The Remarkable Writing Workshop: Sonia Simone’s small-group program for writers

The Workshop is currently closed, but we will return later in 2024! Make sure you’re on Sonia’s email list to be notified when we return.

The High Level

Start here for the answers to most of your questions!

We’ll kick off on Tuesday, December 5 with a prework session, at 345 PM Eastern (note: this time has been updated) U.S. time. That’s 7:45 AM Wednesday in Sydney, and 8:45 Monday evening in the UK.

We have 8 total sessions together, with a break for the Christmas and New Year’s weeks.

Yes, everything will be recorded! Officially you’ll have access to the recordings for one year, but unofficially if you need them after that, just drop us a note and we’ll make sure you have them.

We also invite you to join us at 12:30 on Mondays to set your priorities (professional, creative, personal — it’s always completely up to you) and make a solid plan for getting them done.

You’re also invited to join us on Thursday afternoons for a troubleshoot. If you have trouble staying consistent with your creative goals, these sessions are an amazing way to stay on track! You get three full months of access to these.

Bonus: You get an in-depth critique of a piece of writing. I’ll help you to see what’s working, and suggest what might benefit from a different approach. I do all of these personally.

Special pricing (through December 10) for this course is $650 U.S. Sonia intends to offer it again in mid-2024, when the price will be going up to $850. (Which is still a great deal, to be honest.)

If you’ve taken this workshop or the Content Flagship course in the past, let Sonia know and she can get you some special pricing!

The Details

For my friends who love the specifics! If you have a question that isn’t answered here, drop Sonia a note and she’ll get you sorted.

Who’s Sonia Simone?

If you’re reading this page, you may be pretty familiar with my work, but just in case you aren’t: I’ve been creating content specifically for the web for a long, long time — almost 30 years now. (Wow, that’s insane.)

I was a founding partner of Copyblogger Media, and was its chief content officer for ten years. That meant taking responsibility for everything published on the site, and making sure all of it was excellent, every week.

In that time, I wrote around 1.6 million words of business-generating content. That includes blog posts, podcast scripts, website copy, ebooks, premium content, sales pages, email sequences, presentation decks, a university-level course … you name it, and I’ve probably written it.

Not only have I written a whole lot of web content, I’ve also reviewed a bunch of it.

In the years I spent conducting reviews for the Copyblogger certified content marketers, I’ve taken a close and careful look at what works — and what doesn’t — for many, many writers.

In fact, for three or four years, I edited every post that ran on Copyblogger — including those written by founder Brian Clark. And I’ve coached and instructed thousands of writers and marketers in our Authority and Digital Commerce communities for about a decade.

I started this workshop to be able to go deeper with a small group of writers, making a meaningful change in the quality (and the quantity) of their writing.

There’s one thing I’ve seen, over years of working with writers and helping to strengthen their writing:

If there’s a “magic” ingredient

If there’s a magic ingredient in becoming a stronger writer, it’s useful feedback.

Not brutal, “tear you to shreds” feedback. And not wishy-washy “everyone is a rock star” feedback. But concrete, helpful, thoughtful critique, from someone who knows what they’re doing, with suggestions on what you’re doing well and how you can improve.

That’s why I decided to make a detailed critique part of this workshop.

Every student in the Remarkable Writing Workshop gets a detailed critique of a piece of writing of your choice.

I conduct all of the critiques myself — you’ll get my best advice about your work and your best opportunities for growth. 

What we’ll work on

The most important goal of the workshop is to get you into a healthy, manageable daily writing practice.

The kind that keeps you moving forward (not too easy), and that you can sustain over a lifetime (not painful or too difficult).

We have daily quick homework that will strengthen your observational muscles. And we’ll start to fill your “idea garden” with all kinds of rich topics that you can develop into finished pieces.

We’ll also have longer exercises to explore techniques that will help you grow as a writer.

And you’ll have an individual critique from me, where I closely and individually look at your work and give you specific areas of focus for improvement — as well as encouragement about what you’re already doing well.

(The encouragement part isn’t just to make you feel good. Often, our fastest opportunity for growth comes from doing more of what we’re already good at.)

I’m also including a session focused on strategies for writing persuasively, whether that’s sales copy, a marketing sequence, or any persuasive message designed to move your reader to action.

You’ll learn by doing

This isn’t a collection of writing advice. You can get books for that, or read any of a hundred good blogs.

It’s a workshop. And that means we’re going to be getting words into pages.

We won’t just talk about best practices for good writing — we’ll try them out. First, with some simple and fun exercises, to start with a “safety net.”

Then, when you’re comfortable, you can take them to the writing you do in the world — whether that’s blog posts, articles, scripts, or anything else you’re working on.

A class for content creators

This workshop is a little different from some writing classes, in that it’s designed for content creators.

This is for you if you want to write better blog posts, podcast or video scripts, articles, white papers, email sequences, or promotional material like sales pages.

If you’re a novelist, poet, or fiction writer … you’re welcome to join us! Just realize that our examples and exercises won’t be tailored to the way you work.

Here’s the workshop schedule

The course runs for 6 weeks, plus an initial “Kickoff” session outlining my Portable Writer’s Studio journal format, as well as a wrap-up session for questions and next steps.

All of the sessions will be held live, with recordings if the timing isn’t convenient for you.

Here’s the schedule of classes. We’ll meet live on Mondays at 3 PM Eastern U.S. Time.

Kickoff Week: Idea Generation and Daily Practice

Monday, December 4 This is the foundation that the rest of the workshop is built on! We’ll go through the Why and the How of our daily writing practice. You’ll have specific, manageable daily assignments, as well as longer assignments to work on when you have time.

(Like all of the sessions, this will be recorded, so don’t worry if you have something scheduled.)

Week One: Voice, Persona, and Managing Imposter Syndrome

Monday, December 11 This week is about nurturing your individual writer’s voice.

If you want to stand out in the sea of cheap freelancers — or write words that an AI will never be able to match — this is how you do it.

We’ll also tackle two tricky beasts — the Inner Critic and Imposter Syndrome. If you ever beat yourself up about your creative ability or productivity, you’ll come away from this session a whole new way to think about that nasty little voice in your head — one that will give you a smile, instead of making you feel crummy.

Week Two: The Words We Choose

Monday, December 18 This session will dive deeply into the specific words that make up our writing.

We’ll learn how to spot that “perfect” word, as well as how to keep embarrassing errors away.

We’ll be on a break for the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s.

Week Three: Metaphor and Story

Monday, January 8 These two powerhouse techniques will form the foundation for some of your most memorable writing.

They’re also really tough for AI to handle well, which means your writing will stand out for its unmistakeable human element.

We’ll talk about how good stories are structured, look at some often-overlooked elements, and explore how to tell compelling stories in just a few words.

Week Four: Detail and Polish

Monday, January 15 (we may adjust the schedule for MLK Day) How much is too much? When does “colorful” writing get tedious, overstuffed, or boring?

We’ll strive for that balance this week, and learn to create evocative, textured writing without getting goopy or hard to read.

This week, we’ll also talk about editing and “exfoliating” our writing, for a polished professional shine.

Week Five: Structure

Monday, January 22 Your writing may be gorgeous — but if the structure is weak, you won’t have a compelling piece.

This week is all about how to structure your work so it holds together. We’ll focus on capturing and keeping audience attention, and we’ll touch on how to organize your content to serve a larger purpose.

Week Six: Writing to Persuade

Monday, January 29 This session will give you a quick overview of sales and marketing techniques you can add when your writing needs to persuade.

This isn’t about becoming a creepy “marketing predator!” But you will learn some of the essentials of persuasive writing.

These are techniques you can use for promoting a business, crafting emails to convince your colleagues, marketing your side hustle … or anything else you want to support or promote.

This isn’t a comprehensive copywriting course. But it will teach you ethical techniques for writing that inspires action.

Wrap-up and Group Questions

Monday, February 12 We’ll take a break for a week, then hold this wrap-up to ask questions, refine your ongoing goals, and make a plan to move forward. I’ll be here to provide guidance!

Bonus: Stay on track with your creative and professional goals

When you sign up for the workshop, you also get three full months of 15-minute Monday check-ins. We’ll meet to set your goals and priorities for the week. These can be personal, professional, creative — or in any other arena where you need some structure and support.

You’ll also be able to join us on Thursday afternoons for our “Temperature Checks.” These are 15-minute sessions to troubleshoot your goals and task lists, and make corrections if you need to.

Bundle with the Content Flagship course and save a ton (plus get private coaching)

If you’d like to bundle this workshop with the Content Flagship course, we have special pricing (and private coaching calls).

Of course there’s a money-back guarantee

I want you to be happy! You have 20 days to decide if the workshop is where you want to be. If you decide it’s not serving your needs, just let me know and I’ll be happy to refund your payment.

(Note that the workshop fee is non refundable once I’ve completed your critique.)

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash