Master Your Craft Collection

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211 minutes of video
211 minutes of audio
79 slides
67 pages of transcript

Mastering AP Style: The Grammar Style of Choice for Publications

Showing an editor (in both your pitch and your article submission) that you already understand what she’s looking for is one of the best ways to forge a long-term relationship with an editor. But that goes behind simply familiarizing yourself with the publication.

Understanding and using AP style, the preferred grammar and style format for print and many online publications, can quickly broadcast to an editor that you have solid journalist experience (even if you actually don’t!).

We will cover:
– Why does this dusty book matter to you?
– Getting a handle on the basics
– The world’s most commonly misunderstood AP style conventions
– How (free or paid) to get your hands on the real thing

Mastering Style at a Sentence by Sentence Level

Continuing the groundwork we laid in the previous webinar on AP style, we move into writing essentials on a structural level, beginning with sentence structure. I unpack common issues I (and other editors) are increasingly seeing today and how to avoid them in your writing.

If you’ve been primarily writing on your own blog or for clients that don’t have in-house editors, this will bring your writing to the next level so that when you pitch editors, rather than an eyebrow raise and delete, your pitches elicit a sense of professional camaraderie due to your polished prose.

We will cover:
– Why are we looking specifically at sentences?
– Oh, the places your sentences can go…
– The three biggest sentence -level offenses out there today

Story Structure to Take Your Travel Feature Articles to the Next Level

Whether you’ve been scared of taking the leap into features because you’re “not that kind of writer” or have been wanting to move into features (or even starting to get those assignments) but spend an inordinate amount of time trying to research and structure those pieces so it feels like more work than it’s worth, this webinar is for you.

We’ll explore classic story structures that have been employed, literally, for millennia to guarantee an interesting story as well as travel feature-specific story structures that will have you turning out stories in an hour or two each.

We will cover:
– What does story arc even mean and how does that translate to real life?
– How do story arcs work in travel articles specifically?
– What key story structures we can directly trace over our travel features

The Art of the Essay & How to Find Them Everywhere

While some of you are at the point in your writing career of tentatively dipping your toes into the shallow end of the features pool, others of you have drunk the storytelling Koolaid and are looking for what is next.

Where do you go when you’re bored of writing features? What is next?

When you’ve amassed a considerable amount of knowledge about the areas you’ve covered along with writing experience, it’s time to consider the wide world of essays. There is an astonishing number of outlets to place them in, the pay is there, and, most importantly, you have the satisfaction of writing exactly what you want to write.

We’ll cover the landscape as well as how to start diving into writing magazine-style essays.

We will cover:
– What do we mean by “essay?”
– How to compass a personal essay
– How essays fit into the greater marketplace and how the opportunities have changed since the advent of blogging
– Markets you can reach out to right now for your personal essays

The Guidebook Guide Series – The Writing Side of Guidebook Work

60 minutes of video
60 minutes of audio
16 slides
21 pages of transcript

*****

For the third webinar in the Guidebook Guide series, we explore what it is like to work as a guidebook writer today, from the money to the travel to the actual writing.

We also answer the question what is it actually like to write a book-length work in a month or two–particularly working in a tried and true formula you have little control over?

We will cover:
– How is guidebook writing like writing guides online?
– The types of “articles” you’ll write for a guidebook
– The guidebook writing style
– Live examples of guidebooks from different companies and their writing styles and depth

Article Nuts and Bolts: Putting Together a Profile Piece

68 minutes of video
68 minutes of audio
11 slides
25 pages of transcript

*****

Profiles of individuals and businesses are the most common types of articles today.

In this webinar, we unpack the ins and outs of this type of article, which is among the most difficult to master, yet the most rewarding to write.

We will cover:
– Why should we focus time and attention on writing profiles?
– Who can we profile?
– Breaking down one (because they’re long!) inspiring profile piece.
– pitching FAQ.

Article Nuts and Bolts: Putting Together an Interview Piece

58 minutes of video
58 minutes of audio
34 slides
19 pages of transcript

*****

In this webinar, we dive into interview pieces which can be some of the easiest to write (and the most bang for your time) because of their rigid formatting.

We will cover:
– The most important criterion of (most) profiles that you can’t ignore in your pitch.
– Interviews have “kinds.” Know them. Maximize them!
– What does this look like as a full article?
– Pitching FAQ.

 

Article Nuts and Bolts: Putting Together a Celebrity Favorites Piece

56 minutes of video
56 minutes of audio
15  slides
21 pages of transcript

*****

These often overlooked pieces are a huge hit with editors–they never get enough pitches for these sections!

We’ll cover:
– What is up with these pieces? They are so odd!
– Who can you really feature here?
– Real examples from Delta Sky and AFAR
– How to Pitch these pieces

Journalistic Detail and Why You Need It

48 minutes of video
48 minutes of audio
12 slides
15 pages of transcript

*****

Editors often say they want “researched” and “tight” “copy”, but what does that mean and how do you do it?

In this webinar, the beginning of a new craft-oriented series on uncovering journalistic detail in your field research and incorporating it into different types of pieces, we explore what journalistic detail is, why you need it, and how to know it when you see it.

We will cover:
– What journalistic detail is and why I made it up
– What journalistic detail will really do for you
– Breaking down real-world examples

Weaving Journalistic Detail into Descriptions of People

52 minutes of video
52 minutes of audio
11 slides
16 pages of transcript

*****

Fiction writers are known for their descriptions of characters, but so many writers skip these details in their travel pieces—to their detriment.

Characters are one of the main things editors regularly lament that writers don’t include in their pitches or final pieces. In this webinar, we explore how to get the details you need on the ground as well as how to incorporate them into your pieces.

We will cover:
– Checking back in on what journalistic detail is and what it can do for you
– The particular challenges of incorporating journalistic detail in descriptions of people
– Breaking down real-world examples

Weaving Journalistic Detail into Descriptions of Places

48 minutes of video
48 minutes of audio
13 slides
16 pages of transcript

*****

Setting the scene in your pieces can be the single hardest block of text for so many of us to write! How do we be “creative” or write that “flowery” stuff?

The key to writing a description of a place that (1) doesn’t take you forever and push you into a type of writing you may not be so comfortable with, and (2) actually belongs in the piece your writing and shows your writing chops off to your editor (especially in a pitch) is a strong foundation in journalistic detail.

We explore how it works with evocative verbal depictions of places in this webinar.

We will cover:
– Checking back in on what journalistic detail is and what it can do for you
– The particular challenges of incorporating journalistic detail in descriptions of places (and why you don’t want to describe places at all, most of the time)
– Breaking down real-world examples

Creating Ambiance with Journalistic Detail

33 minutes of video
33 minutes of audio
13 slides
11 pages of transcript

*****

In this series on journalistic detail, we looked at many specific situations in which you should be thoughtful about how and why you’re introducing detail, from short articles to descriptions of people and places.

In the last webinar in this series, we take it higher level—how do the details that you choose create a larger takeaway for the reader without you coming out and explicitly telling them what you want them to feel?

We will cover:
– Checking back in on what journalistic detail is and what it can do for you
– The particular challenges of incorporating journalistic detail in descriptions of places (and why you don’t want to describe places at all, most of the time)
– Breaking down real-world examples

You Are Your Non-Fiction Book’s Best Marketer: How to Make it Work

56 minutes of video
56 minutes of audio
18 slides
20 pages of transcript

*****

In the previous webinar, we looked at one of the two most important sections of your non-fiction book proposal, and in this webinar, we dive into the second: the marketing plan.

No matter what connections you do or don’t have now, you can still make a killer marketing plan that is believable to a publisher and perfectly positions your book in the market. It all comes down to the triad of research, creativity, and a willingness to put yourself out there for your book.

We will cover:
– Your market (2nd webinar in this series) and competitive research (1st webinar in this series) are the linchpins of building your marketing plan
– Reviewing the sections of the non-fiction book proposal
– How to appear exactly where your book readers already are
– How to create news around you/your book/topic and turn it into even more coverage