Humorous Personal Essay Workshop (5-week)

Have you always wanted to write a humorous personal essay but you don’t know where to start? Or have you dreamed of seeing one of your essays published in the New York Times or Salon? Then this humorous personal essay class is for you.

Using fun in-class exercises, we’ll help you transform your bad blind dates and visits from unruly parents into insightful, compelling revelations. Successful essayist Brett Paesel (Modern Love) will show you how to make your essay hilarious, relatable, targeted for the right publication, and tantalizing to readers. 

You’ll learn about the essential elements of the humorous personal essay: the hook, angle, tone, and epiphany, the structure of personal essays, and the different types of personal essays. 

She’ll help you find the weakness in your piece, uncover opportunities for expansion and comedy that you didn’'t even know existed, and ensure that you’’re reaching a conclusion that both surprises and satisfies. We’ll workshop one of your essays until it’s perfect. By the end of class, you’ll have a kick-ass essay that is ready to be submitted for publication and a plan of where to submit it. 

Your goal will be to sell your essay within a couple of weeks after the class ends! You’ll be well on your way to joining the ranks of the 77 Writing Pad Alums who have been published and have gotten paid for their work in publications such as Self, Marie Claire, LA Times, Salon, Spirit Magazine, and New York Magazine.

Bring a laptop if you have one, socks as we have a shoes off policy.