Second Chances Spring 2025 – Craft Fundamentals

Welcome to the WLT Second Chances sale! From now until 11:59 PM CT June 30, 2025, all of our Spring 2025 class recordings are available to purchase by our Members. Become a member here. Members, log in to your account see the ticket options.

From creating vivid scenes to finding your voice as a writer, from making your memoir memorable to nailing the opening pages in your novel, and so much more, these classes are fundamental building blocks for any writer’s craft.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a live class registration. When you register, you’ll receive access to previously recorded classes taught for a live audience. Registration includes access to any handouts, readings, and slides the instructor originally shared with students. The videos will be available for viewing immediately upon purchase, and will expire on July 31, 2025.

Descriptions for each class recording can be found below. To purchase access to the recordings, all you need to do is add your preferred tickets to your cart and check out. You’ll then receive an email containing the receipt for your purchase along with a link to the class recordings and any class materials.

To find our No More Excuses classes, click here.

To find our Expanding Horizons, click here.

“Crafting a Vivid Scene from Beginning to End”
with Chaitali Sen

A scene in literature is doing something remarkable; it is rendering how it would feel to do something in a particular time and place. A good scene brings a story to life and makes the reader feel transplanted to a different world.

Vivid scenes allow the reader to live in the world of your story, forge a deep connection with your characters, and become so enthralled with the drama they can’t wait to turn the page. In this class for writers of fiction, we will analyze a few complete scenes from literature and use the same elements to craft our own scenes from beginning to end. We’ll discuss how to enter, stage, and exit a scene; how to introduce conflict and create tension; how to handle time; and how to lengthen a scene so that we can do more with fewer transitions. We will also have a chance to discuss our struggles with writing good scenes and brainstorm ideas to get past our blocks. The goal is to go home with a draft of a scene that can become an anchor for crafting more scenes.

What students had to say about the class:

• “This was a great class. Chaitali Sen is a fantastic teacher. I have taken in person and virtual classes with her before and I am always excited about the wealth of resources she provides.”

“Memory or Myth: Making Your Memoir Memorable”
with Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton

A memory is different every time you look at it.

When it comes to writing from memory, many memoirists struggle to go beyond the narratives they’ve heard from loved ones all their lives. In this three-hour class, former Poet Laureate, Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton, will guide participants through a generative workshop that teaches new and exciting entry points into memoir that will help you create a more powerful and dynamic narrative. If you are in need of a new way to approach your work or stuck in the middle of a memoir project, this course is for you.

What students had to say about the class:

• “Deborah Mouton was a golden gem. She surpassed my expectations by miles. Her exercises and prompts were so spot on and really helped to get to the core issue of a myth of a memoir.”

“Finding Your Voice and Style”
with Mac Crane

In this class, participants will learn to develop their own styles and voices through exposure and imitation.

Ever wonder how authors find their particular style or voice? How did George Saunders become George Saunders? How did Carver-esq become an adjective? Why can we (most likely) recognize a Carmen Maria Machado story when we see one? We can recognize pieces by these authors because of their voice and style. But how did these authors get where they are? They had to start somewhere.

In this class, participants will explore the concepts of voice and style, be exposed to a variety of voices and styles through reading various excerpts, and do some writing exercises via prompts designed to get them to experiment with their voice and style by emulating the work of others. Participants will leave their fear of plagiarism at the door so they can figure out what does and does not work for them. They will embrace the freedom to explore and experiment. Riffing off of other authors is a beautiful way to interact with the writing world at large. It can also be a way to interact with history, or even revise history.

What students had to say about the class:

• “This was incredible! I love how the presenter explained voice and then gave so many compelling examples, tying them back to the explanations. This made the initial information quite concrete and feels actionable!”

“Writing Place: How to Make Settings Feel Alive”
with Kimberly Garza

Books have the power to immerse us in places foreign and familiar, real and fantastic.

In this class, we’ll discuss strategies for making the settings that matter in our work—our hometowns and cities, our landscapes and cultural spaces—resonate with readers. We’ll pick apart published examples of setting-rich writing and share our own practices. Ultimately, writers will leave with a treasure trove of tips to blend narrative, character, plot, and even voice in the places we write, and a full understanding of how setting is more than scenery.

What students had to say about the class:

• “Kim Garza’s class was, hands down, one of the best classes I’ve ever attended with WLT and otherwise. Her mix of conversation, lecture, and generative writing exercises made the time fly by! I look forward to more classes taught by Kim in the future.”

“Creating Authentic Characters in Fiction”
with John Pipkin

This class will examine strategies and writing exercises for developing your characters in a way that will keep readers engaged with your story.

Sometimes, the most important aspects of a character are the things that happen off the page, the interests and impulses that that character would be pursuing if they didn’t have to be engaged in the plot that you’ve thrown them into. So, before you can get a reader to believe in and care about your characters, you need to get to know them yourself. This class will gives you the tools to do just that.

What students had to say about the class:

• “John gave really specific and actionable advice, and used relevant examples. I was constantly jotting down ideas and edits for my own character/novel while he taught.”

“Self-Representation in Memoir: Tools to Create Yourself”
with Madeline Vosch

This class will examine how, as memoirists, we are both a voice and a character within the text.

As we cannot include every tiny detail about ourselves in our memoirs, we give our readers a snapshot of who we are, making ourselves into a character on the page. We get to choose which parts of ourselves are included in the narrative, and these details change who we are in the text. In this class, we will look at examples of memoir and auto-fiction, asking how the texts differ in self-representation. We will discuss how we construct ourselves in the stories that we tell, think through questions of self-representation, and practice writing ourselves as characters.

What students had to say about the class:

• “It was great …give us a round 2!!”

“Opening Pages in Fiction”
with Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

“Today, first sentences and first paragraphs of any writing are increasingly important for arousing the restless reader,” wrote Francine Prose in Reading Like a Writer.

In this class, we’ll discuss the importance of openings in fiction, dissecting some of the most indelible first pages of fiction ever published and discussing strategies to write compelling first lines and sections that will capture the reader’s attention. With the use of published examples of memorable first lines and paragraphs, we will understand how the best openings in fiction manage to excite the reader’s curiosity, introduce a setting, and lend resonance to the story.

What students had to say about the class:

• “Excellent samples of first pages from multiple books and genres. Excellent information, recommendations and discussion on what makes for great opening pages.”
• “I’ve been struggling with the opening of a novel… and this class helped me think about the problem in different ways.”