writers through the complex process of writing about religious trauma. You’ll explore the emerging language of religious trauma studies, read writers who have navigated this terrain, and begin shaping your own experiences into work that is both truthful and compassionate. The class includes group discussion, workshop opportunities, and instructor feedback. This is a space for serious reflection—and serious craft.

Learn More + Sign Up

Theater Camp for Memoir Writers

What can memoir writers learn from actors? A lot, it turns out.

This playful, deeply practical class helps you unlock voice, embodiment, dialogue, and scene by hearing part of your first-person story read out loud. It’s about getting out of your head and into the lived, physical reality of your story—so your writing feels as alive on the page as it does in memory. Also: it’s going to be a lot of fun.

This is the first time we’re offering this class and there are only 10 seats available so if you’d like to join, be sure to sign up ASAP.

Learn More + Sign Up

Finding Your Writing Rhythm is a six-week course built around observation-based exercises designed to keep you in a writing frame of mind more often—so that when you do sit down to write, you can find and sustain your rhythm more easily.

Instructor Josh Krigman has taught in a wide variety of settings, with a focus on accessibility and building a generative, sustainable writing practice. In this intimate class, Josh will guide writers through a curriculum designed to make your relationship to writing both more productive and more enjoyable.

Class starts this Thursday, April 30 and is strictly limited to 10 writers—only 3 seats are left so if you want to get your writing rhythm going, sign up now.

Learn More + Sign Up

Read more

Welcome to finishing school.

I’ve spent years developing my Socratic AI method, turning Claude and ChatGPT into tailor-made thought partners for writers around the world. In my upcoming Socratic AI Intensive, you get six weeks to put this approach to work on your own project with the support you need to get it done: me coaching you in real time, a cohort of serious fellow writers keeping you accountable, and a complete system built around one goal: finally finishing your writing project.

Most writers leave a workshop fired up… and then life happens again. You hear a lot of helpful ideas you’re excited to implement, but you never carve out the time to actually apply what you’ve learned. Over time, the inspiration fades. The project goes back in the drawer.

The Socratic AI Intensive is designed to close that gap — and six weeks from now you’ll have something real to show for it.

Reserve Your Spot Now

How It Works

This is six weeks of learning, writing, community, and getting sh*t done. You bring your writing project. You work on it every day on your own and once a week in live, two-hour sessions with Jay (also available asynchronously) and a cohort of serious writers.

You set your own ambitious but realistic goal on day one: write your book proposal, draft the first three chapters of your memoir or novel, finish a screenplay, polish an essay for submission — and that’s what we build toward, together.

What You’ll Learn

Your Complete Project Blueprint: In week one, you and Jay map out your entire project together, breaking it into weekly milestones and daily writing assignments, so you never sit down wondering what to work on next.

Daily Writing Assignments + Accountability: Every day you get a specific, achievable task (”today: write the opening three paragraphs of section 2, rough draft, doesn’t have to be perfect”). You show up and do it.

Socratic Interviewing: Go far beyond basic prompting. You’ll master multi-step interview sequences that pull out your best ideas, memories, and stories, so when you sit down to write, you know exactly what you want to say.

Iterative Revision, Draft After Draft: Learn Jay’s full editorial feedback system — how to get specific, useful critique from AI at every stage, how to evaluate that feedback, what to take and what to ignore, and how to move from rough draft to something you’re genuinely proud of.

Unblocking in Real Time: When you get stuck, you’ll have Jay and the cohort there to help you work through it live, plus AI workflows to diagnose what’s blocking you and figure out where to go next.

The Full Toolkit: Master the advanced prompting sequences, custom workflows, and practical setups that let AI read and access your actual project documents, in real time, as a seamless part of your writing process.

Enroll Now

What You’ll Walk Away With

• A significant milestone on your writing project — a finished draft, a complete proposal, the first three chapters, whatever ambitious goal you set at the start

• The complete Socratic AI system, not just the highlights — so you can use it to plan, execute, and finish any creative project for the rest of your career

• The confidence that comes from knowing your work is authentically yours, just better and faster than you could have done alone

• You’ll shift from being someone who’s “working on a writing project” to being a writer who actually finishes things

Key Details

Format: 5 live sessions, 7-9pm ET each (also available asynchronously) + private community + small group feedback
Cost: $795 (As always, paid Narratively Academy members also get 20% off. Subscribe here and then scroll beneath the paywall at the bottom of this page for your discount code)
When: Monday, May 18, through June 22 (class will not meet on Memorial Day, May 25, but we will host optional office hours that day via Slack).

Enroll Now

About Jay Dixit

Jay is the founder of Socratic AI, a former writing professor at Yale, and OpenAI’s first Head of the Community for Writers. He’s written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Psychology Today. His approach to AI and creativity has been adopted by educators at Harvard, Wharton, and universities nationwide. At PopTech, his sold-out AI session, “Tools for Thinking,” was called “by far the best presentation I’ve seen on how to actually use this stuff.”

What Writers Are Saying

Enroll Now

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I miss a live session? Life happens—that’s exactly why this course is designed with built-in flexibility. Every live session is recorded and uploaded to our private community hub within 24 hours. You can watch the replay, complete the exercises on your own time, and still get your questions answered and share your progress in the community forum.

Do I need to be a tech expert to take this course? Not at all. If you know how to type into a chat box, you have all the technical skills you need. We will cover exactly how to set up your workflows, step-by-step. The focus is entirely on the thinking and the writing, not on coding or complex software.

Which AI tool will we use? Ideally Claude. Claude is currently the strongest model and it’s what the course is built around. You can also grant Claude access to your filesystem, which makes it easy to work directly with your project files as you write and revise. ChatGPT or Gemini will also work. You’ll need a paid tier — $20/month for Claude, and a bit less if you pay annually — which gives you the horsepower you’ll need for the kind of deep, iterative work we do in the course.

Will using AI make my writing sound generic or robotic? Absolutely not. We are not using AI to generate text or ghostwrite for you. We’re using it as a sounding board and thinking partner to draw out your ideas and give you feedback on the words you write. Your writing will be 100% authentically yours since you’ll have written every word yourself.

How much time do I need to commit each week? Ideally, about an hour a day for your writing assignments, plus the two-hour live session each week — so roughly seven hours total. Some days you’ll finish in 40 minutes; others, especially during revision or deep Socratic interview sessions, you might go longer. If you can’t hit an hour every day, that’s OK — you’ll still make progress, you just might not get as far by week six. The daily assignments are designed to be specific and contained enough to fit into a real life with a job and other commitments. You sit down, you know exactly what the task is, and you do it.

What stage does my project need to be at? Any stage. Whether you have nothing but a vague idea and a blank page, a messy outline, or a rough draft that you’ve been stuck on for six months, this system works. On day one, we will assess exactly where you are and map out a realistic, achievable finish line for week six.

What kinds of writing projects work best for this intensive? Almost anything that requires deep thought and sustained effort. Book proposals, essay collections, newsletters, novel chapters, screenplays, and long-form journalism. If it’s a writing project that you want to finally finish, this framework will get you there.

Stop putting your best ideas back in the drawer.

You already have the talent, the ideas, and the stories. What you need is the system, the accountability, and the deadline to finally get it out of your head and onto the page. Let’s build your system, do the work, and get you to the finish line.

Your project has waited long enough.

Enroll Now

Registration Details: Seats in this class are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Scholarships: A limited number of sliding-scale, income-based scholarships are made available when possible. Apply for a scholarship here.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

Enroll Now

Read more

This class is now sold out, but we will offer a new session as soon as there are enough students on the advance wait list. If you join the advance waiting list for the next session, we’ll make sure you’re the first to know next time it’s offered.

Join the Wait List

Writing

Cost: $495

Class size limit: 10

Writing is the craft that can free us from the hauntings, but it often means turning around and staring the ghouls in the face.

Sara Moslener is the author of two books on evangelical purity culture and has been teaching university courses for over fifteen years that focus on the religious roots of racism, misogyny, and authoritarianism. In this intimate six-week workshop class, Sara will guide writers through telling personal experiences and trauma related to religion, and you’ll start to share your own story with an instructor and peers who appreciate the unique nature of religious trauma and can help you represent it with accuracy and compassion.

The work of writing is hard enough and the complications of religious trauma can sink us into despair or they can be composted into creative fuel. This workshop will offer raw materials for cultivating the latter. We will spend time reading and discussing theories of religious trauma (a new field in both trauma and religious studies) in order to learn and use its language. We will read creative writers who have navigated this terrain in their fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. Each participant will also have the opportunity to workshop a piece of their own writing during one of the class sessions.

This is the right class for you if…

• You are navigating religious trauma and are seeking strategies for using those experiences as a creative resource.

• You are seeking a creative community where the study of religion and the harm it can cause is taken seriously.

After this class you’ll have…

• Resources for understanding the nature of religious trauma.

• A vocabulary that offers genuine compassion and insight into religious-based harm.

• A project that has been workshopped in a community dedicated to building resilience for the creative writer.

This class takes place on Thursdays from 7-9, starting on June 11, 2026 and ending on July 23, 2026 (taking a break on July 2). All Narratively Academy classes are conducted online and accessible to students anywhere in the world. Sessions of this class will be recorded and shared with all enrolled students in case there are any you have to miss, but live attendance at a majority of sessions is required.

Sign Up

Instructor Bio: Sara Moslener, PhD. holds degrees in theological and religious studies. She has been teaching university courses for over fifteen years that focus on the religious roots of racism, misogyny, and authoritarianism. She is the author of two books on evangelical purity culture, including Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence (Oxford University Press, 2015) and After Purity: Race, Sex, and Religion in White Christian America (Beacon Press, 2025) which was supported by the Luce Project on Religion and Sexual Abuse. She and her work have been featured in The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Sojourners Magazine, Jezebel, Religion Dispatches, Religion & Politics, Religion News Service, and The Baffler. She has appeared on numerous podcasts and in 2023 released her own series Pure White: Sexual Purity and White Supremacy with Axis Mundi Media.

Sign Up

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Scholarships: A limited number of sliding-scale, income-based scholarships are made available when possible. Apply for a scholarship here.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

Read more

Sign Up

Cost: $95

Class Size Limit: 10

If you’re a memoir writer and you still know the words to every song from your theater camp — or if you’ve always wished you got to go to theater camp — this one’s is for you.

Writer and theater professional Chris Tebbetts is the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling “Middle School” series, and the founder of the Theater Camp for Writers creative retreat. In this craft-focused, developmental writing workshop with a theater overlay, an intimate group of 10 writers will get a taste of the TCFW experience and explore what acting, directing, and improv have to teach us as writers.

However close to home your own story might be, it is still likely populated with characters you are working to bring alive on the page, scenes meant to have impact, and emotional arcs that keep your reader interested and turning pages. During the workshop, we will bring writers’ material to life with readers (fellow writers in the workshop) playing the parts of one another’s characters and narrators, as a way of generating direct feedback for the author — and ultimately, sending participants home with a new lens on the writing process, and a collection of new tools they can use moving forward.

What’s that, you say…you’re too shy for this? No worries! This workshop is introvert- and extrovert-friendly. While we will be reading aloud together in this workshop, no theater or performance skills are required!

This is the right class for you if…

• You’re currently working on a memoir and want feedback from peers.

• You are curious about finding a new way of looking at your own work.

• You’re interested in the cross-germination between writing and other art forms.

This 2-hour online class takes place on Saturday, June 27 from 12pm to 2pm ET. All Narratively Academy classes are conducted online and accessible to students anywhere in the world. This class will be recorded and shared with all enrolled students, but live attendance and participation is required.

Sign Up

Instructor Bio: Chris Tebbetts is the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Middle School series, as well as the forthcoming middle grade adventure, Dr. Zeus, with James Patterson. He also co-authored the bestselling Stranded series with Jeff Probst from TV’s “Survivor.” Other projects include two YA novels: Me, Myself, and Him and M or F? (with Lisa Papademetriou); the bestselling adult thriller 1st Case; and the audio drama 10 Rules for the Perfect Murder, also with James Patterson. Chris came to publishing by way of theater, which was his primary creative outlet from age ten to thirty, including a decade as an NYC-based stage manager, director, choreographer, and producer—everything but acting. (Trust him, he is a terrible actor.)

Sign Up

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Scholarships: A limited number of sliding-scale, income-based scholarships are made available when possible. Apply for a scholarship here.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

Read more

This class is now sold out, but we will offer a new session as soon as there are enough students on the advance wait list. If you’re interested in taking this class, join the wait list and we’ll let you know as soon as we’re able to offer a new session.

Email to Join the Wait List

Cost: $225

Class Size Limit: 15

If you have an idea for a nonfiction book but you’re not quite sure how it takes shape—or you’ve started writing but you want to make sure your concept is strong and marketable—this class is for you.

In this 2-day, hands-on intensive—led by an acclaimed nonfiction author and instructor Melissa Petro, who has helped hundreds of writers develop their concepts—you’ll transform your idea into a structured, strategic vision you can confidently pitch, write and publish.

Designed for writers of memoir, hybrid memoir, narrative nonfiction, and concept-driven nonfiction, this six-hour workshop focuses on the essential building blocks of a successful book:

• sharp premise

• defined audience

• strong market position

• cohesive chapter outline

Through guided exercises and expert feedback, you’ll refine your nonfiction book idea into a clear, compelling, creatively meaningful and market-ready project.

During this intensive, you will:

• Clarify your book’s core vision, including premise, thesis, and promise

• Define your primary and secondary audience and understand your book’s place in the market

• Identify 3–5 strong comparable titles to position your project effectively

• Better understand how to develop a detailed, logically structured chapter outline

• Practice pitching your book with real-time, expert feedback

This is the right class ideal for…

• Writers with a nonfiction book idea at any stage—whether you’re just beginning or feeling stuck—who are ready to move forward with clarity, structure, and a strategic plan.

After this class, you’ll be able to…

• Articulate your book idea clearly in a single compelling sentence

• Confidently describe your audience and the value your book delivers

• Position your project within traditional, hybrid, or self-publishing pathways

• Build and refine a chapter-by-chapter roadmap for your manuscript

• Pitch your book with clarity, confidence, and industry awareness

This is a 2-session intensive held on June 10 and 17, 2026 from 6pm to 9pm ET. All Narratively Academy classes are conducted online and are accessible to students anywhere in the world. The session will be recorded and shared with all enrolled students, though live participation is strongly encouraged.

Instructor Bio: Melissa Petro is a freelance writer and author of Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, published by Putnam Books, a division of Penguin Random House. As a book coach and workshop facilitator, she’s helped hundreds of people push through fear, write, share, and even publish their most vulnerable stories in national publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Salon, The Washington Post, and elsewhere, and has helped still more individuals re-envision their lives by making meaning of their past and transcending traumatic experiences. She was affiliate faculty at Goddard College and holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the New School.

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Scholarships: A limited number of sliding-scale, income-based scholarships are made available when possible. Apply for a scholarship here.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

Read more

Sign Up

Cost: $235

Class Size Limit: 10

Smartphones have us all taking more photos than ever before—but there’s still a huge difference between a quick snap and a thoughtful, composed photo—especially if you’re shooting while on the move. Award-winning photojournalist Ben Fractenberg has shot for The New York Times, Daily News and THE CITY, among other outlets, and his street photography was recently featured in a solo show at Gallery 198 in New York.

In this three-part workshop (Narratively Academy’s first-ever in-person class!) Ben will guide you through the intricacies of shooting compelling street photography. If you’re a writer who wants to start taking photos for your own pieces—or you’re just interested in learning about the art of street photography—this class is for you.

Classes will take place at CUNY Journalism School, 219 West 40th Street in Manhattan.

We’ll study some of the great street photographers and discuss how they created their images, and we’ll navigate issues like: How and when do you approach strangers about taking their photo? What’s the best way to compose an image using available light? How do you find and capture moments that document the spirit of our time?

Then we’ll hit the streets, making our own photos to share and critique with the group.

This is the right class for you if…

• You’re a writer or reporter who wants to start capturing images to include with your stories.

• You want to learn how to create professional-looking images with a smartphone.

• You enjoy meeting like-minded artists and want to see the city in a new way.

After class you’ll have

• The confidence to take compelling street photos

• A new awareness of your environment

• An increased appreciation for well-composed photographs

This 3-week class takes place on Mondays from 6pm to 7pm ET, starting on June 1 and ending on June 15. All class sessions take place at CUNY Journalism School, 219 West 40th Street in Manhattan.

Sign Up

Instructor Bio: Ben Fractenberg is a national award-winning photojournalist and editor living in Brooklyn. His street photography was recently featured in a solo show at Gallery 198. His photojournalism has been published in the New York Times, Curbed, Eater, New York Daily News and THE CITY, among other outlets.

Sign Up

Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.

Cancellation Policy:

• Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.

• 50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.

• No cancellations after the class start date.

Scholarships: A limited number of sliding-scale, income-based scholarships are made available when possible. Apply for a scholarship here.

Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.

Read more

Each 2-day class has room for just 8 students, so everyone gets the time to workshop their personal statement and materials with Abeer, who has won fellowships, grants and residencies from NEA, the Fulbright Foundation, and many others.

The first four editions of this class all sold out, so we’ve added another on April 19 and 26.

If you’ve been putting together application materials for a grant, fellowship or residency — or if you’ve applied in the past and never heard back — this class is for you. There are just a few spots remaining, so if you’re interested, sign up now.

Learn More + Sign Up

Also, we have a brand-new class starting next week, with just 3 seats left.

So much of our life experience, or rather how we reflect back on it, centers on the “what if.” What if we’d left earlier, spoken louder, moved here or there, known our parents before they had us, known our lovers before we loved them, known our adult selves as children? These are the scenarios our minds often flip through—however impossible they are in reality.

Incorporating speculation into essay and memoir is a craft decision that allows writers to remain grounded in fact while exploring the “what ifs” of lived experience. Sometimes, this is the key to unlocking those emotional truths we aspire to find in our work that perhaps evade us when reflecting solely on observable events. For example, consider a story from childhood and how often the version held as true is itself inherited—passed down and so inevitably skewed, and then absorbed into personal memory. Should we simply ignore the gap between what “actually” happened and how it was told to us? Or, perhaps we might find that the emotional truth of the story, its core so to speak, lies in that gap. Of course, we also need to question what it means to engage with speculation and speculative elements in nonfiction not just effectively, but ethically.

In this six-week nonfiction workshop led by author and editor Haley Swanson, writers will engage with memoirs, poems, and essays that play with the “what if” of things. Readings will include selections from Jo Ann Beard’s Festival Days, Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, and Laura Kasischke’s “Bike Ride with Older Boys,” among others.

We’ll explore how these writers speculate on what could’ve been—in relation to events, time, and past selves. We’ll also look at how this strengthens their narrative conceits and how we can implement similar tools in our own essays.

Then, we’ll engage on this level with each other’s work. Each writer will workshop one essay they either feel needs to incorporate speculation or is currently asking these challenging questions.

Class starts this coming Tuesday, April 7. If you’d like to join, be sure to grab a seat and sign up now!

Learn More + Sign Up

PS: Interested in this class but can’t afford the full cost? You can easily apply for a sliding scale scholarship here.

You know what you want to say. You may even have it mapped out in your head. All you need to do is actually write it.

The sad reality is that most writers die with their stories still in them. Not for lack of talent, but because they never finish what they start. You set the project aside fully intending to come back to it. Then life happens.

Here’s the thing: You don’t have to do it alone.

I’ve taught writing at Yale University and written features for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Psychology Today. I was OpenAI’s first Head of Writer Community, educating writers on how to use ChatGPT to supercharge their creative process. Never by letting the AI do their writing for them, but by using it as a sounding board, editor, and thinking partner to provide instant feedback, help them get unstuck and push through resistance, and keep them accountable so they can get it done and published.

What I’ll teach you is not a replacement for your human writing coach or teacher, but a reinforcement that’s available 24/7.

At OpenAI, I developed an approach I call Socratic AI — a radically different methodology that turns AI into an iterative thinking partner instead of a ghostwriter. Rather than generate prose, the AI helps you set and achieve goals, talk out ideas, and keep you moving forward until your project is done. It’s like having a personal trainer for your creative process.

Think about this: Even the schlubbiest movie stars go through mind-bending body transformations. Why? Because the studio hires a personal trainer to develop a tailor-made program, hold them accountable, and support them along their journey.

Socratic AI is a personal trainer for writing. You have the ideas, the stories, the voice — you just need to be shepherded through the process. To talk things out when you get stuck. To make a plan and be held to it. To say, “OK, today you’re drafting the first three sections of chapter 3 today, doesn’t matter how rough, just get it down.”

In this free live workshop, on April 22, 1-2pm ET, I’ll walk you through live demos on how to use AI to help you plan and set goals, and make you stick to the plan you set and keep you on track till it’s done. You’ll get specific prompts and techniques you can use to get started right away — all without ever outsourcing the writing, thinking, or creativity that makes your work unmistakably yours.

RSVP to the Free Workshop

What you’ll learn:

• The real reason most writers never finish their projects (hint: it’s not lack of talent or time)

• Why “write this for me” is the single worst prompt you can use — and what prompt to use instead

• Three high-leverage techniques you can use immediately to get dramatically better results from ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini

• How to flip the script and have AI ask YOU questions to draw out your own best ideas, memories, and stories

• How to get AI to break down your overwhelming project into simple daily milestones you can actually achieve

• Live demos of how to talk through creative blocks, get instant feedback on your writing, and keep momentum going

Who this is for:

• Writers skeptical of AI but curious if there’s a way to use it without outsourcing their creativity

• Writers who’ve tried generating prose and been underwhelmed by AI’s generic, soulless output

• Anyone who’s ever gotten stuck, set something aside temporarily, and never picked it back up

• Writers with unfinished projects gathering dust — novels, proposals, essays, screenplays

• Writers ready to stop being someone with unfinished projects and become someone who actually finishes what they start

About Jay Dixit:

Jay Dixit is the founder of Socratic AI, a former Yale writing instructor, and OpenAI’s first head of the Writer Community. He’s written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Psychology Today, and has taught AI techniques to writers and writing students at Harvard, Columbia, and universities nationwide. His PopTech session on AI, “Tools for Thinking,” sold out immediately, and the editor of Reason Magazine called it “by far the best presentation I’ve seen on how to actually use this stuff.”

Format: Free live Zoom workshop, 60 minutes including Q&A

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, April 22, 1-2p ET; recording shared shortly after

RSVP to the Free Workshop

Want to dive deeper and put these methods to work in real time? Sign up now for my 6-week masterclass, The Socratic AI Intensive: Your Personal Trainer for Writing, beginning May 18. With hands-on expert guidance, real-time feedback on your actual project, and daily accountability to keep you on track, you’ll learn to leverage AI as your 24/7 writing coach, accountability partner, and daily action guide. In six weeks, you’ll finally finish your essay, article, proposal, manuscript, screenplay or other important writing project — without ever letting AI write a single word.

Reserve Your Spot in My Masterclass