Hiya, welcome to The Forever Workshop.
First time? Read this first »
Back again? Here’s what we’ve got for you today:
A workshop for:
Writers who want to learn how sentences work (and why sometimes they don’t) so they can self-edit with confidence.
Your instructor:
Helene Kiser — editor, writing teacher and book coach, specializing in personal essays, narrative non-fiction and memoir.
Takeaways:
Identify the eight common weaknesses that drain your sentences of power
A 6 step self-editing framework you can use on any piece of writing
Recognize when breaking the rules might strengthen your work
Edit your sentences without losing what makes your writing sound like you
Diagnose whether a sentence problem is about clarity, rhythm, or voice — and fix it accordingly
By the end of this workshop you’ll have learned how to transform barely functional sentences into lines that sparkle with hands-on exercises to sharpen your editorial eye across poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Self-editing — Sentence by Sentence
Why self-editing is the most important skill to learn as a writer
The cold truth is that readers don’t owe us their time. We have to earn it, sentence by sentence.
But here’s the thing about sentences: they’re sneaky little devils. When we’re drafting, we’re focused on getting the story down, the argument made, the image captured. But sometimes when we go back and read, something feels... off. Sentences that felt perfectly fine while we were writing them now sound flat. Or muddy. Or like they’re trying to run a marathon while wearing concrete shoes.
But that moment when you reread your work and think “why isn’t this working?” isn’t failure. It’s the beginning of real craft. And improving our editorial eye really is the key to producing good (or great!) writing.
The problem is, well, self-editing can be hard.
As writers, our noggins autocorrect mistakes and fill in gaps before we even notice they’re there.
Or maybe we’re too close to our work to be truly objective. What structural problems? Plot hole where? No logical flaw in that! Whaddya mean I haven’t clarified Aunt Suzie’s obsession with button collecting?
Or we’re just too attached, Gollum-style: My precious, precious, precious words!
The good news? Self-editing at the sentence level stands as one of the soft AND hard skills you can continually improve with practice. And today we’re going to learn some quick, easy strategies to get you started…
The 8 Enemies of Strong Sentences
Before we talk about what makes sentences work, let’s identify what makes them stumble. This is of course not an exhaustive list but a round-up of the usual suspects — the patterns that sneak into our drafts and sap our prose of energy.
