Echo and Narcissus Writing Club

Learning Goals

The goal of this club is to improve your writing skills by copying the work of someone who is far better at it than you (your Narcissus). By paying close attention to the way they construct a sentence, write a title, and set up an argument, you'll learn to make those same moves in your own work.

We'll write a short piece each week to put what we learn into practice.

It's a good idea to come into the club with a list of ideas, topics, and themes you want to write about. Since we're focusing closely on the mechanics of writing, we won't be explicitly dealing with how to come up with ideas or how to conduct research.

Structure

We'll meet for an hour each Saturday over 6 weeks. In between meetings, you should set aside 1-2 hours during the week to study from your Narcissus and complete a short piece of writing.

We'll write 500 word pieces for the first 4 weeks, and 1000+ words in the final week. These pieces can be on anything on like, as long as they have a point and are trying to communicate an idea to another human mind.

During the sessions, we'll discuss what we've learned from our Narcissuses and share examples of how we've applied it to our own work.

We'll then split into pairs to read each other's work. We'll give each other kind, constructive feedback on what we did well, and what we might improve.

Who Should Sign Up

This club is for anyone with an active writing practice. It can be any kind - fiction, non-fiction, high fantasy, economic commentary, and political satire are all welcome.

Bonus points if your writing practice is in public on a blog, email newsletter, or digital garden. This isn't required, but it's helpful to put writing somewhere where other people can read it.