Description
This four-session workshop is designed to empower writers with revision techniques to apply to
memoir, essays, flash, short stories, or novels. Whether trying to revise a stand-alone chapter or
considering the broader arc of your full manuscript, these techniques are graspable, effective, and
empowering. This class has been described by writers as a “game-changer,” shifting their approach to
revision and completely inspiring.
The first week, we’ll cover thematic and developmental revision using a “bedrock, surface, sky” model
that helps writers home in on which aspect of their writing needs the most attention initially (and why).
This model also helps writers articulate the so what factor of their work, ultimately revealing what is at
stake in a piece of writing both in terms of plot and universal takeaways.
The second week we’ll home in on sentence-level revision, using two exciting, concrete, graspable
techniques that enliven prose and help writers learn how to find the sentences hidden inside the ones
they’ve already drafted. Learn how to find the clues you are leaving for yourself within your own work,
and practice taking the next steps with real-time support from the teacher.
The third week, we will look at structural revision techniques by studying the structural components of prose in our own work, in order to reverse outline or interrogate our own drafts in ways that help us
move forward.
The fourth and final week will be reserved for additional revision topics that emerge from our previous
classes, giving us the flexibility to take a deeper dive and meet the specific needs of the writers who
enroll in this class.
For each class, you’ll practice techniques using excerpts from your own work in progress—in real time.
Supported by mini-craft and technique lectures, lively Q&A segments, and brief before/after examples in class, writers will come away with systematic tools to address areas for improvement, as well as a re- invigorated understanding of the joys of revision.
This course is suitable for intermediate or advanced writers who have—at minimum—worked through a
partial or complete first draft of a full manuscript, or who have already published books and are ready to improve their next manuscript by learning how to become their own best editors.
“I learned a tremendous amount from the revision class. I was floored by the progression of the ideas
and the way in which you built to transformative elements of writing craft. Your tools represented a
completely different way of looking at my writing from the much more analytical, left-brain, systems
that I had been working with.”
—Christian Stolz
“You are a gifted teacher, and I absolutely loved your class. I feel like I learned SO many useful tools
and ideas. Thanks again for your incredible insight and class, truly one of the most profound and
practical I have ever taken.”
—Emily Carter
“The Deep Revision class provided a greatly needed new set of tools. Over the years, I have engaged
in so many writing workshops and classes, and taught them, as well, but Katey offered something
completely new. Her ideas created a rush similar to that of moving to a new town. Fresh eyes on my
own writing—invaluable!”
—Helena Fagan
“I first participated in Katey’s Deep Revision workshop because, despite a master’s degree in creative
writing, I wasn’t entirely confident in my ability to craft a polished essay ahead of submission …
Thanks to Katey’s step-by-step instructions, my writing and confidence have improved significantly.”
—Jessica Shepherd
