Writing Funnier Nonfiction, a Zoom Seminar with Elissa Bassist on Sunday, November 16th, 2025
Sunday, November 16th, 2025
Live Seminar via Zoom from 2:30PM - 5:30PM EST
Now Enrolling!
Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.
Elissa Bassist is the editor of the “Funny Women” column on The Rumpus and the author of Hysterical, a semi-finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. As a founding contributor to The Rumpus, Elissa has written cultural and personal criticism since the website launched in 2009. INSIDE JOKES, a humor writing craft book, co-written with Caitlin Kunkel, is forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing in 2026. Elissa teaches humor writing at The New School and elsewhere, and she is probably her therapist’s favorite.
In this seminar, we’ll focus on comedy tools and tricks to write laugh-out-loud sentences. We’ll practice many in class, including exaggeration, comparison, contrast, contradiction, repetition, misdirection, figurative and visual language, irony, self-deprecation, "rule of three," "the third thought," absurdity, escalation, and punchlines.
You don’t have to be born with a sense of humor to be funny and to write funny. Funny is a skill like any other. In this seminar, we’ll break down the skill and gossip about how to use it to joke with confidence about yourself, your life, and your world.
Not to brag, but you can use comedic foundations, tools, and tricks in all nonfiction, including sad memoirs, sad essays, and sad dating profiles.
Writers of every level and astrological sign are invited to learn and practice concrete ways to use their own lives/parents/exes to be funnier in their writing. By the end of our time together, everyone will know 50-ish new devices to be funnier on the page and at parties, but if that doesn’t happen, it's not my fault.
Preparation and workload: Read (and love) Hysterical (if you want). There will be handouts (to reference during classes) and brainstorming and writing exercises (to be done in class). Elissa will provide PDFs of funny nonfiction pieces. You’ll bring in one page of your own writing to revive it with everything you learn in class.
Can't Make It Live?
No problem! The session will be recorded and available to watch after the seminar concludes.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- Transform personal experiences using humor frameworks that work across all writing
- Learn every known comedic device to add humor to any creative nonfiction project, from memoirs to personal essays
- Develop your comedic voice and technical skill through in-class exercises
TESTIMONIALS:
"I loved this class. Elissa was an extremely generous teacher/storyteller. I think listening to her talk about her experience/struggles to get words on the page was the most valuable part. I was amazed with Elissa’s ability to focus and maintain passion and energy for 3 straight hours. I was completely engaged in her personal writing journey and was satisfied with spending 3 hours listening to her speak." -former student
"This was a fun class! I found Elissa's personal takes and experiences in both the process and in finding a home for her writing most valuable. The process seems much more manageable to me now, and I would take another class with Elissa." -former student
"I heard about WritingWorkshop.com via Hippocampus Magazine. I'm so happy I found Elissa's class, which was filled with many small insights that added up to a lot. I left the class feeling inspired. Thank you." -former student
"Elissa's seminar exceeded my expectations! She provided real-world solutions for rejection and included so many thought-provoking prompts. This class was so rich with information it could have easily been a 6-week course."-former student
"This class was SO, SO GOOD!!!! By far, my favorite ever of the many many I have taken with Catapult, Grubstreet, Porch, CFF, and WritingWorkshops.com. Big compliments! Thank you!!! Learned a lot and was furiously taking down notes; what marvelous advice and stories you have. Can't wait to read HYSTERICAL and the books that will come after that." -former student
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Sunday, November 16th, 2025
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Live Seminar via Zoom from 2:30PM - 5:30PM EST
- Tuition is $75.
If you have questions, please use the Chat Button or contact us via email HERE.