This Week: The Personals AMA, Writers' Room and Extra Help + More
ICYMI, we recently opened up The Personals again—join us later this week to ask us any questions you might have about submitting to the series. Plus! last call for one of our fave classes and more…
Hello, writers! If you’re on the East Coast, you may be reading this from inside an igloo — we hope everyone is staying warm and safe right now.
We wanted to tell you a bit about what’s on tap for us over here this week… You might have noticed that we’ve re-opened our search for Personals essays. The Personals is a series of sharply focused first-person stories that capture a single surprising unforgettable moment or event. Think vivid scenes, big feelings, and unexpected twists…all in a deliciously bite-sized package.
We get a lot of questions all the time about what kind of stories we like to see, how strict our word count is, if there are topics we hope to avoid, etc., so we thought we’d take this opportunity to dedicate a whole Open Book to answering those and more. Join us this Thursday, February 26, at 2 p.m. ET for an AMA with Editorial Director and Co-Founder, Brendan Spiegel, and Executive Editor, Jesse Sposato, while they share insights about submissions, answer your questions, big and small, writerly or existential, and more.
And the passcode: 416705
P.S.: Make sure you never miss an Open Book by adding this entire series to your calendar.
Also! One of the classes we’re most excited about right now (OK, yes, we say that about every class, but we are!) is How to Write a Memoir with Magical Realism with the wonderful Jasper "Jaz" Joyner (if you missed Brendan’s chat with him last week, you can check it out here), and it starts tomorrow! We have just a few spots left, but they’re going quickly, so this is your last reminder to sign up for it if you’d like to learn more about how to incorporate magical realism into your writing.
Lastly, but certainly not least, we’ve got Writers’ Room this week. But not just that — it’s the time of the month for Extra Help, too!
If you’re new to all of this, at the midpoint of each week, members of our community meet up to share a virtual space and write together. Writers’ Room is held at both at 8 a.m. ET and again at 8 a.m. PT every Wednesday. You can choose to join whichever time works better for you — or even for both.
And for Narratively Academy paid members, on the last Wednesday of each month we stay a half hour longer after each session for “Extra Help.” Come armed with any questions you might have about a piece you’re struggling with or writing in general. Executive editor Jesse Sposato will field questions after the 8 a.m. ET Writers’ Room and editorial director Brendan Spiegel will answer them after the 8 a.m. PT Writers’ Room.
Click this Zoom link to join us for either session on Wednesday.
(If you are asked for a passcode, enter: 824784)
We hope to see you at one or more of these events this week!