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Cost: $95
This August is the time to find a new relationship with your writing, about family and relationships. Narratively Chief Submissions Reader Amy Barnesâ popular â30 Days, 30 Promptsâ 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 â 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, youâll 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 youâve worked on or read during the week, and to catch up with any prompts youâve 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 arenât 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 youâre inspired, much more.
The overall goal is to provide you with inspiration and guidance. And along the way, youâll also expand your knowledge of potential publication options to submit to, via the daily readings. Weâll 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 peersâ work, but there are no live meetings or feedback from instructors.
This class is right for you if âŠ
You have essays ideas that youâve struggled to write because theyâre about people close to you.
You have interesting life experiences that you want to share, but youâre 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 youâll be ready toâŠ
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.
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: McSweeneyâs, JMWW Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly, Southern Living, Allrecipes, Motherly, Romper, Reckon Review, Simplemost, Forbes, Fodorâs, AARP, Business Insider, The Lonely Crowd, and others. Sheâs 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
Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class youâll 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.